Okay… so this past week I’ve had a crazy car adventure. It actually begins some time back, i don’t even remember how far.

For a long time my car has been having issues starting. I would turn the key, and it would just *click*. It sounded like the battery was dead. I didn’t know what it was, but if I turned the key a few more times, it would start up. After a couple weeks of this, a friend came over andtested the battery, cleaned up the terminals and connections, and all that… and the problem continued. We decided the starter was slowly dying.

Fast forward several months, and the problem has gotten worse. Sometimes I try for several minutes before the car starts.

Which brings us up to Tuesday afternoon. I went to collect some pond water, a mile or two from my office. I got my water, got back in my car, and *click*. And I sat there trying to start my car for 40 minutes before I gave up. I walked back to my office, and called Megan to come and get me. She did. (It was a good excuse to eat out. We went to Firehouse Subs. Mmm.)

The next day (Thursday) I took the van to work, and on my way in, I stopped at the car. I tried to start it. It started. I drove it to my work parking lot… so I’d know it was close by. Then I walked back and got the van. That evening, when I was leaving, I tried starting the car. Didn’t work.

Next day I took the van to work. When I was leaving I gave the car a try. It started! Nevermind that it had less than a quarter tank of gas left… I was not about to let this opportunity to get it home pass me by. So I did just that. Got home on a bone dry tank, but that’s okay. The problem now is that I didn’t have a functional car. The van was still at work. Now, this might not be a big problem for many people, but I drive 55 miles to work.

I called around and eventually found a friend to drive me in to get my van. (a real friend, unlike Davis. Just kidding, I didn’t even ask the dubD). So we drove out, and got the van. I got home at about 10:30pm.

I spoke with a friend that knows about cars, and asked if he could help me replace the starter. He said he definitely could, but not this weekend because he’s preaching and needed to prepare. No problem, I said. Today, around noon, he called and said he could do it. I went out and bought the part. He came over at 4:30, and we got to work. 5:45, we finished the job. The car started with only a slight stutter due to lack of gasoline. I turned the car on and off five or six times, just to make sure. Started every time. Yes!

And I had black grimy grease all up my arm. Like a real mechanic!! Now I feel confident saying I know one bit about cars. Halfway there!

Psalms 125:4-5 Do good, O LORD, unto those that be good, and to them that are upright in their hearts. As for such as turn aside unto their crooked ways, the LORD shall lead them forth with the workers of iniquity: but peace shall be upon Israel.

Good? Upright in heart? Ahh! Works righteousness!!

I installed Konfabulator last week or so, and I’m enjoying it. What it does is install little widgets on our desktop that are just there. It’s the same functionality that was put into OS X Tiger. The widgets do all sorts of things, from really helpful to just funny. Right now, I’ve got the weather, a calendar, a guage for free hard drive space, indicators for my CPU and memory usage, a To-Do list, a picture slideshow, and the moon. So, like I said, from useful to just plain fun. Check it out.