Many of you already know that Kevin fell rollerblading yesterday with a brief loss of consciousness.[1] He refused transport, by ambulance or neighbors, and has a memory lapse of about 3.5 hours. He agreed to see our family practitioner this morning. She took one look at his unwrapped wrist (I splinted it last night) and said it's dislocated, probably fractured, and he could either wait several hours to get in to an orthopedist or go directly to the ER for x-rays. Since old paratroopers never die,[2] he decided to do neither of those things. Instead he got a much-needed haircut, picked up a proper wrist splint, and prepared for an interview scheduled for 1 PM.

I saw him off with plenty of time, printed paperwork in a folder and his netbook charged and packed with its cooling pad. At the last minute I handed him my phone. I'm glad I did, because 20 minutes later he called to say the Mustang's engine cut out while he was on the way to the interview. He planned to cross a nearby overpass to a gas station and get the car towed. In the meanwhile, he talked to the recruiter (he did not have a phone number for the client) and will reschedule. I hope the client makes an offer; the previous screens and interview went well and we got the impression the client thinks he's a good fit.

When it rains, it pours. Also, always wear appropriate safety gear for sports.



1. Most surreal moment: a neighbor kid asked "Is he dead?". I replied, "No, people can't be dead and breathing."

2. Old paratroopers never die, they just go to hell and regroup.

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ETA: The Mustang turned out to have a broken coil wire, a fairly simple and inexpensive fix. We'll pick her up from the shop tomorrow since our bank decided to go back on the "we will release part of your latest deposit Tuesday and the remainder Wednesday" after we verified that policy with a supervisor, purchased a cashier's check in our local branch to pay rent, and checked the balance before he left. (Will straighten that out in the morning.) Kevin didn't want me to ask any of "my" friends for a ride, so he started walking. Two and a half miles in, a stranger stopped and offered him a ride the rest of the way home.

Found new door handle assemblies for $32 from IPD, so that's on my to-order list. Once I get that, anonymosaurus may have an extra spring or otherwise be able to rig it together for me. Score! The immediately needed work on Thora is the exhaust, since the long exhaust pipe looks like it should be replaced too. Luckily the pipe itself is cheap so the big cost there will be labor.

Sometime next week the Bentley service manual for the 240 will arrive and I will feel much more confident about tackling repairs that I have the tools to do. Speaking of tools, I should get a small tool set for the car because I realized the other day that Vogon has the main tool box in there.

The Mustang went to the mechanic yesterday, who quoted us $500 for a new power window relay /and/ heater core -- less than half what Candrell charged just for the heater core work they didn't do very well back in November. If you're near Addison and need a mechanic, Eddie at Midway Auto Repair does great work at reasonable prices.

Vogon's been driving the Volvo with the driver's side armrest halfway detached because he removed the screws to troubleshoot the driver's side door not opening from the outside and couldn't get it to detach it at the top of the armrest.

It was starting to annoy me, so I Googled it and found brickboard.com, then on to one of the forum member's websites to step-by-step directions on repairing the door handle. I followed them and found not only was the stop pin missing and the ear of the collar it goes through on the handle was broken.

A replacement door handle is relatively inexpensive to replace, so I thought I had it under control until I looked further and found the linkage way out of place and the spring that connects the linkage to the stop pin also missing. *sigh* Not sure what I'm going to do about that yet, but I asked at brickboard about the specs of the spring so I don't munge that up.

Around my attempts at troubleshooting beyond my limited car expertise, I got an earful from Vogon about how the Volvo is a POS that's not worth repairing (I have no idea what it needs to have done since it hasn't been seen by a mechanic yet) and how he hates driving it (he hasn't taken the Mustang to the mechanic either, instead driving the Volvo for the last two months).

If it wouldn't further piss him off, I'd suggest selling the Volvo.

We've solved the issue of random and sundry neighbors using our unused reserved parking space: we bought a car.

I was hoping for an M1A2 Abrams or a Merkava with a driver, but I spotted a 1984 Volvo 240 GL sedan on our way to run errands yesterday. Good condition, needs minor work (mostly cosmetic), seller was asking a reasonable price and accepted slightly less for cash upfront.

And of course, my new tank is blue.