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Lancaster
Weather
Saturday 4 January
2003
Saturday - I took it pretty slow. It was a very nice
day in Lancaster - shirt sleeve weather in the afternoon, about 71 fahrenheit. I had intened to make
a run to the dump with the truck but decided to wait for next week
instead.
Using the mechanics stethescope the water leak sound seems loudest on
the cold water tap of the washing machine. Turning off the feed to the
water heater made little difference. Apparently the cold water feed to
the house splits in three
- one to the outside sprinkler manifold, one to the hot water heater
inlet, and one to the whole house cold supply. The leak is in the last,
somewhere.
I went to see a movie, STAR TREK NEMESIS, and it was actually pretty
good. Better than most, possibly one of the best two or three. Perhaps
it's a sign of the times, maybe ten
movies is too many, and that even the american geek populace is growing
jaded...
In the evening I had dinner with some friends, devouring the 'good soup', which is indeed very
good, and some Baobab wine - which was much better than it sounds, not
actually being fermented tree.
And we watched 'Kate and Leopold', which was a pretty good movie. I
particularly liked Meg Ryans soliloquoy on true love...
Friday 3 January 2003
Friday - back at work. Took the Probe. A friend at
worked helped get the truck back from Tehachapi. Very tired today.
Mozilla 1.2.1 on the Win2k laptop works very well. Odd - it was
completely unusable on my Dad's Win98 box.
I may have a water leak under the house slab. "It never rains but it
pours." Bah.
Thursday 2 January
2003
Thursday - see yesterday. Lots of fooling about in
tow yards and tire stores.
Wednesday 1
January 2003
Wednesday - New Years Day. After a week of
vacation it was time to hit the road. After much dithering about the
journey started in the early afternoon. The trip was fairly uneventful,
until near the end.
Passing through Tehachapi I noticed that I was a bit low on gas.
Usually it's possible to do the trip on one tank, with a good fifty
miles surplus, but I was concerned that perhaps with advancing age the
car was using more gas than usual. Mistake I. I took an exit
ramp, and then headed back for town on an old two lane highway. Mistake
II. Near a cement factory the road made a shallow s-turn across
some railroad tracks. Unfamiliar with the area I started to turn
properly, then decided I was wrong, started to straighten out, realized
that was wrong, and went off the road, hit the track, popped a tire,
and got stuck. On the tracks. Mistake III.
Standing alone, in sub-freezing weather, waiting for a train to hit
your car, is a new experience for me. One I really hope never to repeat.
A kind stranger, Juan, whose last name I did not get, stopped and
waited with me, after we gave up trying to move it ourselves. Thanks
Juan.
It all ends happily. I have a Tracfone, purchased through the
intelligence and foresight of a friend, and used it to call 911, who
then dispatched police, a tow truck, a train-track examining truck, and
stopped the trains. The other front tire was also shredded while
retrieving the car, so it had to be towed to an impound yard for the
night. My good friend Roger drove up from Lancaster to take me home -
90 miles round trip. I took the truck up to Tehachapi the next day, and
spent it getting the car fixed (they do things at a rural pace
in T.), and finally drove it home, and it appears, apart from some
money and time that the car will come out of this OK. The police didn't
even take a report, as the railroad people said the track was
undamaged...
The moral of the story - these things happen. It was late, it was dark,
I was tired and unfamiliar with the road, and after 256K miles on the
Probe, I finally hit something. All's well that ends well, I
guess.
Tuesday 31 December
2002
Tuesday - see last week.
Monday 30 December
2002
Monday - see last week.
Sunday 29 December
2002
Sunday - see last week.
Picture of the Week
Photo Notes: You talkin' to me? You
talkin' to me?
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