November Begins

It is the first of November as I write this, and that means that Thanksgiving is just around the corner, as is the beginning of the winter weather. We don't normally get snow before Thanksgiving, but we also don't normally have such balmy temperatures as we have had these last few days. The forecast indicates we will be back into the 70s (or low 20s for those of you using the Metric system) during the first part of this week. That's just a teaser, though, a mind-trick to make everyone think that it is going to be a mild winter.

I expect to be body-slammed with sub-zero temperatures any minute now. Because I'm a pessimist.

Speaking of pessimism, Ruby is working fine ... so far. Most of my repair jobs are of the baling-wire-and-duct-tape variety, so it is never a surprise when something goes wrong after an entire weekend has been spent trying to fix some problem. No matter how thoroughly the repair is accomplished, given my skillset, there's always something that wasn't quite kosher, something that had to be kludged. For this latest repair, the auto parts store didn't have the correct coolant hose on hand (each piece is a pre-shaped, reinforced hose that fits in a very specific place), and there wasn't time to do a special order (which was also very expensive!), so we made do with some reinforced fuel line instead.

As mentioned previously, there was no obvious cause, but the hoses were generally in bad shape and it seemed prudent to simply replace them all. In fact, one of the air hoses (the one from the engine case to the PCV valve) was choked with debris and also hardened to the point of brittleness. In fact, it cracked when I attempted to pull it off!

It was a pleasant surprise when the car started right up after everything was put back together, and even more pleasant when nothing started dripping, even after the car had been warmed up. My paranoia prompts me to continue checking the coolant levels every evening when Deb gets home from school, of course. But so far, so good.

Deb has a job interview tomorrow. Now that Marching Band season is officially over -- oh, did I mention that our football team lost the game last Friday, so there will be no more Marching Band performances? -- she has a teeny-tiny bit of extra time available and wants to use it to make some money. So she can have a nice pile of money by next June when she graduates. She's still not quite sure what she'll be doing afterward. She's thinking about college and she's thinking about road trips and she's thinking about getting out of the house and being on her own, living in an apartment far away from overbearing parents. But at the moment there are no definitive plans.

James interviewed at a local grocery chain for a 3rd-shift job and will probably end up working there. He worked for them last year before moving to Germany, so he's already in their database. That'll probably help. What didn't help was not having a driver's license. For some unknown bureaucratic reason, the German government took away his Michigan driver's license when they issued him a German one, and he neglected (or was unable) to get it back when he returned to the U.S. So he needs to go to one of the Michigan Secretary of State offices (where Michiganders obtain their driver's licenses) to get a copy so he can legally drive here. Then he's going to work long, ridiculous hours in order to obtain a huge pile of money with which he can fund his non-extravagant lifestyle when he returns to Germany (and Tabea) next March/April.

Meanwhile, he's sleeping downstairs in the still-unfinished basement.

Speaking of the still-unfinished basement, it's still a sore point with Cheryl. She was expecting it to be done before her parents showed up, and the progress is glacial. She's been extremely patient about the whole thing, but the patience is wearing thin, and it occurs to me that if I don't hurry up and get it done, I'll be the one sleeping downstairs in the still-unfinished basement!

Of course, all I need in order to finish it, is infinite time. Or infinite money. But given the current circumstance, that's highly unlikely. Marching Band is over, so there is a bit more time ... but as in all my projects, it is extremely difficult to get anything done with two- to four-hour windows of available time. I need entire days (weekends, really) in order to take care of the pre-requisites and move into the actual work. And those have not been forthcoming.

I get weary of it all. Exhaustion is the order of the day, not only physical, but mental, emotional and spiritual as well. There is no energy left in my body, my brain doesn't work as well as it used to, my mood swings rapidly from anger/frustration to extreme depression, and all the sources of joy are drying up.

Maybe it's time for a bit of "light" reading...

Create in me a pure heart, O God,

    and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Do not cast me from your presence

    or take your Holy Spirit from me.

Restore to me the joy of your salvation

    and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

Ah, now I feel better!