Sunday, August 24, 2003

Family, Visits, Dancing, Music, and a lot of Car Nonsense

Well, it's been quite a weekend. A very interesting combination of fun stuph and not-so-fun stuph, such that I'm not quite sure what to make of it overall. Oh well, I'll just start at the beginning.

I drove up to Mom's on Friday night and we picked up Lacey at the airport. That was actually kind of funny, because Lacey and I were both standing in the crowd, turning around, looking for the most likely place to find each other. We were literally about 5 feet apart and didn't know it. Then we both turned and at the same time did an absolutely beautiful, classic double-take. It was great.

On Saturday, Pa and Monee came over, too, so Pa and I opened fRed up to see if we could see any little parts holding up signs saying "Fix me!" No such luck, though we did see a hose that had come detached. Thinking we had found the Villainous Part, we hooked it back up and started the car. It didn't make a lick of difference. Sigh. So the job was declared Beyond Us.

On an even more unpleasant car topic, we also found that fRed had been broken into sometime Friday night. He was parked out on the street and someone had managed to pry a window loose from its fitting, unlock the door and get in. They went through the glove compartment, ash tray, and trunk, but it doesn't seem like they took anything. They didn't find the place where I keep my spare change (not in the ash tray), and for some reason they decided they didn't want my CD player, which was just sitting on the floor. So I guess I lucked out. Still rather disturbing, though.

I came back home Saturday evening (fRed still runs, he just doesn't idle right anymore) and went to the contra dance. Driving with Fergus was immensely fun, even though Lewis wasn't there. They had a good banjo/guitar player sitting in for him, though. They also invited me to play his banjo in a set with them and that was quite fun. We did a few jigs, ending with one of my favorites, that's straight but sounds crooked (the B-part alternates 6/8 and 9/8, but evens out to 8-bars of a regular jig).

Today I managed to find a shop open on Sundays and took fRed in. So far the official diagnosis is Wonkiness of the Carburetor. They guy who comes in tomorrow is supposed to be able to figure it out, and hopefully I'll get it back sometime during the day. That will be a bit tricky, what with taking public transportation to work and then trying to get to the shop before they close, but I'll work it out somehow.

I got a ride to shape note this afternoon, so I still got to sing a bit. I'm rather tired now, though. It's been a long couple of days. Quiet night tonight.

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