Thank you. It's made me feel philosophical about astronomy. And I'm so content. Just really pleased with my existence. I don't usually enjoy it, so it's nice to see what that feels like.
The good shit is smoother than cognac. Smoother than water. That recipe is more commonly known as a "sangranita." The name escaped me earlier. We have had those at my Mexican joint before. White wine in ours I think. It's been awhile. Congratulations?
Well, there's two somethings I learned today. What devastating terms- much worse than merely calling someone an idiot. I shall save them for an appropriate occasion. Frankly, spending $400 for alcohol seems to be a jabroni move to me, but I'm not a drinker. RED wine? Oh, dear Dionysus, what a horrific idea. The wine margaritas I liked were made with dry white wine. When I made them at home, I just traded white wine for tequila straight across, but they never quite measured up to the restaurant version because I couldn't turn them to slush. I only ever had one hangover in my life, and it involved red wine. Why anyone would risk a second hangover is waaaay beyond my understanding.
400 for a bottle isn't even that expensive, with scotch which is where the really serious money is (that and Brandy) i remember many years ago being entertained by this guy who made me an offer i found very easy to refuse. He was a jabroni, and quite possibly a stronzo too. He was trying to recruit me to work security in one of his businesses. I told him essentially vaffanculo a chi t'e morto* because the whole thing was shady as shit. Anyway, wrongly thinking that i was impressed by conspicuous display of wealth he was standing rounds of Ardbeg 30 year old at £90 a shot. a full bottle would have been 4 figures and that was 25 plus years ago (*my command of Italian, like most languages other than English, is limited to swear words and requests for sexual favours)
I agree. I'll drink it, but I ain't paying for it. I mean, I "pay" for it, but my comp endowment from my benefactors is very generous. Like I always say, the job sucks, but the perks are great.
Oh, my. That is fancy. Back in the day, I sang a lot of classical music in Italian, but that term wasn't in any of the songs I knew.
Today, I have a job interview, then I am going to my first therapy appointment. Whewww, who opened this can of worms? I haven't posted much on here because I lost my enjoyment for writing. After that, I knew something was wrong. But I am going to fix it, one day at a time! Also, btw, the short story I wrote a while ago about a female student and her creepy professor? True story. Not even dramatized. Rewritten from my own life, and some of the chemistry changed so no one could steal my novel research idea! Nothing more liberating than admitting this to an online forum full of strangers. Sorry for the negative nelly post!
Well, my pups woke me up at 10:50 at night wanting to go out. I let em out, take them back in, go to sleep, wake up, and there's dog crap in the living room. HOW?!
MAGIC! No, wait, dogs can't do magic. Let me rephrase that ... PUPPY MAGIC! Seriously, sorry to hear, Link. I hope there was no lasting damage.
Trying not to laugh at the dudes who scan their badge to enter the restroom next to the mailroom. The badge scanner is for the mailroom, and yet at least once a day, some delightful fellow thinks we have special access to our restrooms. That may be the case in some places, but it is not here.
That's really funny. Reminds me of a time when I was having trouble getting a group of bankers connected to a new system - it was the Bank of England and they had some fairly convoluted internal protocols. I wrote to their section leader and asked whether his team was behind a firewall. "I don't know if it's a firewall," he replied, "but on the other side is the ladies' lavatory..."
That reminds me of how we relieved boredom back in the 80s when I worked in an arcade. When we got really bored, we would super glue a quarter to the cement floor. Then spend hours trying not to laugh at all the people trying to pick it up.
I am reading and listening to some wonderful short horror stories to help me write my novel. This is one of my favorite new pieces of horror fiction. "If You Costa Rica, Respect The Jungle" focuses on a British man working for a wildlife hospital in Costa Rica. When a farmer burns down parts of the rainforest for land, he finds that the animals of the jungle are somehow communicating with him and have a clear message of what he must do. I was impressed with both the writing of this piece and the narration. I totally felt like I was immersed in the Costa Rican atmosphere and found myself heavily invested in the characters and their motives.
I've been trying to repair a car all day. Probably what will be my first car, actually. I worked non-stop since the morning on it. It's old (from 1993) but it only has 25k km on the engine, so it's worth repairing. Everything about it is good except the fact that it won't start because the fuel pump won't do anything. This is what I was up to today—changing that pump. I pulled out the old one only to find that the tank was full of rotten gas. I removed it little by little with a Greek μπρικι. And what I uncovered under the old gas was a lot of gunk— lots of small black bits floating in puddles of gas. The old pump was also covered in black grime. No wonder it was dead. It took me all day to manually mop them out with a paper towel. My hands are dry from touching gasoline! That stuff messes with your skin. I put my phone inside the empty tank and recorded a video to do a bit of an inspection. And um, the camera basically showed a minature version of Chernobyl enshrined in there. There were large patches of wet rust everywhere. And any non-rusted metal left was covered in this really sticky brown layer of goo. This is bad. I'm honestly not sure it's a good idea to put the new pump in there. I'll have to look for a new tank tomorrow. I'm 99% sure the engine will start if I can sort this out. This was supposed to be an easy pump swap, by the way. But I didn't anticipate that there was a full tank of 12 year old gas inside. The fuel indicator showed no gas. That makes sense though. The little meter that measures the fuel level was rotten too... Tomorrow is another day...
if it hasnt been driven in 12 years you'll probably find that the brake rotors are shot along with the pads, probably need all new tyres, hoses and like that and i hate to think what sort of condition the oil is in... i'd definitely change the oil and the coolant before firing it up if the tanks that rusty i'd be concerned about rust in other components to be honest i'd be inclined to sell it for scrap/parts and start over, unless its a classic you're going to spend more fixing it than its worth
I checked the oil. It seemed to be in suspiciously good condition. But it's not like the car was used much. You're right that some pipes need to be replaced. I already see some suspicious ones in the engine. And you're also right that it will take money to fix. Probably 2000+ euros. Thanks so much for the advise! I'll definitely check what you mentioned here. By the way, I think that old gas causes moisture to build up somehow. It's only the upper parts of the tank (that weren't covered by gasoline) that got really rusty. The rest of the tank is fine. It does have significance to our family. It belonged to my grandfather and has been sitting in his drive away ever since he died in 2015. My mother in particular is really happy that I'm working on it. It'll certainly be really nice to get it working. If I do, I want to go all over Crete with it in the summer. Also, the bonus here is that getting a license is super cheap. It's about 600 euros for the entire process (including lessons). Car insurance is about 150 euros a year even if you're a new driver.
if its been standing with the hand brake on the brakes are like seized up, you might get them to release by gently tapping the back of the rotors (you might call them discs) with a mallet, but the chances are high that they won't release without taking it all to bits.
The brakes are not ceased, thankfully! The car can actually drive on the starter's power! My friend moved it back and forth with the starter to test whether the engine is ceased. Tomorrow, I'm installing the pump with the help of a friend. I won't fill the tank up the level where all the rust is so it should be good enough to test whether the engine actually fires up. We'll test the brakes of course. Brakes are really important.... Thanks again. It isn't a problem on mine but this fix is something to keep in mind for the future. A good thing about all of this is that I'm learning lots about cars.
