Good thing I didn't plan anything

I'm finally taking some vacation time from the paper. You know it's been a long time since you've taken vacation when your co-workers' response is "I never thought I'd see the day." Jeez.

Anyway, can't afford to go anywhere, so I just planned to make it a spring-cleaning and fix-up time around the house, and also see if I couldn't get the car in for what I was sure would be a much-needed tune-up. I was right about that.

I'm still working at the mall while on my vacation, and just as I was pulling out of the garage to go to work last night, boom, everything shut down -- engine, electrical, everything. The ignition would crank, but it wouldn't turn over. So mom let me borrow her truck to get to work, and then today a friend came over to take a look at mine. We replaced the spark plugs and the cords, but no luck. And turns out the mechanic I've been to here couldn't do much more. There's another mechanic in town, but we haven't had the best experience with them. So I had to call a tow service and to have it taken to a mechanic in the city that I've worked with before. So I could be carless until after the holiday, if it's something big. (Thanks for the help, Max!)

Other than that, vacation's going OK. I just gave the kitchen floors a good cleaning and am sitting on the porch in the cool night air while they dry. Buster is snoozing on the sidewalk. Hope no one's going for late-night walk. And the bugs are really being drawn to my laptop screen, so it might be about time to go in.

I guess tomorrow, I'll tackle more of the cleaning. I was going to try to shampoo my carpets before the weekend, but I had hoped to spend today vacuuming. So maybe I'll do that tomorrow and see if I can get a shampooer on Sunday, since I work at the mall again Saturday. Otherwise, I guess it'll wait until Tuesday. I'm off from the mall Sunday through Wednesday, so that gives me time. And then my brother will be here for the rest of the week, so even with the car problems, it should be a decent time off.

I did pick up a few books at the library too. Current read is Zen and Now: On the Trail of Robert Pirsig and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. I read "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" years ago, and can't say I remember much about it. But reading this one is bringing some of it back, and it's interesting to see through Richardson's book how much has changed since Pirsig's trip, and how much hasn't really. I may have to go find a copy of the original, too, for a re-read.