Car is back from the shop. Turns out the corrosion that we cleaned off when replacing the battery was the only thing keeping the battery connected to the car. It worked for a little while, then something got bumped and no joy. So a $5 part and $100 of labor (which olmandude paid for, Thanks so much!) later we're back on the road.

On the whole, it could have been much, much worse.

Tags: car
Current Mood: relieved

36. Newton and the Counterfeiter: The Unknown Detective Career of the World's Greatest Scientist - Thomas Levenson
35. The Physics of Superheroes - James Kakalios
34. Wishful Drinking - Carrie Fisher
33. The Complete Chronicles of Narnia - C.S. Lewis
32. A Brief History of Neoliberalism - David Harvey
31. 206 Bones - Kathy Reichs
30. Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America - Barbara Ehrenreich
29. Dreams From My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance - Barack Obama
28. The Bride of Anguished English: A Bonanza of Bloopers, Blunders, Botches, and Boo-Boos - Richard Lederer
27. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies - Jane Austin and Seth Grahame-Smith
26. Babylon 5 Book #9: To Dream in the City of Sorrows - Kathryn M. Drennan
25. Babylon 5 Book #8: Personal Agendas - Al Sarrantonio
24. Babylon 5 Book #7: The Shadow Within - Jeanne Cavelos
23. Babylon 5 Book #6: Betrayals - S. M. Stirling
22. Babylon 5 Book #5: The Touch of Your Shadow, the Whisper of Your Name - Neal Barrett Jr.
21. The Physics of the Buffyverse - Jennifer Ouellette
20. Babylon 5 Book #4: Clark's Law - Jim Mortimore
19. Babylon 5 Book #3: Blood Oath - John Vornholt
18. Babylon 5 Book #2: Accusations - Lois Tilton
17. Superman: Exile - DC comics
16. Lessons From the Fat-o-sphere: Quit Dieting and Declare a Truce with Your Body - Kate Harding and Marianne Kirby
15. The Population Bomb - Paul Ehrlich
14. Strapped: Why America's 20- and 30-Somethings Can't Get Ahead - Tamara Draut
13. No Fat Chicks: How Big Business Profits by Making Women Hate Their Bodies--And How to Fight Back - Terry Poulton
12. The Obesity Myth: Why America's Obsession With Weight is Hazardous to Your Health - Paul Campos
11. Atonement - Ian McEwan
10. The Tempest - William Shakespeare
9. Goodnight Nobody - Jennifer Weiner
8. Watchmen - Alan Moore
7. Factotum - Charles Bukowski
6. Better than Life - Grant Naylor
5. Red Dwarf - Grant Naylor
4. Feed Me: Writers Dish About Food, Eating, Weight, and Body Image - Harriet Brown (ed.)
3. Get Thee to a Punnery - Richard Lederer
2. PartnerShip - Anne McCaffrey and Margaret Ball
1. Pegasus in Flight - Anne McCaffrey

Newton and the Counterfeiter is really good for a history book, and okay for story. Levenson sometimes gets caught up in the interesting details and side stories and forgets he's trying to create a narrative, but for all that it is really a great read and is kind of like reading about a real-life Sherlock Holmes catching his Moriarty.

Physics of Superheroes isn't the best Physics of... book I've picked up, but I did learn a lot about comics! And evidently there's a new edition out.

Tags: books 2009

So on Friday afternoon I walked down to El Cerrito Plaza to pick up the car so I could go pick up Kaitlin from daycare, and when I got there and tried to start the car--nothing. I checked the headlights and it looked like they had been on all day. We called AAA and it turned out that not only was the battery dead, it was also bad and needed to be replaced. (Apparently you're supposed to replace them every 3 years. We've had that battery for probably five years.) So there went $120, but we figured the problem was fixed and went on our merry way.

And it seemed to work until last night. Josh went to work late to finish up some things he hadn't gotten to on Saturday and since it was so late he took the car. Going there was fine, but when he left early in the morning (or late last night) he went into the car and--nothing. The lights hadn't even been left on this time. He walked home and went to bed and told me he wasn't entirely sure that the problem wasn't just that he was tired and was doing in wrong. So this morning I left early and went to the Plaza instead of the BART station to check the car. And--you guessed it--nothing. It doesn't click, the lights don't turn on, we've got nada. I don't know if they gave us a bad battery, which wouldn't be so bad since it's under warranty, or if there's just something seriously wrong with the car, which would SUCK.

Tags: car

Favorite lyrics:

Zoloft and Paxil and Buspar and Xanex, Depacon, Chronaphin, Ambien, Prozac,
Ativan calms me when I see the bills.
These are a few of my favorite pills.

Tags: videos

The Halloween Witch

Each year they parade her about ... the traditional Halloween witch. Misshapen green face, stringy scraps of hair, and a toothless mouth beneath her disfigured nose. Gnarled, knobby fingers twisted into a claw, protracting from a bent and twisted torso that lurches about on wobbly legs.

Most think this abject image to be the creation of a prejudiced mind, or merely a Halloween caricature. I disagree. I believe this to be how witches were really seen.

Consider that most witches: were women, were abducted in the night, and smuggled into dungeons or prisons under the secrecy of darkness, to be presented by the light of day as a confessed witch.

Few, if any, saw a frightened, normal looking woman being dragged into a secret room filled with instruments of torture. To be questioned until she confessed to anything that was suggested to her, and to give names or whatever would stop the questions. Crowds saw the aberration denounced to the world as a self-proclaimed witch.

As the witch was paraded through the town, en route to be burned, hanged, drowned, stoned, or disposed of in various other forms of Christian love ... all created to free and save her soul from her depraved body. The jeering crowds viewed the results of hours of torture. The face, bruised and broken by countless blows, bore a hue of sickly green. The once warm and loving smile gone. Replaced by a grimace of broken teeth and torn gums that leers beneath a battered, disfigured nose.

The disheveled hair conceals bleeding gaps of torn scalp from whence cruel hands had torn away the lovely tresses. Broken, twisted hands clutched the wagon for support. Fractured fingers locked like groping claws to steady her broken body. All semblance of humanity gone. This was truly a demon, a bride of Satan, a witch.

I revere this Halloween crone and hold her sacred above all. I honor her courage and listen to her warnings of the dark side of humanity. -- annonymous

x-posted to solitarywiccans