November 25, 2009

I recently (read: earlier today) arrived at my father's house for family Thanksgiving. My father is the current custodian of many family treasures, including our bought-new 1987 Mk. 1 Toyota MR2. I didn't see it in the garage, and asked about it.

Apparently, my father didn't bother to tell me when back in July or August, it apparently threw a rod through the block.

Now, I'm already a bit suspicious. Okay, that car and engine had approximately a quarter of a million miles on them, but damn it, engines don't throw rods without something else being fairly badly wrong. I mean, I just have trouble buying metal fatigue. It was a goddamn 4AGE, for fuck's sake.

So where is the car? Dad tells me it's 'still at the garage because they're still trying to find an engine.'

What?

The 4AGE is probably one of the most numerous engines Toyota ever produced, given that it ran practically every. Single. Toyota made in the 1980s and early 1990s that had 4 cylinders. And, brother, that was most of them.

I am horribly suspicious that the garage is holding on the car hoping he loses interest so that they can grab it for a song. I don't care if the only place most people see Mk. 1 MR2s these days is in The 24 Hours of Lemons, fuck that. That's my car. Dad and I traded it back and forth a couple times since he bought it new in 1987, damn it. It can vote. Other than this engine problem, it's in awesome frigging shape. The headlight motors still work, even. It's got some metal creasing and some paint scrapes, but damn it, they cannot have it.

Looks like I'm gonna have to go prowl suspiciously down to the local garage some time this weekend. :-/ I hope they're just obsessively trying to find him a good low-miles engine. If so, I'll happily thank them profusely.

Heat. The kind of blowsy day best spent at a beach;
kid's voices ricocheting on the breeze.

Walking the town getting newspapers and
picking up information about grant availability.

Spent some time at the General Store Gallery
painting a tarot card place-mat for a friend.
It is the Ace of Cups and has agave and ocean behind.
Still needs some work.

Explored the town hall but the cinematographer's room is already an office,
oh well, there goes my neo-Greenwich geek room plans.

I was diagnosed last night with H1N1, or "swine flu". I felt fine at 4 pm, by 6, I had chills, fever, shaking, could barely stand. Spent an hour in the urgent care on an IV for extreme dehydration.

We are moving FRIDAY. I do not have the time to be this sick!

Tonight marks the night, to the day, when my fiancee and I broke it off for good. After figuring out that an endless parade of sad attempts at finding someone to replace her was a fool's quest, I decided to go it alone for as long as it took.

Since then, I learned something. I have learned to love, without falling in love, have stripped off my armor and stopped trying to be the shining knight, and instead, decided it was better to be who I really was, stop fighting and start building.

I built a few walls, but I built a lot more bridges in the past two years. Where these bridges take me, I don't know, but I'm glad I built them all the same. They lead to shining cities, people who are not fortresses and citadels, people I can learn from. I let one into my keep, and she trashed the place. Others will at least do me the courtesy of removing their shoes before coming in.