As you can tell from my last 2-part entry about Angel and baby showers and Marlon Brando, my car has a radiator hose problem. So, naturally, I went to see what the level was this morning. It was gone, seeped into the asphalt and craggy pebble cliffs made by my tires. My car was a drooling fool and I had to replace its coolant. Now, it occurred to me as I was about done filling it up that you usually should have the engine running while filling. I found out why: the coolant began to expand, and alot more than I'd expected. And so I off I was: trunk open, hood open, car running, me running in and out of the house to get more and more and more paper towels. I'd bend them into creative shapes and tease my radiator, sucking up bits of anti-freeze at a time. I thought if this stuff was carcinogenic, I'd be screwed. Fortunate enough, though, it eventually got back to sane levels.

Then it was a skip over the hill to Uncle Banjo Bob's car maintenance shack. Having never done this thing before, I'd rehearsed my lines a few times in my head. So I strolled in, mentioned my problem, asked for an appointment, got my appointment and a wink from the guy. It was only 11:20ish then and I was hungry as all get out, so I got Del Taco mexican food, a Jack in the Box iced tea (since only they make it good), shimmied into my favorite fast-food eating plaza complete with purple blossom trees whose name I mangle, then to eating.

Five minutes. It wasn't my fastest time for a burrito, quesadilla, taco and iced tea, but highly respectable.

Drive to The Valley was decentesque, leaving me 30 minutes to wait at Gran's, go Mongol Horde on my teeth, then head over to get the 'root-cleaning'. This suspiciously sounded like root-canal to me. My reaction was 'fuck that noise'. So naturally I was pretty tense when I got there.

But really, deep root-cleaning is a fancy way to say "We're going to numb one section of your mouth, take picks we sharpen in front of you, and scrap the fuck out of the tartar beneath your gums." Really should be called 'deep gum-cleaning' or 'whetstone cleaning'. Either way, I had a pleasant chat with the hygienist, poked and marvelled at my puffiness, then left, then poked and marvelled again.

Basically the rest of the day was watching CNN with Lou Dobbs--who is currently my news commentator hero--and then going out back to finish pruning that giant 12ft hedge. There was also a lovely spot of dinner at TGI Friday's with Gran, I think partly because it was a treat to offset the dental stuff.

I have no idea why I just summarized my day to you, really, but there it stands..and tomorrow all I need to do is drop off my car, sit home, and play 'Beyond Divinity' or continue on William Gibson's revolutionary but dense 'Neuromancer'. Maybe I'll post a photograph even, but re-working the horizon in this current shot has been like glue-gunning teats to a bull.

And with that visual image, I wish you well.

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