The Agrinautica

Thursday, July 20th - Returned from my two and a half months abroad. Recall that on my way home from the airport I got pulled over and told not to drive my damaged car again, that he wasn't going to ticket me but would if he saw me driving it again.

Friday, July 21st - So I was going to return to work this very next day but after the run in with the copper I called in to work and resolved to buy a car this day instead. I, as I've mentioned, absolutely hate everything that involves thinking about cars. I feel like one _ought_ to spend a lot of time searching for the perfect car, maybe even visit and test drive more than one of them, yadda yadda, but the idea of doing so filled me with such dread and loathing I resolved instead just to go to take the train to the same used car salesman in the nearby town of Colac that had sold me my last car and just buy whatever most suitable car he had. Assuming all his cars are listed on his website this would probably have been a 2009 Ve Berlina for AU$9990. I've never heard of a Ve Berlina before but its a cheap sedan I don't know anything _bad_ about and that's all I'm going on.
   I had it planned out, I'd take an 11am train to Colac and do so. On my parents urging I looked at the listings on facebook marketplace, but all the cheap cars there appeared to have something wrong with them and I was feeling very much like even and especially if there seemed to be a good deal on facebook marketplace I wouldn't be able to discern if there was something terribly wrong with it they weren't disclosing to me and it would all be bad. This used car salesman, even though the last car he sold me the dashboard immediately permanently stopped working, at least has a general interest in not selling crap cars. And really I wish I had given him an opportunity to address that issue but my dad had talked me out of even bringing it up to him at the time, saying he sold me the car as is its on me now.
   But then my best friend Billie who, unfathomably, loves cars, got involved. She called me and told me to wait just a minute she'd call around all of her (deranged) car loving friends and see if someone had something. And soon she had something (due to jetlag I was up around 5, I forget what time she got up but she's an early riser, so we had many hours in the day before the 11am train) -- the father of her former housemate is a retired mechanic and addicted to buying cars at auction, he (Paul) currently has 13 of them and is trying to unload some. Specifically he had a 2003 Mitsubishi Lancer with 180,000 ks that had been his wife's for the last 20 years, that he'd sell me for AU4,500 (US$2,993). I talked to him on the phone and was struck by how much he genuinely seemed almost more concerned about me getting a good car for my needs than trying to push a sale on me. Oh and here's a funny thing, when my parents first suggested I talk to Billie I had complained that she is overly obsessed with four wheel drives and will inevitably try to convince me I need one when it's not what I'm after right now -- well when I first got on the phone with Paul he almost immediately set about trying to convince me that I didn't need a four wheel drive, because his brief from Billie clearly had been that I needed a four wheel drive. Took a moment to get a word in edgewise to protest that I don't _want_ a four wheel drive (in an ideal world with unlimited money a four wheel drive landcruiser would be my dream car but right now my priorities are to just get four wheels under me). Altogether it sounded more in the price range of what I wanted to spend and I felt very convinced this guy had well maintained the vehicle and wouldn't be giving me a car with some terrible secret faults. He's way out in Traralgon 300 km east of me so it was resolved I'd go over there on Wednesday to check it out and presumably buy it.

   Weekend was cold, house is kind of a mess, and I had only bought a few groceries on my way home from the airport (and its lucky I did that!) so it wasn't feeling spectacular to be back. Like this place is freezing and I can't go anywhere and I've got nothing good to eat. Sat around fondly recalling the last two months of wonderfully warm weather, freedom of travel, fresh mangoes, etc. Among the most prominently missing things was coffee!


Monday, July 24th - To take the train to work I have to leave the house around 7:24am, walk the 1.5 km to the train station to catch the 7:43 train into Geelong town. Ride that train through the frosty morning countryside for 54 minutes -- I was happily reading Bill Bryson's - A Walk in the Woods, though unhappily the carriage I was on also had about a dozen-and-a-half school kids on it for some reason who were irritatingly rambunctious, I resolved to in the future to more carefully choose which carriage to sit in. Anyway, 8:37am arrival at Geelong central station, half an hour wait for a bus (standing in the cold, difficult to read, all around unpleasant), 29 minutes on the bus (also hard to read as one is contantly looking out for one's stop / distracted by all the coming and going), to finally arrive at work around 9:36am, a journey of over two hours and causing me to miss half an hour of pay.
   To get back home again I could conveniently take a 17:14 bus from the bus stop just outside of work. As I was walked up there at between 17:00-17:02 I saw a bus go by. Surely that wasn't it right? I waited at the station as the appointed time came and went. I became more and more convinced the bloody bastards had actually come ten minutes early. At 17:26 I texted my boss asking if he'd give me a ride to the train station, but the very moment I hit "send" I saw the bus coming. From there the bus took me to the nearer train station (Marshall station), despite the bus's lateness I was still able to gcatch the train and get home at 19:17. Altogether taking the train meant I was spending four hours in transit every day. I tried to console myself that I could spend a substantial part of the time reading which I'd be doing anyway, but other than on the train one can't read or otherwise relax while waiting for or riding the bus. And this still allowed me no opportunity to hit up a grocery store!


Tuesday, July 25th - Managed to avoid a car full of children on the way in this time. On the way home the bus almost didn't stop for me at my bus stop, the bus coming to a halt a bus length further on and the driver apologizing that he hadn't seen me there. Arriving at Marshall station the station attendant informed me there'd be no train coming due to a fault in the tracks and I'd need to take a bus to Geelong central station to catch a train-replacement-bus. Waited ten minutes for a bus to central, hoping I wouldn't have missed the train-replacement due to these shenanigans. Arriving at central station was informed I'd need to take a bus to Waurn Ponds, which was frustrating because Waurn Ponds is the other direction from Marshall, I had just traveled the wrong direction. But there were many would-be passengers of the train here at central and they bussed us to Waurn Ponds station where the train was waiting for us. Got home at 19:44, ie 2.75 hours after I left work. Definitely looking forward already to ditching the train and getting back to having a car. I'd been riding the train only two days and already had been dunked into a chaotic kerfuffle.



Wednesday, July 26th - Caught the same 07:43 train out of Birregurra. This time there was about a hundred (!!) primary school kids on the platform chattering shrilly like a tree full of lorikeets. I interrogated a chaparone, it was apparently all the primary school kids of Birregurra and two other nearby villages, headed down to spend a few days in Melbourne going to museums. I gathered they were going to board the first car or two and so I got the literally furthest back seat in the train. This time I just stayed on the train past the Geelong central stop (recall this is the day I am to go to Traralgon to buy the car), and was able to sit undisturbed in the same seat, peacefully reading, for two hours. At one point the conductor came through and commented to all of us in the car "you guys are really lucky! There's a hundred primary school kids in the front car!!" ahaha.
   Arrived at main Melbourne station "Southern Cross" at around 10:00, and departed twenty minutes later on the Traralgon-bound train, which I rode for another two and a half hours, arriving in Traralgon around 12:48
   Billie picked me up from the train station, she's currently living an hour east of Traralgon but had come in to see me (she's currently between jobs, as she's been working for a pipe welding contractor so they work intensively on a project for a few weeks and then have a few weeks off, though her boss was her ex so I think it's not entirely clear if she'll be hired on next project). We proceeded to Paul's place, where she had been chainsawing some fallen trees for him while awaiitng my arrival.
   He showed me the car and told me some things about it, while I "uhuh-ed" along as if any of this car mumbo jumbo meant anything to me. But I did get the strong impression he'd taken good car of the car and was genuinely concerned that I be happy with it. The one thing with it is he'd replaced the standard wheels with "mag wheels" that appeared to be wider and lower-profile. As far as I could gather, having never heard of these things before tht moment, their only advantage is that they "look better," but they have the disadvantages of lowering the car's clearance over the road and being wider scrape on the sides of hte wheel well if turned hard-over. He said he'd give me a set of standard wheels and I resolved to change them over as soon as I got a chance. He remarked more than once that I might not want to do this because the mag wheels "look better," but frankly a wheel's a wheel to me, and if I really really strained to the point of having an opinion about the aesthetic properties of the circles of rubber under my car I don't think I would agree they look better, but I suppose one could go round and round about that.
   He encouraged me to take it for a test drive so Billie hopped in with me and away we went. He lived just about five min out of Traralgon so we drove into town, took a few turns, parked nose in, parallel parked, blasted the AC and heater in turn. Yep, it functions like a car. Good enough for me. Got lunch at this burger place Missin Link Billie had been on about. Yeah it was pretty good but I still think Aussies don't know how to make burgers. In this case the taste was fine but it had no structural integrity at all, was quickly becoming a hot mess. Visited one of Billie's other car enthusiast friends at his place of work and he came out and looked at it and agreed it seemed to be in very good condition. He said we could come by his place after we made the purchase and use his hoist to change the tires.
   Headed back to Paul's bought the car.

   From there Billie and I headed back in to town. She needed $100 to put down as a deposit on a touch up on her tattoo (a wedge-tail eagle on her back) which I cheerfully gave her as she didn't have her wallet. We're good enough friends that she needs $100 its hers without any discussion of repayment. Then we went to get insurance on my new car. I signed up for $576 / year comprehensive insurance on the car because twice in the last four years my car has been totalled and I havne't been at fault and I'm fucking tired of it. But on further reflection that's probably exorbitant payments for the value of my car and I suppose I'll cancel it and just get third party like a normal person. It was cute when I stepped out of the insurance office Billie was on the phone pretending to be me to get a quote from a different insurance company for comparison, complete with saying she was a beekeeper and then she was having to answer their bee related questions, which she did impressively well. We also determined this insurance place (RACV) seems to have given me a bad deal anyway. But also I signed up for RACV (Australian AAA) coverage, which will soon be pertinent.

   We had talked ourselves out of immediately replacing the tires, as I have an appointment Monday morning for my local mechanic to inspect it for the "roadworthy certificate" (a thing one must get to change ownership of a car here) and since they'll have it up on blocks and all at that point it would be easiest just to have them change the tires at that point. So now there was nothing left on the agenda except celebritory beers Billie suggested -- which, I'm not a big fan of having even one beer immediately prior to driving my new car in the evening through a major city and across hundreds of kilometers but I didn't want to seem like a total wet blanket so I had a Guinness with her. And then I was off!

   Drove home without incident, arriving home around 21:48



Thursday, July 27th - At 10:30 I had an appointment with a lawyer in Colac to discuss legal action against the farmer's insurance company that is denying liability for the cow in the road I hit. Unfortunately the lawyer didn't sound very encouraging, not that he thinks I don't have a good case, just that there's not a lot of money involved and he warned that the insurance company could just throw money at it and if they were to win I'd be liable for their legal fees. I still think they've gotta be looking at it like sure they could possibly win but objectively its gotta be overwhelmingly more likely I will and especially with such a small sum at stake they'll hopefully think its not worth gambling a bunch of money on when they can just settle for a few thousand. But anyway that wasn't super encouraging.

   Then I proceeded to work in my new car. And about a kilometer from work (which is 53 kilometers from my house) the car seemed to begin to wobble a bit. But maybe it was just the road? Arriving at work I examined the tires, one appeared flat but it could just be sunk in the soft mud there. Having already missed work that morning, and the entire previous day, and been late due to the train the previous two days, I didn't feel like further shirking work by attending to the car so I left it until after work. Paul called to ask how the car was going and was concerned to learn about the apparent flat.
   17:00 drove the car just onto the concrete pad in front of the honey warehouse and confirmed it was definitely flat. Fortunately I happen to have a car full of spares! And fortunate too this happened at work and not by the side of the road somewhere in between or during last night's drive through Melbourne. Though I was immediately pretty frustrated to have yet another car problem on my hands.
   So I set about replacing the wheel ... but what's this, the mag wheels have special hub caps that the lug-nut-wrench that came with the car doesn't fit on!!! I cannot get the lug nuts off!! Aughhh!
   At this point I was cursing the entire concept of cars and exclaiming to my friends how utterly mind boggling I find it that some people actually enjoy completely voluntarily thinking about and even working on the god damn accursed things.
   Fortunately I had re-upped my RACV membership. I called them to have them dispatch a technician out to help me, whom I was told would be out "within the hour."
   Meanwhile being as its winter in the southern hemisphere, it had gotten dark and cold. Also presently my boss came home (he'd been out somewhere), and set about looking all around for any lug wrenches / tire irons he could find. There's a lot of stuff around work so he was able to find a variety of them in various places but none of them were fitting.
   At 17:45 the RACV technician called to say he was across the street but couldnt' find us. Upon being told which side of the street we were on he said "oh sorry you're not in my zone sorry I'll have to ask them to dispatch someone else." (!!!!!) I gave it a few minutes and then called RACV back and as I suspected it had not been redispatched, but they did say they'd put me right to the front of the queue.
   Meanwhile we continued trying different things and finally found a tool that worked (a "13/16th spark plug socket" for those of you following along at home), to remove the lugs, and then I had the tire replaced in a jiffy. Called RACV to call off their dispatch. Finally at 18:55 I had the tire replaced and was good to go. Stopped at the small town halfway home to grab just a few things I'd been urgently missing (coffee, finally!!!!) from the small grocery store there, and finally got home around 20:00. Thinking jesus christ in the week since I've been back NOT ONCE have I been able to get home at a decent hour without transportation related shenangians.

Friday, July 28th - So now I've got three mag wheels and one standard wheel on the car. Drove it to and from work today (without incident for once!!), I plan to just lay low over the weekend and first thing Monday morning I have that appointment with the mechanic and I'll have them switch out the other three mag wheels. And then I also have to sell said mag wheels, which is just one more car related chore, and as well need to call scrappers to see if I can get money for my old car. God I hate cars.


   Anyway, I need a name for my new car. Usually its inspired by the letters in the license place, my old car was USS Trilobite because the letters in the plate were TRI. This car's plate is SCC642 so any ideas for a good name for a car that prominently features SCC???

   I'll do a more thorough update on what I've been up to later, but for now, we have this.


   Internet in my apartment here went out sometime Thursday morning, and then I was on the road and then our hotel didn't have free internet access so I basically went from Wednesday until tonight (Sunday night) without internet access. I don't know how I survived!

   Driving down to OC I have the gas situation figured out: I fill up right at the station right next to the 113 and then again when I get to Gorman 325 miles later. Returning, however, is a different story. The nearest diesel that I know of anywhere near my house in Mission Viejo in a northwar direction is at the very tedious intersection of El Toro & the freeway, so I like to avoid that if I can. However, travelling further north there are no diesel gas stations until Gorman which are easy to find or known to me.
   To make matters more exciting, my gas gauge does not work below the halfway point. The low-gas warning light does work, so I know I really need gas but not how far I can go before I'm stranded.

   So on the way back up today, my warning light came on as I was driving through Los Angeles. I held out for awhile hoping to see a gas station with a diesel sign from the freeway, and then at least a gas station. Finally I got desperate and got off in the general area of the centre of this map (looks like Glendale, CA, part of LA). I found a gas station, but it didn't have diesel. The attendant gave me some confusing directions about going under a bridge and I followed them as best I could and came to this ghetto looking gas station with a diesel pump. Unfortunately however, I soon learned that they were out of diesel. The attendant told me gas was at "the other station." "other station?" "next building over ::Gestures next door::" I look outside, knowing there's not a gas station right beside this one. "down the street you mean?" "yeah!" ... weirdo.
   Anyway down the street I find another even dodgier looking station with a diesel pump. Once again, the pump ain't pumping anything. Turns out that that pump is broken though and I move to a different pump. Now I'm several turns away from the freeway and my hands are filthy trying to operate the broken pump. )=

   Light lit up again several hours later in Ceres, just south of Modesto. Once again I held out for an obvious diesel station until I was getting desperate. Seeing a Valero sign from the road I get off to investigate. No diesel, and the attendant has no idea where the nearest is. Back on the freeway and a few more exits I see another gas station. There's one that does have diesel, but its closed down for the night. I go into the one beside it and ask where the nearest diesel is. Attendants speculate that they think this one does thats four blocks down the road (away from the freeway).
   Arriving there, they do not have diesel. Lady gives me barely intelligible directions to another gas station even further in a different direction. This station finally has diesel (but not a working restroom!).
   At this point I'm in some obscure corner of Ceres. Fortunately I'd been to Ceres once before, and since I actually do have a photographic memory for directions I was able to find this hidden freeway onramp I never would have found otherwise.


   And then I get back to Davis, completing my 500 mile return journey, and there is some bozo in a white pick-up truck parked in my spot! )=<


Completely Unrelated Picture of the Day

The Evillest Final
   So because Professor Siverson is evil, our final consisted of two parts. Part I (50% of the grade): Make up a question. Part II (50%): Answer it.
   One turn their answer in typed up by the end of the final time (15:30 today)(In interest of being evil he refused to offer any recommendations whatsoever on length, thus causing several students' heads to explode from lack of guidance), or write it in class. The advantage to the latter option being that he'd read those first and presumably go much easier on them.
   I was going to go with the latter option because I figured if I attempted to type it up I'd be up all night and torture myself immensely. So this morning I wake up at 0800 to start planning my attack. I start brainstorming into a word document and next thing I know I had half the paper written... so I just typed it up and turned it in. The end.


Possessed
   And then a great evil unexpectedly appeared in Davis with a ravenous appetite for some possession (and some sushi). Yes, my troll-like brother Tobin and his lover roxymartini came to town and repossessed my dear carmobile. I fear to imagine what damage they'll do to it before I see it again (there's something new every time), last time they kidnapped my car it was only a matter of hours before they used it to annihilate a pedestrian antelope.
   They also summoned codetoad and codetoad's girlfriend Hannah to the central park, and fed Kristy sushi.


Ode to Spring Break II
   Tomorrow (Wednesday) I have my last final at 0800 in the morning. I return home via trainmobile leaving here Thursday at 0725 and arriving at Irvine station at 1813.
   Time for more reminiscing, last spring break:
      Got a ride down with Eric from The List (By calling upon the magickal powers of Arjun). Two hours after arriving in county I was at the local pool hall with Sally & co. Next day saw my friend Robin Kivlin's band Jack Bighead at the Spectrum, then returned to Diedrichs off La Paz (DLP) where I got coffee and a cheese danish for free. Next day: mild adventures at Diedrichs with Alyssa. Next day, Tuesday, had interesting adventures with Alyssa at Diedrichs that involved drama and police. Wednesday of that week I saw a movie with Anna LeLoup (saw Willard), ate at Taco Loco (mmmmm calamari burger), saw Solomite and other bands at Chain Reaction, returned to Diedrichs at 12:30 that night for more adventuring. ...and finally on Saturday I ate at Taco Loco again, visited Fish and Ashlee at the Hub with Tom Colby and had some last adventures with the Diedrichs crew.
   So yea.. thats last spring break. Looking back, it was actually pretty action packed. I hope this one is as good.


   Well I have my last final in six hours and fifteen minutes, so I'm going to end this ASAP.


Related
   My dearest Shalane has a livejournal now: impotent_dream
   Related links: bah, they're all in the text of this update already.
   A Year Ago Today: I had my first day home of break!

   I spent mass time driving around and finally found Ace hardware, whereupon I spent $1.29 on a new Thingy to hold my chains to my belt.

   My god the roads are swarming with "Hummer H2"s. And man.. these things are freakin the biggest (and most hideious) joke since the PT Cruiser. Like.. the "original" hummer is entirely utilitarian and thats what the big deal is, and besides that it has this for awesome predatory hyena kinda look to it right? The new one for all practical purposes is just a giant SUV, that probably is worse at SUVing than a real SUV, and LOOKS like some horrible cross between a rhinoceros and a school bus.

   There were 53 people at Diedrichs tonight, not including our group. Most of them were these teenie-bopper types who we're pretty sure were also jesus-freaks.

   Mike the Horrible Human was pushing the limits of getting in a fight with me pretty close today. I was thinking about it and even though he is bigger than me, he is a COMPLETE alcoholic and I'm SURE he doesn't work out.. whereas I'm actually in pretty good shape right now... just gotta keep an eye out for his switchblade.....

   I learned today from the parental figures that I likely will be relieved of my cherished carmobile (known as "The Zephyr," "The Tiger," or "The Kegmobile") midweek. My older brother having now gradumatated Berkeley he needs a car, his former car, "Sputnik," valued at $20, having been transferred to his roommate (Chris Perkins). It probably wouldn have survived the kind of craziness he will probably be putting on vehicles now as he runs amuck. I don't know what he's planning on doing now, but apparently it involves my car!!! I am somewhat displeased by this developement.


   In other news I discovered how to change the messege for comments today. Then there followed some deep contemplation of what to change it to. Whereas before it said something along the lines of "leave a comment" and "N comments" it currently reads "start a revolution" and "N executed." Thats not necessarilly my final answer though.. but it'll do until I think of anything else. Any suggustions?


   Aand.... yea having returned from Berkeley my weekend has been pretty much unremarkable. Just mass procrastination.

Y@_
(its a snail!)