Matt the Geek

So the past few days have been bad car days for me. I have 2 cars, and neither one is close to 100% right now. And for most of this week, neither car would start, for different reasons. The grey Audi had been the one I was driving every day, and the red one has been sitting for a couple months as is it still without the right front drive axle. The grey one has what I deem to be electrical issues, where that sometimes it seems to completely ignore the presence of the starter. Which is awesome, as it means that I don't go anywhere. And then sometimes it behaves perfectly. And it seems to go in streaks. For the longest time, it was fine, then last Sunday night coming home from my parents, I stopped at a 7-11 to grab a Coke for the drive home, and it started the not starting. After an hour or so had passed, it came to life. Which got me back home. Every other day this week, nothing. Except yesterday, it started so I could go to the store, but wouldn't start once I got back out. At least the pavement was mostly dry and there was a helpful man that assisted me in push starting the car. Thank God for manual transmissions.

The red Audi, on the other hand, just doesn't seem to like cold or humid weather. And it's been cold in Michigan. The last time I had gotten this car to start was close to Thanksgiving time. After that, it had refused, and in the process wore down the battery. Should be easy enough, pop the hood and charge the battery. Not so fast there, the hood release cable is snapped on this one. So that means crawling up under the car with a screwdriver and popping the latches by hand. And there had just been too much snow for me to get down under there to get to it. But I got it open today and threw a battery charger on it. It took pretty much all the daylight hours of cranking it over until the battery was dead again, charge it for a while, crank it more, charge more. I kept at it because I *knew* eventually it would start. And I was right.

So why try to start a car that is missing a drive axle? Because it happens to have Audi's Quattro all wheel drive system, and I have the option to lock the front differential and still be able to drive somewhat. I just hope it doesn't snow too badly before I have some income, as this car still has it's summer tires on, the winter tires are waiting to be mounted to their rims still.
I'm praying this red Audi continues to start for me, as it will allow me to go pick up my kids and bring them to/from school, and to get to a job that I may be having in the near future.

Wish me luck :]

So, on my bed I have 2 blankets, one thinner, one thicker. Normally the thin one is on the bottom, and the thick one stays on top, and when I finally got to sleep last night, that's how they were. However, when I woke up this morning, they were inverted. Perfectly. Not all jumbled up as from a restless nights sleep, but neatly backwards. Thin one on top, thick one under it.
There's no other way to describe it than my being a Wizard, right? :p
Anyhow.
I've been petting the stray cat that has adopted the house I live in. One of the other tenants feeds it, so obviously it kept coming back. Well, a few days ago it sneaked inside. It likes to lie on the top stair. It drools when you pet it. I call it Kitty (yes, like from Monsters, Inc.)
Yes, I know that was very random. That's how it is sometimes.

That's all for now, I hope you are having a good new year so far.
May God bless you all and see that you don't freeze over the next few days.

So it's 2009 already. I can only pray that this year is better than the last. Not that all of 2008 was bad, and looking back, not all the bad parts were that awful.
Last year in summation:
-Started living on my own again.
-Worked. Didn't work. Worked. Didn't work. Lather, rinse, repeat.
-Got a divorce.
-Re-connected with some friends.
-Made a couple new friends, including an awesome one in Tonia :]
-Finally got an Audi 4000 Quattro :)
-And had it break :(
-Socialized outside my normal comfort zone, and had a good time doing so.

Goals for this new year:
-Find a (good) job. This proved quite difficult late last year, I hope that is in the past as well.
-Make one of my cars reliable, fully functional, and not ready to fall apart at any given moment. I have 2 older Audi's, wish me luck.
-Find a nicer place to live. Yes, I have a roof over my head, and rent is cheap, but renting a 10x10 room in someone else's smoky house isn't where I want to be.
-Get more healthy. This includes eating better (and less), exercising more, dropping some tonnage, and getting out of the house in which I am the only one who does not smoke.
-Get on with life. This started to some extent last year, as I was picking up the pieces that were left and arranging them into something resembling a life.

I think that's all for now, and if it isn't, maybe I'll update more than once every couple weeks.