melvania

For someone who was a loner in high school and couldn't care less if she never heard from 90% of her graduating class again, Classmates.com is WAY too interesting. I went on a whim just to see what I could see, and what have I actually found?

• My old bus driver, Teresa
  
• My old babysitter, Kelly
  
• At least one person I worked with at Pizza Hut (possibly two, but I'm not sure if the second is the right one...even though she's the right age and went to high school in the right area)
  
• Two people I worked with at Smead whose names I remember, and several more whose names I don't recognise
  
• My brother's best friend
  
• Several people in various years who I was in band with
  

So yeah, it's not entirely a waste of time.

And then I started Googling other people, and managed to find another Pizza Hut alum. And it's 11:30 and I really should sleep, but I kinda like finding out what happened to all those people I once knew.

We have our car again. It was the regulator. And it was only $130 instead of the up to $300 we were expecting it would be if it had been the alternator. But the alternator is fine, and so is the battery, and we have a working car again. And the guy said to bring it back tomorrow again and he'll check that the voltage is all okay.

So on tomorrow's agenda is that, and driving back to Cockburn to get the trailer. And who knows what else.

So we were driving to Broken Hill on Saturday. And the car was running beautifully. And there was virtually no traffic on the road. And we had plenty of water to drink, cookies to eat, music to listen to. And then the CD player just...stopped. One minute there was music, next minute there was silence, and the face of the stereo was totally blank.

So we fiddled with it a bit. Took the face off, whacked it, put it back on, and it worked again. And then it shut off again.

And then Darrin noticed that every time the music stopped, the speedometer started dropping too, and the fuel gauge started dropping, and so even though there was another car right in front of us going at about 100 kph, and we were pretty much matching their speed, our speedometer only said 80. And then the car starts shifting up & down between gears every 5-10 seconds.

So the next town is Cockburn (pronounced Co-burn). So we decided it would probably be a really good idea to stop and check out what was going on. Pulled off the main road and lost power completely. No lights, no power steering, nothing. We got out, Darrin checked things like the battery, cables, etc., but neither of us is really fluent in car mechanics so we're pretty much stuck. The nearest payphone is on the other end of the town, and even though it's not a big town, it's still a decent walk.

But of course the payphone isn't actually working when we get to it, so we go across the road to a petrol station/roadhouse, where they're JUST closing up, and the lady there lets Darrin use her phone to ring for help. So Barb & John (his mum & step-dad) drive out to give us a hand. We walk back to the car (after searching fruitlessly for a toilet) and...yep. The car started on the first try. And I actually ran up and KICKED it for being so snotty to us.

Anyway. We got back on the road, but we only got about 8-9 kilometres (about 5 miles) out of Cockburn before the car died again. Sat and waited for Barb & John to get there. Once they did, John had a look at things, and we tried a few things, and then he said "I think this is an RAA job." So we called the RAA (Royal Automobile Association of South Australia, same kind of organization as the AAA in the US) and they got the RAA guy in Broken Hill to come out with his truck and carry it to the service station just down the street from Barb & John. And we rode back with them. And of course since it's a long weekend, and Easter Monday is an official public holiday here, they won't look at it till Tuesday (tomorrow).

And we were pulling a trailer as well, but it would've cost us $2.20/kilometre to tow THAT (at 40 kilometres from Broken Hill...ouch), so John found a friend in Cockburn to look after it for us till we can get it back again.

We waited till 4:50 pm for the truck to get there. We had actually been running early until we had the car problem. It was looking like we'd get into Broken Hill about 3:30. Ha.

Yeah, so that's our weekend. How's yours been?

Firstly, I'm betting most of you are looking for an update on the kitten. And you're gonna get it.

It only took a few days for him to warm up to us. By Wednesday (we found him Monday, remember) I had him licking tuna off my finger. By Saturday we were leaving the toilet door open, and Calico was peeking around the end of the door to watch him play with the shoestring. And then he was charging at her, and she'd run off. And now, for the last several days, the two of them play and wrestle and chase like you wouldn't believe. And Biscuit just sits in his corner watching, hoping that little white brat goes away soon. Although he is coping better than he was; yesterday he actually came out to the lounge room while we were eating our chicken wings to beg for some, even with the kitten in the room.

Oh, and by the way, we've been calling him Ace. As in a playing card. Because of the mark on the top of his head, see?

He is a VERY outspoken animal. He hates being locked in the toilet now, because it's so much more interesting to be out in the rest of the house playing with Calico, begging for our food, chewing on my shoelaces, eating the other cats' food, etc.

And the pork chop episode: Saturday night I cooked some pork chops. I sat down on the couch with my plate and a pork chop, and the next thing I know, there's a kitten hanging off the other side of my plate with his paw in the middle of the chop. Yeah, I wasn't happy about that. He went back in the toilet for a while after that.

Ah, but the thing you're REALLY wanting to know is, are we keeping him? No. No. A thousand times no! He's too much. We already have two cats, and in this small house, that's plenty, thank you very much. Darrin managed to find yet another willing party at work who wants a kitten. So Ace is going to school with Darrin on Friday and going home to live with Heather and her fifteen-year-old daughter. And two big dogs. He'll have them all whipped by the end of the weekend.

Now the second thing. Saturday is the ten year anniversary of the first ever #Bannermeet on IRC. It's also the ten year anniversary of Darrin & me meeting online...and it's all been downhill from there.