shannon_a

GRAPEFRUIT DIET. About two and a half weeks ago, K. and I went on a diet. It's not actually a grapefruit diet, but rather a gut balance diet. The goal is to "reset our gut microbiomes" to have more good flora and less bad flora, hopefully to improve my digestive difficulties that have been getting worse for years.

Is it just pseudoscience? I hope not! It was recommended to me by someone who said it worked for them. And the author is a professor at John Hopkins. On the other hand we certainly saw during COVID that there are medical professionals at prestigious institutes with woefully wrong beliefs. Anywho, we're trying it.

It's based on the book _The Gut Balance Revolution_ and the book is horribly written. Continually repeats itself. Continually goes back to the same metaphors. Inconsistent between different sections on (and this is really critical) what food is allowed and what isn't. A good editor could have helped much of that, but that doesn't seem to have happened. So we persevere through a really bad bit of writing.

The diet itself is largely Keto and low-FODMAP in its first month. I have a suspicion that part of that is purposefully manipulative, to cause weight loss in the first month and so encourage people to continue, but I dunno. Theoretically it's supposed to be killing bad gut flora in the first month.

Also: entirely miserable. We're eating way more meat than I like, way less grain. Also, it's super restrictive, making shopping and making meals tough. Having to hand-prepare every meal is also a huge deal. I'm using to cooking some vegetables and putting together some semi-prepared foods to make up a meal. But this instead takes notable effort every meal. (At least on my days that I'm working for clients I can dash out a nut butter and (cucumber or blackberry or avocado) sandwich on nut bread, but nuts are on our "eat few" list for month one so I can't do that constantly.

And the Keto side effects suck. I've had a bad taste in my mouth for at least two weeks now. K. has discovered that we're both irritable. My muscles aren't bouncing back like they should. And I was super achey for several days.

Anyway, the jury is out on the digestion issues. I've actually lost 15 pounds which is a great side effect, but a good chunk of that has to be the fake water-weight-loss that you see with Keto.

Another week and a half and then we open up to phase two where we're supposed to be building up good flora (and have somewhat more foods to chose from). And then in April we can start eating normally again, though maybe with some lessons learned from cooking from scratch (or mostly scratch, there has been Costco rotisserie chicken).

We've picked up some spices for that and had a variety of stuff: garlic chicken and green beans, ginger chicken, salt & pepper chicken (I'm sick of the texture of cubed roast chicken), shrimp and some vegetable, shrimp salad, smoked salmon salad, too many other salads, chicken soup, shredded chicken with sautéd peppers and onions (probably the best thing we've had), and tonight some fish or another with the sautéd peppers and onions. And for lunches: nut butter sandwiches, scrambled eggs, fried eggs, tuna on almond-flour crackers, and more salads. For snacks? blueberries, cantaloupe, cashews, raspberries.

Hoping phase 2 won't be quite as annoying, because this has been really annoying.

BROKEN STUFF. We have a frustrating amount of major stuff broken right now.

Windows: Ah, not literally broken. But we've put films on most of our south-facing windows to protect us against the UV and to a lesser extent the glare (only my office has a film to really cut back on light, so that I can see to work). The one in our living room (which has our view) and the one in my office have been opaquing over the last year. I actually wasn't sure what was going on for a while, but I finally got an extendable window cleaner so I could clean the outside of the one in our living room (which is up on the second story) and determined that with the outside and inside both clean, it was still notably opaque. So we called the people who installed them, and they came out on Wednesday and affirmed that the film was "failing". Personally, I wondered if the installation had failed and they'd let moisture get under it, but their belief seems to be it's film maker 3M's fault. So they took pictures and are apparently passing the buck to 3M, and we'll see where that goes.

Battery: Our PowerWall is still out, as it has been since October. I poked our solar installers in January to see what was happening with our warranty replacement, and miraculously the same day the person I asked got back into the office, Tesla (Elon Musk is a white nationalist Neo-Nazi, I know) sent it out. That was about five weeks ago, so I'm hoping to see something soon, and drop our electricity bill to back where it should be (the $0 to $50 range instead of the $100 range with solar only during the day). I also have picked up from vague statements that our solar installation people have made that they're going around with Tesla about what Tesla will actually cover regarding re-installation (which requires more than just putting a new battery in because our failed Powerwall 2 is being replaced with a Powerwall 3, because that's all Tesla makes). More buck passing there. Hopefully Tesla gets stuck with all the cost, but I wouldn't bet on it given that the company is run by a lying scumbag rat.

Internet: We've had storms swishing around the island for a few weeks, delivering a little rain and a lot of wind. On Tuesday night, when we tried to watch the series finale of Andor, we discovered our internet was no longer up to streaming to our TV. No biggie, disruptions happen, but on Wednesday night when we again tried to watch the finale of Andor it was the same story, so I called our internet provider and they had someone out the next morning (which was extremely impressive, given that I've waited a week in the past for them to mail a modem form another island). He discovered that a conduit out on our pole had filled with water and rotted out the wire, hence our problems. But he also decided that the coax to our modem was flaky and because he couldn't get to it because it's mostly under the bookshelves we built in to our family room, he moved the modem to K's office before I had much say in the matter. So now our internet is working again, but our whole wifi configuration is messed up because we're trying to spread it out from one corner. I've actually got a mesh configuration, but having the main hub to one side wasn't working at all for my office on the far side of the house (I think the walls of books in between don't help) until I relocated our single upstairs hub downstairs to bridge the distance, and now my office is still worse than it was before ... and the upstairs is too. Sigh. So my current plan is get one more mesh router for upstairs and K. has kindly agreed to call an electrician to try and get as many of our routers wired as possible, so that we don't have to depend on the wifi to get all the way across the house.

Bike Rack: And this one isn't broken, but it nonetheless needs some work. I'm still waiting on being able to haul my bike around with Maria Kia, since it's not safe to bike to any of the more expansive biking areas available on island. That requires a 2" trailer hitch to use my trusty sturdy, easy-to-use bike rack and Kia just had 1.25" hitches, so I found a 2" hitch made for Maria, ordered it, and it arrived on Monday. Kia won't install it because it's third party, but Destination Auto (who I used to see for the much too frequent work on Julie the Benz) will, so I have an appointment with them next Friday, which hopefully means I can haul out my bike next weekend, by which point these storms have finally broken (after a few gray weeks). Funny thing, last time I walked out of Destination Auto, I thought I'd never see them again, because they'd said Julie had a mortal wound, but then Kia said that's who worked on their cars when they couldn't themselves. So, once more into the breach, dealing with their gravel lot and hoping there's enough space and then wandering around all day waiting for them (and this time I'll need to pack a lunch instead of having anything tasty).

CATS: Both the kits have been slowly starting to explore Elmer's old haunts (I assume, as his scent fades). Mango was in Elmer's donut for the first time ever a few Sundays ago (and has since become a return visitor). Megara was also up in the boys' cat tree for the first time recently (a tree that it took months for Mango to return to after Elmer's departure), and has since been hanging out in the donut too!

I find it entirely bizarre, but there is now a new car parked in our garage. And by new car, I actually mean *new* car, and if you'd asked me yesterday I would have said that I didn't ever expect to buy a new car in my life.

But, I dunno, maybe the car market is in a weird place right now post-COVID and post-tariffs. Or maybe Hawaii is just a weird car market. But it made sense!

So we made a decision on Saturday to go ahead and replace Julie the Benz this year. I was driving out to Kealia to hang out and bike and write and I just wasn't loving the way Julie was shaking and shuddering. I think maybe she might have had a while to go before that transmission died entirely, and I'd wanted to get more value out of the battery and tires that were only 2-3 years old each, but I decided that I wasn't going to enjoy having her running so badly for that year. And I'd also that morning gotten an advance for some tech writing I've got on my schedule for this year. So it felt like the fates were conspiring to encourage us to go ahead and get a new car.

K. did some research on Saturday (while I was at the beach) and came up with what looked like the five most reliable manufacturers, and then Sunday we started spreadsheeting cars we found for sale that meet our criteria of brand, style, and cost. We ultimately decided that we wanted to look more deeply into Kias, in large part because we were seeing some reasonable prices at Hertz, but we wanted to see what the cars looked like. In particular, we wanted to understand the difference between the Seltos, a compact SUV, and the Sportage, a regular SUV.

Now we'd actually gone back and forth beforehand about whether we should get an SUV at all, but we ultimately decided that life in a semi-rural island, where we have to haul things like recycling and green waste around, due to the lack of curbside pickup, really called for the SUV (or a truck, but we were 100% uninterested in that). We hadn't realized that discussion really meant that a compact SUV was what we were looking for. Heck, I hadn't even known they existed.

So on Monday we went into the Kia dealer and we looked at the Seltos and the Sportage, and we ultimately decided that the Seltos had plenty of space for the riders (especially since we rarely have more than just K. and me in the car) and the cargo space looked smaller than Julie, but probably enough for our purposes. (Still to be seen what that really means, but I think it was a nice compromise.)

Now we looked at the new Seltos they had at the dealer, and we though it seemed nice, but we weren't really interested in a new car. (And I do mean the singular there: the dealer had exactly one Seltos left.) We did ask about used stock, but it's pretty scant on the islands. A single 2023 Seltos had been at the dealer, but sold some time in the previous few days. But there was a 2024 over on Oahu with a high level of trim (meaning lots of nice features which would put it more on par with what we'd come to expect from even a 15-year-old Benz), and that seemed interesting.

After Kimberly and I went home, we ultimately decided we'd definitely like to get a Seltos, and it was either going to be the fancy one on Oahu or the cheaper one from Hertz (but less nice, and possibly badly used by tourists, and also with less warranty because it wasn't directly from Kia), which was also on Oahu.

So I messaged our Kia salesman this morning that we'd like to get the nice Seltos on Oahu, and that we'd also like to see some price reduction, and showed him our comp from Hertz.

Much of the day went by, and he called me up and let me know that his sales manager was unable to negotiate with the sales manager on Oahu to actually get the car.

Alas. I thanked him for his help and said I was sorry we weren't going to be able to get a car from him.

But that's when he started to really push that single new (2026) Seltos they had.

He dropped it about $2000, and I said no, sorry, we were going to pass and get the Hertz one.

Then he said to name a number and implied he could drop it another $2000.

K. and I talked, and I ultimately asked him to drop it another $3000, figuring we'd land halfway at $2,500 if he was serious. I also told him that I wanted to get Julie wholesaled. We'd previously talked about her as a trade-in, but they ultimately weren't willing to because of the trouble selling a Mercedes and the fact that it had a big costly repair. But now I was basically saying: I want you to deal with it, because I can't see selling it for hardly anything with the transmission going out, and I don't want to deal with it, and if get some money, great, but I'm not counting on it.

So he came back with two offers. Either a total of $3,500 off the MSRP (and I should note new cars are often marked *UP* from the MSRP in Hawaii, but Kia had already dropped their mark-ups, I assume because they're trying to empty out inventory). Or $5,000 off the MSRP if we offered the trade-in, which I just wanted off my hands, and not ending up on a ditch on Kauai after someone tried to muck with the transmission and decided it was too expensive to do so.

K. and I crunched the numbers looking at the Hertz car, the Oahu Kia car (which we could have negotiated for directly with them, since they wouldn't work with our dealer, but which I figured we'd be doing from a very weak bargaining position since we were on another island), or this brand-new one. The new car was more expensive than the older Hertz car and slightly more expensive than the older but fancier Oahu Kia car, when we calculated things like shipping them to our island, but not hugely so. And we thought it probably wasn't actually more expensive when you amortized it against that extra 2-3 years that we hopefully get out of it because it's a newer car.

So we opted to buy the new Kia at a discount that our seller claims was approximately at their invoice price (albeit, with them getting in a trade-in of some value), and that seems pretty close to turth given additional costs to Hawaii.

I was worried that we were going to have trouble not getting taken advantage of in this whole working with a dealer thing. I'd dreamed of no-haggle pricing (and that was actually one of the reasons that Hertz was appealing). I'm not great at in-person conflict. Despite a long history of gaming, that includes negotiation (at least out-of-game negotiation). I think it helped that the real negotiation happened via phone and messaging, so I didn't have quite as much of the personal pressure. But the real gamechanger seemed to be research. I'd researched what the dealer add-ons were that they use to jack up the price a bit, and I explained why I found them non-interesting (and the salesman was clearly quite shocked that I knew what they were). And we had comps on hand that showed we were clearly willing to go elsewhere, and I actually linked out salesman straight to our main comp (the Hertz).

Some combination of that research and my saying "no" (and clearly their desire to get the car off the lot) put us in the driver's seat (ha!) and turned it into a buyer's market. So I just said "no" until they dropped the price and then I said "no" until they told me to make an offer, and then I went lower than the number that they'd suggested, and ding. ding.

I'm pretty sure there was a discrepancy in our valuation of Julie too and that was to our benefit (and their benefit, probably, which is the best type of deal). I saw her as a problem at this point. A car that we'd bought six years ago for $10,000 and that would very soon need a new transmission which we got quoted $7,000 just for the parts. I thought maybe we could get $1,000 for her, but that it'd be a pain, and that we might have to dispose of her. But I suspect Kia knows how to get at least that $1,500 for her and maybe more. I mean, that's how most trading and economic games work: they're about the delta of valuation between seller and buyer. And I'm totally cool with that. Because it's not about Julie's valuation to them, it's about the valuation to me.

So, we have a new car. My first new car ever. My first car I've ever bought from a dealer. Actually my fourth car ever, but that happens when you go 30 years without driving.

And it's weird that there's a different car in the garage.

We were up at 6am to make sure we had plenty of time to be ready & settled before we headed to the airport for our yearly trip to San Martin & Berkeley.

But, not a lot to do this morning other than get our final stuff together and tell the cats, who were unnerved about us being up so early, that all was OK.

(All was not OK.)

--

I had thought we were going to have to go in early because I couldn't get checked-in yesterday. This was the first reservation I made since the Alaska & Hawaiian Airlines websites were united, and their unification has been VERY BROKEN.

I had great troubles making the reservations. Because among other things the Alaska and Hawaiian flights aren't actually unified. So I couldn't mix the two airlines, which is what you want to do from Hawaii so that you can take an interisland Hawaiian trip to whatever Alaska flight is most convenient. Instead, I just had my single Hawaiian option (through Maui), which gets us into San Jose later than we'd like (and even later than usual this year). Or, thanks to the merger with Alaska, I could take a trip through Portland or Seattle that would get us in tomorrow!

(Thanks no!)

I also discovered that I couldn't use my mostly-Hawaiian miles for Hawaiian flights, only Alaska flights. (See above: thanks, no!)

Anyway, I finally managed to get some reservations, and then when I went to check in yesterday I couldn't check in. I had two different confirmation numbers (maybe one Hawaiian and one Alaskan? I'm not sure). Neither was recognized online. One was recognized in the app, but it wouldn't check me in.

Fortunately, the airline(s) have good chat support and the person said something about codeshares, which obviously shouldn't have been the case because I'd made a Hawaiian reservation through the Hawaiian website, but obviously the whole system is FUBAR, or at least was a few months ago. Nonetheless, they were able to fix it so I could check in.

(We'll see if I have the same problem when I try to come home: betting, maybe.)

Anyway, that meant we left for the airport at about 8.45, which was enough time to stop at Subway for a sandwich (because my dairy allergy has gotten bad enough that I suspected whatever Hawaiian served would be inedible, and sure enough it was a hot sandwich with cheese and pesto cooked inside) and arrive by 9.30.

--

I am now "Atmos Silver" thanks to my use of our Alaskan and Hawaiian credit cards.

Among other things that gives both me and my traveling companion (K.) two pieces of luggage each, which is twice what Hawaiian used to give me (but apparently dropping in half next year).

And it gives me priority boarding, right after first class, but not my traveling companion (K.), who has to wait with the rest of steerage.

Which seems kinda screwed up.

But I went ahead and boarded first on our interisland flight because you really need the overheads if you have backpacks because the spaces under the seat are quite small on those puddle jumped (or at least one of the wells is, the one closer to the edge of the plane).

And then I waited to board with Kimberly for the long flight from Maui to San Jose, but when we got up to the line the person verifying that gate lice weren't invading the small boarding area indicated that I had to go to the (empty) first class line and K. had to wait in the steerage line.

Which seemed even more screwed up.

--

I usually have all the fun tales of people behaving badly, but there were less than usual.

The interisland flight was just half full or so. I think the long flight is less full too. The seats around me are all full, but we're at the front of coach. And, people seem to behave less badly on the less full flights. (I'm sure there's a lesson there somewhere.)

Oh but there were some children at the Maui airport that were _horrible_. They were running FULL SPEED in circles around the gate, screeching at the top of their lungs, pretty much for the whole 20 or 30 minutes we were at the gate. I heard the mom say, once, "Don't run!" while she was looking at her phone, after which they proceeded to run away a few seconds later.

I was afraid they were going to be shrieking the entire time on the plane, and maybe even running FULL SPEED. But it's been blissfully quiet.

Oh, the one other case of someone acting badly was a guy who thought he could keep his rollerbag in the aisle next his seat on the plane. The flight attendant just picked it up and put it in the overhead, telling him that his fire hazard wasn't allowed, so there was no room for argument.

--

Oh, not behaving badly, but a really weird lady at the service desk at our gate at Maui.

Just as our plane is starting to load (which kinda made it acting badly), the lady goes up and says, "I need to change my seat, my husband doesn't want to be so near to me."

And there's some astonished back and forth, and the lady says, "Yeah, we're two rows apart, but he wants to be as far away from me as he can."

The staff just changed her seat for her.

That was apparently a good Hawaiian vacation.

--

Ah, the end of the year seems to mean it's the time of the year for things to start breaking.

So we'll have stuff to deal with when we get home.

--

When I got November's power bill, I saw it was higher than expected, which always leads me to looking at how our solar power is doing. I discovered our battery had shut down entirely. After some conversations with our installers (Rising Sun Solar: great if you ever need solar power on Hawaii), I learned there'd been a big recall of Tesla Powerwalls because the ones that made for one or two years tended to burst into flames, which is a definite downside.

But, it turned out, ours wasn't in that recall: it'd just spontaneously gone down. Once we got that nailed down (which was me making sure we didn't have to wait for a recall that didn't actually include us), they were able to pull all of the details from the Powerwall thanks to the wonders of the modern age, and they let me know that our 6-year-old Powerwall 2 was going to be replaced by a brand-new Powerwall 3. Which is terrific. The new release of the battery isn't a big deal, although it allows us to draw more energy from it at once, which will keep us from going to the grid when showering or running the dryer. But having a new battery without 6 years of degradation is great, and I'll know it isn't refurbished, because the Powerwall 3s aren't that old. (It just came out last year.) Oh, but I think there will be some issues with compatibility, because the new one integrates an inverter, but that's a problem for not-today.

(Yeah, I hate buying from Tesla, but we locked in in 2020 before we discovered Musk was a neo-Nazi piece of shit, and they're really the only answer for solar batteries in any case.)

No one knows when the new battery will be arriving, but it'll be when it'll be.

--

And Julie the Benz is having her annual end-of-the-year breakdown. It's another check-engine light, but she's been riding somewhat rough since we had our problems mid-year with her almost dying on the way to the airport, so we may well be at the place where it's better to get a new car than to repair. (She is 16 years old at this point.)

My dad and I tried to read the error code with his reader on Sunday, but it just gave "link errors". I think maybe her errors might be in German.

So I have an appointment for her about a week after I get back, and we drove her pretty minimally this last week (and plan the same on our return), and then we'll see what we see.

It'd of course be good to stretch out her life another few years, but I also increasingly wouldn't mind a car with more modern bells and more modern whistles.

--

Expected to be working on some Designers & Dragons on the flight, and I've done a tiny bit, but mostly haven't felt like it.

Thought I might close out another book on these plane trips (in first full draft), but nah, it'll probably be a January project.

Because I guess I can vacation?

SHOT IN THE DARK

I have been super tired since Saturday. The culprit, I assume, is the new XBB booster. I got mine on Thursday and on Friday I felt a bit achey, but no biggie, and definitely not a biggie like some of the early COVID shots. But then I was very sick Friday night, like 36 hours after my booster, and I've been fatigued on and off since.

(Hopefully I'll be doing better tomorrow, as I have a full day of client work.)

FAREWELL TO FITBIT (AGAIN)

I've had another Fitbit die. My Versa 2 died just before my trip to Germany, the result of ever increasing fritzing of some sort. I went back to my Charge 2 from 2017 or so and it's failed in the last week. I think its weaker water resistance finally failed entirely: as first got some condensation inside the screen and then the button stopped working and then it fritzed entirely.

The Versa 2 was retired to the garbage can after it went red-hot on its last charging and thoroughly burned in its screen. No firey Fitbits for me, thanks. I'm still hoping that the Charge 2 might get the water out of its system, because I liked have it as a backup watch.

Meanwhile, K. and I ordered Charge 6s the day after they announced them, as a preorder. They just haven't mailed yet! The promise was by this Friday, so no biggie yet, but not having a watch is driving me crazy, let alone the inability to get "credit" for my exercise.

Speaking of technological failures ...

NEED MORE POWER

Since I've been back from Germany, Julie (the Benz) has been really rough getting started. Sometimes she turns over one or two times before the engine gets going, sometimes several. I mentioned it to my dad on Sunday and he listened as we headed out and said it sounded like the battery had gotten weak.

I've done some research (of course; that's what I do) and most places say batteries need to be replaced every 3-5 years. Really!? (Well, longest I've ever owned a car before was two years, so ...)

Anyway, I have an appointment with my auto folks on Thursday, and hopefully they can resolve the problem. (And hopefully she'll actually start Thursday morning!)

BUSY WEEK

It's actually a busy week.

Today I ran the folks to the airport for a trip to San Jose (leaving me & Kimberly alone on the island for almost four weeks!) and then Kimberly to an appointment. Not quite a work-day bust: I was still able to do some client work in the morning and RPG editing in the afternoon, and almost got my receipts and invoices for the RWOT trip all together.

Thursday I need to run Julie into town (but I'll be able to sit somewhere and work, likely Kukui Grove or the library).

Friday I have a meeting with my financial advisor.

I've never thrilled with these weeks when I don't have a single day of uninterrupted work on my personal projects, but that's how it goes.

THE PERSONAL PROJECTS

I'm actually about to hit some major milestones on my personal projects.

I have a few chapters left to edit in my Traveller history, and then I turn it over to Mongoose, which will be my first history work to go to a publisher since I committed half-time work to histories in 2020.

I also have a few chapters left to edit in my fourth TSR history book, and then that goes .... to a second (or third) draft edit of the whole series, but nonetheless I've alerted that publisher that we are ahead of schedule for a 2024 Kickstarter.

Could I have five new history books out next year? Fingers crossed!

Meanwhile, I need to get off my butt and get some fresh work done this month too, because of the unrelenting tyranny of having a Patreon. (It's really been serving its purpose in keeping these books going though!)

...

My twisted ankle is still hurting some. We have yet more new neighbors. The Winchester Mystery House behind us has been under construction for more than a month now. So much to write about, never enough time!

I. We Have No Water

Our water system sprang a leak yesterday morning right where it comes off the street. Not a gushing geyser, but enough to start saturating the ground and filling the water meter. (Our neighbor noticed the former while we were out at my folks' house yesterday.)

So, our water is turned off at the cutoff on the street. (Our delightful neighbor not only did so while we were out, but also drew a picture in three parts of how to turn it back on!)

It's amazing how inconvenient that is! I came into the house with dinner last night, and as I have since long before COVID, I immediately went to the sink to wash my hands. Yep, no water. Brushing teeth is equally annoying. And that's all not even speaking of the lack of showering and toilet tanks not refilling.

Fortunately, we do have water in our water cooler (I hope it lasts until we get into town today!), and I can turn on the water at the street for two minutes to refill the toilet tanks.

Kimberly is calling the plumbing company that does all the radio advertising at 8am when they open. (They of course weren't open yesterday.)

II. We Have No ABS

Meanwhile, Julie's ABS system went out again last week. It went out in December and we replaced the right rear wheel sensor in January. And now ... who knows?

I called them last week and they never returned my call. So they're on my call list again for today. But I can't call too close to their 8.30am open time or I might go to voicemail, and then I get stuck back in the do-I-wait-for-their-call-or-do-I-call-again loop.

That'll be another day or two stuck in Lihue once I finally do get in contact with them.

III. We Have No Deck

Just recounting our current deficiencies, we also still have five rows of board on our lanai missing. Work stopped around two months ago because my folks had a house free up that hadn't been unoccupied since they moved out here, and it was in *horrible* shape. So they spent much of a month and a half out there almost every day, and I even spent a few Saturdays out there.

Anyway, done now, and my dad and I are going to look at the lanai again this Thursday. We've got all the old, rotten boards out, the area cleaned up, and the new boards all primed. Next up we need to trim those boards to the right sizes, screw them into the deck, and then paint. I'm hoping we're done with that this week and next.

IV. We Have No Windows

The temperature is starting to come up, and the sun is coming out, after four gray months or so, and we still can't open half the windows downstairs.

That's thanks to Mango, who made two escapes by pulling the screens out of the windows on the upper side of our house.

We actually have new jalousie windows on order for that side of the house, which we think will resolve the problem. We had to pay quite an exorbitant price on them, but they were a major stressor, so it will have been worth it. They're being manufactured right now, so we don't when we'll get them.

But with spring finally having sprung, we're hoping soon.

V. We Have a Finicky Cat

Oh, and we have a finicky cat. Lucy just hasn't been eating well. We've been giving her appetite stimulants since last week, and that's been improving things, but she still tends to wander off fairly quickly.

The vet has already said he wants to see her soon. (Sadly, not her regular vet, as we presume she moved off-island just like all of our PCPs, since she disappeared from the practice.) So, I foresee more testing in her future. But not today.

...

And that's Monday morning.

==


Monday Update

I. Kimberly called several plumbers this morning. The biggest company we know of, which does all the radio advertising, couldn't get anyone out here this week. The rest didn't answer their phones. We finally found a small guy with good YP ratings who is up in Princeville today, but will be down in our area tomorrow. So hopefully fixed then, but we'll stock up on some supplies while we're in town today just in case, like filling the rest of our water cooler bottles and getting some hand wipes.

(I am already SO sick of the smell and feel of hand sanitizer.)

II. I will be spending Thursday in town to get Julie's ABS system looked at.

III. That means I had to reschedule our lanai work, which my dad & I will now be getting back to on Wednesday.

IV. No word on our windows. We don't expect to hear anything there until they're manufactured and maybe shipped here, which is probably not this month.

V. Kimberly also got an answering machine at the vet, but we've started working to get Lucy a vet appointment, now that I know which day I'll be busy with Julie.

Here's how communication goes with the only mechanics on island who deal with European cars:

OCTOBER:

Me: Hey, my AC is not working, can you take a look?

Them: Sure, bring it in first thing in the morning next Thursday, and we'll look at it sometime during the day.

THURSDAY MORNING:

Them: So, are you going home or staying in town?

Me: Staying in town.

Them: We'll give it priority then. You'll be next as soon as the previous car is done with the AC machine.

THURSDAY EVENING, 5.30PM:

Them: So sorry, we lost track of calling you after it was done because you dropped it off first thing. We've been done for a while.

Them: So, we looked up the problem and there's apparently a memo that says that the AC system needs a harness. We don't have it, but we can order it. But they're closed today because it's now so late. We'll order it first thing tomorrow.

A WEEK LATER:

Them: Sorry, we lost track of ordering that, we'll get right on it.

A WEEK LATER:

Them: We ordered it yesterday!

[two months pass]

DECEMBER:

Me: Hey, I've got an ABS light on, and has the part for my AC shown up yet?

Them: [answering machine]

A WEEK LATER:

Them: Hey, can we set up an appointment for your car?

Me: Great, next Monday would be awesome. Yes I'll bring it in first thing in the morning.

Me: But has my AC part arrived yet? I'd love to do that at the same time.

Them: ...

Them: We were calling about the AC repair.

Me: I called last week because I've got an ABS warning. Can you take a look at that too?

Them: Oh, someone else must have picked up that message. Sure, no problem.

THIS MORNING:

Me: Hey, I brought in my car. Can you do my regular maintenance while she's in?

Them: Sure, it'll just take an hour more.

Me: No problem. So you're going to do the AC repair, the ABS diagnosis, and the maintenance?

Them: ...

Them: ABS?

Me: [facepalm]

Me: [explanation]

Them: Sure, no problem.

Us: [discussion]

Them: The ABS problem might be a real easy flash reset or it could be no difficult, no one can guess.

Me: My guess is a wheel speed sensor.

Them: No, there'd be an additional light on for that, usually.

Me: Ah, OK. Well I guess it could be anything.

Them: So, are you going home or staying in town?

THIS AFTERNOON, 1pm:

Them: So we looked at the AC and it's the compressor. But we've got the part in stock, it's just expensive.

Me: [I don't even bother, I know almost exactly how expensive it was because we talked about the compressor *last* time the AC went out, either in 2020 or 2021. I also don't even bother asking why we ordered a harness when the problem is apparently something else entirely, nor why we waited months as a result.] Sure.

Me: And the ABS?

Them: That's next.

[they know about the ABS!]

THIS AFTERNOON, 4.15pm:

Text Message: Your car is ready, please pick it up by 5.15pm.

THIS AFTERNOON, 4.45pm:

Them: So we've got the AC fixed and the maintenance done, but we need to wait on a part to fix the ABS.

Them: It's a wheel speed sensor.

Me: Should I call you or will you call me
[Or do I wait for another three months?]

Them: Call us in a week and I'll know when it'll be here.

(And then we have a nice talk about books and writing and I learn about some of the interesting job training that the guy working the desk has had, and he's impressed that I finished a chapter of a book today, and we both got good work done. Really nice people at the mechanic, I like them, and the work seems fine, and the prices seem fair given they're getting Mercedes Benz parts and having them shipped to Hawaii, but oh the communication drives me crazy.)

---

So as far as I can tell from the report-out and discussions, they put in that harness that we ordered and waited three months for, and then the AC still wasn't blowing cold, and so the mechanic decided the compressor was dead.

I suspect that harness was entirely superfluous, though maybe it'll prevent some future problem, but so it goes I guess.

---

Overall, a much more pleasant stay in town than when I was there for the Julie AC diagnosis three months ago. That's largely because I found better places to hang out.

Kukui Grove: suck hangout. Loud, annoying people, uncomfortable chairs.

Aloha Craft Cafe: great hangout. Relatively nice outdoor seating, especially on a beautiful day like today. (I mean it's in a parking lot, but it's in a parking lot in Hawaii.) Pretty comfy chairs. Tasty sandwiches too, though like most people on island they use subpar (tasteless) bread, but at least that was partially hidden by toasting.

Lihue Library: pretty good hangout. Quiet, air conditioned. Pretty comfy chairs, but the super comfy ones are gone!! Wifi so I don't have to burn my phone battery hotspotting (as I did the rest of the day), but they censor Apple Messages!!

I finished up my edit (and a final map) for chapter 7 of my Traveller history, and almost finished up my compendium of 2022 histories. I'm running behind this month because of all the finalization I'm doing for 2022 projects, but I still got 60-75% of a workday in.

And I walked about 6 miles to and fro in Lihue.

---

So the score card at my mechanic was: AC fixed (def. very cold again!), ABS diagnosed and the fix sounds easy, yearly maintenance done. The cost was way too much because the Mercedes Benz compressor was expensive, but we can afford it. At least at the moment Julie seems worth keeping, assuming this set of problems is averaged over a three-year period, but I'd be concerned if there was this much break-down again in the next calendar year.

I have one other bit of deferred maintenance for Julie, which is to replace the tires. At my safety check last March they required replacing the back tires before this year's safety check. This time they recommended replacing all four, but definitely the back two.

So I went over to Costco to order my tires, and their tire clerk was super helpful and found me two types of tires that would be fine, one of which was cheaper for a set of four by a few hundred dollars.

Except it was only available via phone. And it was past 5pm by this point (meaning I'd been in town for about 9 hours by now) and the phone-in center was on the East Coast, which means, as anyone living in Hawaii knows, it wasn't open any more.

And Costco requires you to be physically in-store to make that phone order. (What!!!??)

So this prompted me to get off my butt and schedule my other shingles shot for Friday. (I'd been putting it off because the first one HURT, but my six-month window ends at the end of February, so it was on my list to do this month.) I'll try to get the cheaper tires phone-ordered then, and if they're not actually available, then I apparently need to go and order the others online myself, which seems bizarre.

---

I've also got a dentist appointment scheduled for next Monday, so it should be a nice set of weekend-adjacent days of getting stabbed, feeling bad, and then getting my teeth and gums tortured. Yay.

But that should clear my current health obligations, just as I'm closing in on clearing the car obligations.

But, man, January is not going to be a return to normal productivity like I'd hoped (after September, October, November, *AND* December each lost me a few days to a week from my normal schedule due to RWOT in the first two months and holidays in the second two). I mean, I haven't even started work on the research for my next company history yet, which should be my major January project.

Maybe February will be more productive. Nope, short month, and that matters when you're working to a monthly schedule.

I guess I just keep being pleased with what I can do on a monthly schedule, and all my projects *are* progressing, albeit a little slower than I might love.

I. Home, Where My Thought's Escaping

It's been more than two weeks since I got home. Whew. It took me most of a week to recover. Monday through Friday of my week back from the Netherlands, I worked in the day and pretty much collapsed at night.

But, I was *very* busy while I was in the Netherlands. I never want to let an opportunity like that slip by.

My only regret from my time in the Netherlands: I wish I'd biked more. I was unfortunately somewhat constrained by the weather, somewhat constrained by limited time (and having more stuff that I wanted to do), and definitely constrained by the fact that the Monkey Bikes I had available to me were only available in The Hague and Rotterdam. So I couldn't do something like bike up to Amsterdam and leave the bike there. (Yeah, I could have brought it back on the train, as all the first cars were labeled for bikes, but that would have been a pain).

In an ideal world if I ever returned to the Netherlands it would be in the less rainy season and I'd rent or buy a bike throughout the trip so that I could go all over, with the intent on staying a day here or there in different parts of the country (so that I could bike one-way for the day).

But I loved the day of biking I did, and I only regret not doing more from how much that one day stands out, despite the rain.

II. Home Improvement

Speaking of trips, on my first day away from Hawaii, 'lo a month ago now, our cabinets arrived. Just as I had predicted. These are to be the foundation of our Family Room design. I actually had to have Kimberly call my dad so that he could move Julie (the Benz) out of the garage to make room for their arrival. And so when I returned from the Netherlands there were four palettes of cabinets and miscellanea in the garage.

Kimberly and I let those sit the first week I was back because I was worn out. Then we cleared the boxes from the family room and opened the first of 21 boxes to discovered there was indeed a fully assembled cabinet. Yay. And then she got her bivalent booster and it knocked her out for a week(!).

So the last several days, Kimberly and I have finished the work. We've gone through the boxes and opened them all up and itemized everything. With two problems. First, we're missing a box. (2 of 21.) Second, the freight listing is different than our Home Depot receipt, so we're not sure quite what's what.

I'd been a little worried about the timing because of the weeks delay but it turns out we have 45 days to flag problems. We've started flagging. All we've learned so far is that the manufacturer sent us an _additional_ shipment last week(!). Is it the missing box? Is it stuff on the shipping manifest that wasn't in the 21 boxes that were supposedly sent? I suspect the latter, but we need to talk to a fixer at Home Depot to get it straightened out.

The downside is that we can't get our carpenters out because we definitely don't have all the parts. I'd really hoped to have them working this week. So the eternal Family Room project continues.

III. Alone Again, Naturally

It's been a weird week because I did my regular contract work on Monday and Wednesday because I drove my dad and Mary to the airport on Tuesday morning. We went early because there was tree trimming on the highway. It only delayed us 10 minutes or so, but ah, living on an island where there's only one road into town.

Now they're off in California visiting granddaughter (and daughter and s-i-l) and it'll also be a weird few weeks because my usual evening walks with my dad and our Sunday gettogethers will be kaput.

IV. The Cold Never Bothered Me Anyway

So the AC slowly flaked out in Julie (the Benz) over the summer. I cleverly waited until Fall to deal with it.

Well, really it was because I just don't like the only place on island that will service the Benz and so I tried to avoid going there.

Why?

1. Their administrative work like scheduling and stuff is Hawaii flaky.
2. Dropping off a car is always stressful because of the lack of anyplace to put it.
3. They pretty much never deal with a car in less than a full day.
4. They're in town.

So I often have my dad drive me in one day to drop off Julie and pick it up the next, but that's a pain. But when I got back from my trip, and felt more able to deal with this all, I just set up an appointment and didn't worry if my dad would be available to help or not.

That was today. (So he was in California.)

I got there at 8.30 (after somewhat stressful morning as I had to juggle a braindump meeting for RWOT11 with dodging rush hour traffic and that tree trimming to get into town). I was the first person to drop off a car for the morning. In the morning you apparently park on the street by popping two wheels over the curb onto the sidewalk. OK. The staff-guy learned that I was hanging around in town to wait until I got Julie back and said they'd get her quickly for me and there was just one car on the "AC machine" ahead of me.

Great!

So I wandered off to wait for the call.

I ate lunch at Safeway. Delicious sandwich!

I went over to Kukui Grove and worked for a few hours at one of their many shaded tables. Productive!

I got bored and wandered all the way down to Nawiliwili Harbor and back. Doing a circuit that's actually a non-negligible walk, 4 miles or so. But I enjoyed seeing lots of things that I usually speed by in a car like a hidden valley in the center of Lihue, a lost train track, etc. It was very pleasant and definitely got me my exercise for the day. Healthy!

I was definitely ready for Julie to be ready by the time I got back at 2.30 or so, but no go. I tried to do a bit more work, did a bit of reading, but mostly was too distracted because working out at Kukui Grove just wasn't super comfortable. (I did turn up a literally lost and unpublished newsletter for Traveller while exchanging emails while there! That was a worthwhile bit of the afternoon!)

I restrained myself from calling until 4.30 or so. because I don't want to be that a**hole Karen on the island who doesn't respect the slow pace of island life. But I decided that if they told me they wanted to hold Julie overnight, I wanted to catch the 4:52 bus home. (And they closed at 5.30.)

I called and the staff-guy had no idea who I was. He went and talked to his techs and learned that Julie was all done and no one had told him. I suspect she was done many, many hours earlier. Apparently the problem was that Julie was the first car in and they'd somehow lost track of her as a result. *)@#($*#@. (The staff-guy was really apologetic. He obviously realized something had gotten f***ed up. I was totally OK with it. Internally annoyed, but genuinely honest when I said, 'It happens, no worries.')

Oh, and Julie's not fixed. They looked her over, put her through the "AC machine" and found a "bulletin" from Mercedes that said that she needed a "harness" replaced and that it was keeping her "control valve" from working right. I get the impression that this only got reported out when I called and by then they couldn't even call Mercedes about the part.

So, I did get Julie back, but the AC still isn't fixed, and I'm going to have to go through this whole rigamarole some other day.

Maybe next time I just take the bus home instead of waiting in town all day. It *seemed* like a good idea, but I never found somewhere that I was comfortable enough to get good work in (though that was a good walk other than the constant flow of whizzing cars).

Hopefully we get the part ordered tomorrow and are at least on the right path ...

Maybe we'll have AC for Winter.

When you still need to run it, here on Kauai.

Kimberly got upset today when talking with a friend about our car problems, and then decided to immediately call Mercedes-Benz afterward. She was able to successfully channel her upset, because she got someone to call back for the first time in 14 days (and 5 calls). And then after said employee went and talked to his manager he called back a second time with a date for our car fix. Go Kimberly.

Said employee apparently asked if we'd been driving our car when Kimberly talked with him. Kimberly said no. He said it was no big deal, that they just had to issue a "stop drive order" for liability reasons, and it wasn't really a problem. Except said-employee clearly is young enough (or naive enough) not to understand how the world works. Because as soon as they entered into legalese, we had to respond with legalese. (We often had the same problems on internet sites I've run, where people didn't understand that when they invoked the specter of legal action, we had to respond in kind, which meant that friendly discussions were out the window.) To put it another way, yes, they had to issue the "stop drive order" for liability reasons, and in doing so, they transferred the liability to us if we drive. So we have to respond as if it's meaningful, and not just CYA garbage.

In any case, we're going to have a mechanic on island on August 4. Interestingly, they said he's going to be at Destination Autoworks, which is the mechanic on island that deals with Mercedes Benzes. And which is 12 miles over in Lihue. So are they expecting us to drive there? If so, we're going to get a very clear statement that they are _telling us_ to do so. (The safety-recall order we got said they'd be towing cars to the shop, but we shall see.) We should get more info as we get nearer.

And yeah, that's a long ways away. Another 16 days on top of the 14 to date. But that I can accept as a price of living on a little island. What I wasn't willing to accept was a business that wasn't even willing to return a call, especially after they *told* us they would (and especially when they're deal with *their* problem). That wasn't about living on a little island. That was about basic human courtesy and/or a really badly managed business.

And thanks to everyone who was kind enough to LIKE and RETWEET my Twitter thread from yesterday. It garnered somewhere over 3,000 impressions, which was the sort of thing I'd been hoping for, to give it attention. And MercedesBenz on Twitter totally ignored it, despite being tagged. Good thing Kimberly managed another solution today. But thanks anyways for the support, it's appreciated! (We just had to keep throwing things at the wall until *something* stuck.)

Funny thing about living on an island. Resources are limited. So, during the pandemic we had to wait 6 or 12 months to get a chest freezer for our garage, to hold all that excess Costco goodness. Kimberly has noted that vegetables are limited though fruits are abundant. It's difficult to get certain types of batteries or chargers because they have to be brought in by a store. Similarly, furniture can be limited.

So this Tuesday, a few hours before we're headed out for our regular grocery shopping in town (already a day delayed because of July 4th), I get a letter from Mercedes Benz in our mailbox.

(Yes, we have a Mercedes Benz. Not because I ever thought I'd be the type of person that would own a Mercedes Benz but because it's what was available in our price range when we arrived. She was actually a *great* deal. A 2010 model, sure, but in almost immaculate shape because she was owned by a realtor. Her name is Julie. The car not the realtor.)

So, letter from Mercedes Benz. I open it up and discover it's not only a safety recall, but a "stop drive order' which are apparently the rare, top-class ones. I read the specifics and learn that Mercedes Benz put some ornamental cover on their brakes for many of their ten-or-twelve-year-old vehicles (yes, including Julie). And this can cause corrosion in brakes when water is involved, I assume because the covers somehow retain water. This can caused slowed braking and (here's the kicker) if hard force is applied to corroded brakes, they can shatter. (Breaking brakes = no brakes and probably no breaks.)

So, stop drive order.

No, I don't really think our car has suddenly become a death trap. I read about it, and see they discovered the problem because someone in Germany noticed his braking was slowing down. No deaths. Yet.

But I'm also aware that we now live in a wet, corrosive environment, so if there's a place that brakes are going to get corroded because of the design flaw, it's probably Hawaii not Germany.

From what I read, a "stop drive order" doesn't have the force of law (that I can find) but it does have the opportunity to mess with your insurance, presumably if you get into an accident while driving under one.

So various levels of not good.

Now it looks like the government pushes hard on forcing corporations to fix safety recalls like this. ("THAT's why we have a wizard." Uh, government.) The letter talks about how Mercedes Benz will either send out a mobile inspector or have our vehicle towed to the dealerships and then they'll repair the problem.

Which pretty much involves taking off the fancy-looking brake bags and saying "No Corrosion!"

(Hopefully.)

I look up on the Mercedes Benz recall site for where our closest dealer is, but honestly I was already pretty sure I knew the answer. It's on Oahu. Which is the next island over.

And we don't even have a ferry for cars any more because protestors got it shut down a few years before we moved here.

(Not that it was going to be successful. Who wants to spend half-a-day going to Oahu on a boat instead of taking a 30 minute plane ride? Some people, but not most.)

Yeah, so at that point I hand some phone numbers to Kimberly because I'm in the middle of a client workday.

She calls Mercedes Benz of Honolulu and once they figure out what recall we're talking about and verify our car is in the class tell us no problem, they'll call us back within 24 hours and probably fly out an expert bag remover.

Wow, German efficiency.

24 HOURS LATER. Kimberly calls again. Oh my gosh, they are so frazzled and overwhelmed by the recall that we're just going to have to be patient and maybe they'll get back to us in a few days.

Now, we definitely live outside of the cities (as they were) on Kauai. I definitely couldn't bike to any of them because the only road is the highway and it's a deathrace-2000-type-dealie for biking, and I say that as someone who biked the hard roads of Oakland and Berkeley for decades.

So we're mostly stranded at home, albeit with a golf course right next store for exercise. And parents who have offered to lend us a car when we need one.

But, kind of inconvenient.

And we're being patient at the moment, because given my beliefs about the general demographics of Mercedes Benz owners I have to guess that MB of Honolulu is dealing with the Mother of All Karen-storms.

But tomorrow will be Day 4 with no transportation, and my patience is wearing thin. We're going to need to start talking to them hard about when they're going to be doing something, and how they're going to recompense us with transportation alternatives (also discussed in the letter) if it's not really soon.

On the bright side, we've managed to go three days past our usual grocery store trip with no emergencies.

Because we have a chest freezer in the garage.

Thursday morning, Callisto had done no more than lick her food for a day and a half, so we called up the vet and asked what to do next.

The vet, Dr. N., suggested we give her a feeding tube, said he'd done the same for his own dog, and hoped that this could keep her going over the next month or so, at which time we could remove it when she was hopefully eating on her own again.

This is obviously a pretty extraordinary measure, and I wouldn't take it with an older cat who'd decided to stop eating. But, Callisto is only 9. We've gotten x-rays and ultrasounds back that show no organic problems. She's just got an infection or some sort that she's been unable to kick and an ever-increasing fever as a result. So we're taking this as a means to get her over the hump. And, in all honesty, we're not sure if she'll be able to get over this hump, but as her people, we certainly want to give her the opportunity to get better if it's possible. So: feeding tube.

---

Dr. N. was kind enough to take his lunch break to give her the tube on Thursday. (I use the word "intubate", which is the correct verb for inserting a tube, but is much more commonly used for breathing tubes, especially in the last year and a half. No breathing tube for Callisto: "just" a feeding tube.) We picked her up in the afternoon, with the vet being more crowded than I'd ever seen it.

And for the first time ever we got to go into the inner sanctum: the vet's office.

We learned about supplying food and cleaning out the tube to avoid obstructions. Basically, we fill up a syringe, apply it to the tube and (slowly) push. I'd imagined something much grosser, but this is pretty easy.

---

The bad side of the visit? Callisto's temp was up to 105. That's basically the verge of dangerous territory and it showed that the temp has continued to ramp up every single time. That made me feel helpless.

I asked the doctor, who'd been somewhat nonchalant, what we should do about that, and he thought it over then went back to his references to see if a different antibiotic might help more. So, we got a new one (and are still waiting on the urine cultures, which will tell us *precisely* what is needed).

---

Pretty easy feeding? Well that was the theory. But after we got her home I gamed and we ate dinner and then it was about 9 when we were ready to try feeding Callisto on our own. (She'd gotten a bit of food in a demo at the vet, so we hadn't wanted to feed her again immediately.)

WE COULDN'T GET THE CAP OFF THE FEEDING TUBE. We fought and fought, constantly afraid we were going to pull the whole tube out. We called the on-call doctor, who was our own Dr. I., and she helped verify that was really a cap we were trying to get off, and suggested tweezers, but all we did was rip the cap up.

Finally we had to admit defeat and agree to bring Callisto into the vet in the morning.

So, no food for Callisto that night and we had to apply the antibiotic by hand (or rather by mouth), which was less effective than using the feeding tube, and got her some of it at least, but not all.

---

In the morning we took her in about 7.30, for I think our third vet visit for the week, and the vet techs tried to get the cap out, agreed it was stuck, and laughingly said that they'd thought it was just going to be in there normal and we were afraid to apply the force to take it out. They had a better tool than we did and were finally able to get it out. Whew.

---

We're supposed to feed Callisto four times a day and managed three on Friday because of the newest disaster (more on that in a sec).

It's relatively easy, with the prep of preparing the food (heating it if it came from the fridge, mixing it with hot water, and putting it into the tube) being the most time consuming.

We also haven't quite figured out how to deal with the creation of vacuums in the syringe. When the vet techs were demonstrating, they accidentally squirted a bit of the food. We've repeated that every time we've given the food, most spectacularly covering the ceiling with food last night.

Callisto is pretty compliant with taking the food and liquid. She squirmed a whole bunch and foamed at the mouth a bit at our midday feeding yesterday, and we figured out that was because the food we'd given her was too cold (it was the syringe from the previous night, with her meds in it, which we'd stored away so as not to waste them; we had tried to warm it under the faucet, but it apparently wasn't enough). No harm done. The other feedings have all been fine.

---

And are we doing her good? I sure hope so. At times she seems relatively perky, at times she begs for love, and she even ate more than a few bites of food on her own last night after we got home. But she also lays around a lot and often looks uncomfortable, but at least she's laying around on the couch now instead of in her cat carrier.

So we'll keep feeding her by tube, we'll keep giving her meds, and we'll hope that he fever comes down (which it never has) and that her infection actually gets resolved (which doesn't seem to be the case through several antibiotics).

And we'll hope hope hope that we get our happy, perky cat back and she can continue to live a great life.

---

So we got home from the Y last night, because another stressor has been getting Kimberly to her physical therapy and out to the Y as often as possible, so that she can walk in the pool and put weight on her foot. (While there, I've been enjoying trying to increase my swimming strength at the pool, because since we've moved here, I've been aware that I'm not as strong of a swimmer as my dad any more, and I'd like to get that back.)

Anyway, we got back last night, and I pulled the swim stuff out of the back of our car, Julie the Benz, and when I closed the hatch ... IT POPPED OPEN AGAIN.

Another dozen tries, same result.

@)(#*$@)_(#.

I called my dad to see if he had any ideas, and he offered to come over to look at it, even though it was almost his bed time.

By the time he got there, I'd decided that the latching mechanism of the hatch was broken, and so we fiddled around with that to no great success.

But he, being the engineer, figured out how to get the hatch tied with a cable tie, so at least Julie is drivable now, as long as that doesn't break.

He then went home, found videos for how to replace the latch and a non-OEM replacement part on Amazon. I then bought an equivalent one this morning with much quicker shipping. They claim Monday, which I don't believe because nothing gets to Hawaii in two days, but whatever the case we'll hopefully have that fixed as soon as possible.

Which is great, because I was imagining a month waiting to get into a repair shop (because they seem to be having labor shortages too), and then having to deal with the annoyance of getting a ride out to drop off the car and a ride back to pick her up. Which would all have been a huge additional stressor. Waiting a few days for a part and then doing it ourself HOPEFULLY won't be.

Hopefully we can do it ourselves. I think we can.

---

After Thursday night ended up spent fighting with a feeding tube cap, and Friday night was spent futzing with Julie's hatch latch, I told Kimberly if felt like every evening was being eaten up by the Void of Disaster.

Dramatic much? Also, my new heavy metal band name.

---

What else has been going on in life?

I've actually managed to maintain my Wednesday-or-Thursday gaming with Californian friends despite the heavy scheduling at the moment.

I'm maintaining my two days of work for Blockchain Commons, albeit with a half-hour or hour out on the occasional day to visit the vet.

My personal work has been dragging since things got overly busy in August, and is *really* dragging this month, but I'll at least get my Designers & Dragons history done for the month, and I've managed an edit of 37% of the elf book for RuneQuest so far.

I haven't been out hiking or walking or biking on a Saturday for ... I dunno 3 weeks? I think the last time I went out was a very wet hike in Kokee while my dad and Mary were still in California. But, I haven't wanted to rush out in the morning when Callisto's health has been constantly uncertain, and now we have four times a day feeding which means I can't do an 8-hour outing like I often do.

And we need to start preparing for Christmas. We actually got one thing done toward that: we got an anti-UV coating put on our Living Room window, so we don't have to worry about our tree and ornaments fading (which I *did* worry about last year, and seemed to happen to a small degree). It also keeps the seats on the couch from getting quite so hot, probably protects us from skin cancer, and if anything improved our view by taking out the glare, which was my big concern.

And at this point I'm still very hopeful we can make our trip to California planned for the holidays, but having a non-eating, feverish cat with a feeding tube that's expected to stay in for a month makes that somewhat problematic.

So, good times, but as the Avenue Q monsters say: "Let life roll off your backs / Except for death and paying taxes, / Everything in life is only for now!"