bits

 It's almost the end of another week.  Went out and got the animal feeds today after work, but on the way back I stopped at a gas station and suddenly the car wouldn't start.  I called the mechanic and he tried to walk me through some checks - the battery had charge but the ignition in the Buick Century would not even click - no lights, nothing.  So, he asked me tighten the connectors to the battery but I didn't have the proper tools in the trunk (same as Mark originally didn't have the right things to change a tire with it the first time that happened).  So, he was good and came out to find me at the gas station and showed me that really was the problem - the negative connector had started to come loose every once in a while.  It's one of those new-fangled types, not the good old fashioned kind the other two trucks had that could be turned with a simple wrench - you have to have the right socket set for it and a small handled one at that because you have to reach down into the machine a little ways.  He told me that was an issue he saw with that car before - and ones like it, but showed me how to fix it and what tool I need to get to put in the trunk.  

 

Mark comments that the 'new fangled type' is on a 2001 car, and the types on the other 1998 and 2004 cars were adapted after-market back to the older style.  But the 'new fangled' I am talking about has been around nearly 25 years - and the new-fangled NOW is even worse for repair-ability by yourself.

 

So, got home, made dinner and fed animals, didn't do the laundry, and only did the minimum work on the monthly budget - like the car knew I got a paycheck *ha* no, not really, and the mechanic didn't charge a lot for the 'house call', but he definitely deserved something for coming out at 5 pm and helping me get home.  It's already been a long night, and tomorrow is coming at the same time as usual -- headed to bed.  I've borrowed Mark's socket set to put in it just until I buy one - but am not expecting to have the same issue with it tomorrow.  It was so strange to have it happen today with no warning - it might have been a little less power going up a hill between the feed store and the gas station that I looked at the temperature gauge and said 'its not overheating, why is it sluggish?' and that was the only thing that made me wonder what was going on - the radio played, the lights on the dash were on, and it didn't sound any stranger than usual except on that one hill.

Still doing Japanese on all platforms (two duolingo, clozemaster).  Getting a few more new words finally on the highest duolingo profile.  Listening to a channel called Anime.Mex? that is spoken Spanish commentary and also Spanish subtitles  over the spoken Japanese from the anime soundtrack.  The animes they are reviewing tend to be sort of more 'explicit' ones than I usually watch or read, but I know that is a very large portion of animes out there, as well.  And I am getting much better at following the slang and colloquial conversation.

bit of bits - When I come in from outside at work the empty darkness is 'green' in the building, but I found it much more interesting that the darkness of the cardboard boxes when the green overflare begins to go away is now red.  That happened to me twice, and I'm walking through that without a flashlight - the darkness is black, and the boxes look just faintly red, so I'm getting through it in the dark not just by memory or feel but by 'seeing'.  I'm not quite sure what that is - it goes away and everything becomes just black, but it was eerie the first time and the second time it was like 'there has to be some reason for this, infra-red, latent heat?   Mark and I have noticed many times I 'see' infra-red in full light (especially sunlight) as a mirage reaction.  I can tell when something is hot by looking at it, but it doesn't look red in the light.. it looks wavy or 'vibrate-y' is about the best word for it.  

 Also, I found a place today that you can stand and hear someone clear as a bell who is standing on the other side of the warehouse, some thirty feet away - but when you begin to walk towards that person the sound stops echoing like that and they get quieter, then of course louder as you get nearer to them again.  That was VERY strange - I turned the corner from my office and thought my boss was right there by the wall, or maybe just inside that office there - and looked down the hallway and she was on the other end of the building talking to someone else.  It's either vents or just plain perfectly-bouncing echoes as it is a metal building.