Slice of life

I dislike that nomenclature.

10:21 AM, science library, friday:

I just finished my lecture for Religious Myths and Rituals. The professor hopes to convert us science types, which is starting to get old, but I will tolerate it indefinitely.

I get to work today at the tire store. It has been about a month since I last worked. I left the Camarillo store behind for the Norco store here. While I was away and transitioning, the Owner of the nation-wide company decided that he had better put a nation-wide freeze on hours on account of the lackluster economy. I was sure there was no hours to be had for me, but I talked the manager into it and he is going to modify the store schedule to fit me in. It has something to do with my experience and ability to do anything at the store. In February it will be five years at the same company. Where has all the time gone?

The uniform for the job follows a funeral motif, one that can be regularly confused with the uniforms of Applebee's and Pep Boys Auto to great hilarity. "Waiter, hey waiter, where is my food?" me: "The cat got it. So sorry." But I digress. As I moved up to the cabin I left my Black shoes behind, the ones that are NEEDED for the job. They don't like it if you wear non-black shoes, and if I were a rookie they would send me home to get them. But I am a veteran and it can be over looked if I sell enough tires to make up for this outrageous transgression.

The cabin doesn't have a mailbox. All my mail goes back home, and the next time my parents or Loo come up they will bring it, or when I go back for some reason (laundry) I will collect it. So my text books are at home right now, not at the cabin, and I have to go home this weekend to collect them. My parents said they would come up this weekend last weekend. And then vacillated the rest of the week until last night when they confirmed that they wouldn't be coming up. Which is a bummer, because the books are there and I need them Monday, and they can't be mailed to me in time. I wish they could just have some integrity and mean what they say when they say it. I said if they didn't come up that I would have to come down. I said that Monday, and they forgot.

My only choice is to drive home from work late Saturday night, which means I will have to leave my Boyos behind (male rex rats). The drive from Norco to Ojai is about two hours depending on the 405 which always likes to piss me off. I will arrive in time to go to bed, and wake up sunday, my one day of reprieve, rest and relaxation.

Just kidding about that rest and relaxation thing. It just so happens that Loo's Maxima threw a code (check engine light came on). My brother, a brilliant car guy, showed her how to check the computer to tell her the trouble code, which can be looked up using the factory manual and diagnosed with a chart. One of the thee Oxygen Sensors broke. I get to fix that Sunday. I have never done it before, but being a car guy myself, and having already replaced the other two, this should be no trouble at all...ha! In addition to that small job, her Brake light on the instrument panel turned on, which means her brake fluid is low, or her brake system is about to fail, either one. I have to investigate that. Of course if I were there I could simply open the hood and look at the brake fluid reservoir to see if it is low or not, or if it needed to be replaced. But Loo has no automotive skills, and can't check it for me, cause she doesn't know where it is, what it looks like, what color is bad, and how much is too much et al. Plus, she gets anxious and nervous and says, "I can't do this, can't you just look at it yourself?" Which is mildly frustrating because she says she wants me to show her how to do things like oil changes and brake jobs and the like so she can do it herself without me. I have done many oil changes by myself now, despite her enthusiasm to relieve me of that duty.

In addition to the O2 Sensor and the brake inspection, I will probably have to do another oil change on her car by myself, and my own car as well which will naturally progress (I never see this coming) to washing her car, which makes me want to wash mine because its dirty and all the stuff is out.

In addition my Dad is building a shed so he can put his larger tools for wood working in it, which would clear up a lot room in his shop, which has become the place to store anything worthy of being stored, and as he says, "It is gumming up the works." He has most of it done, except the roof. So Between oil changes I will be helping him with heavy lifting and the like because I am the only one who can. Mom isn't strong enough, Kevin had major chest surgery and has a ten pound maximum lift limit, and Loo isn't strong enough either. If it is too heavy for Dad and I to do alone I will have to call Mike who we call, "The Wookie" for obvious reasons (He never gets lost, he is super strong, rather furry and can imitate wookie noises).

In addition to that, I imagine I will have to mow the lawn, change the cat box, pick up the dog poop, vacuum the front room, clean the rat cages, change the water in the fish tanks, clean the snake cage and clean my room for no other reason than because I happen to be there.

Did I mention Homework? I'll just do that after all those other trifling tasks.

On the positive side of this visit I will get to enjoy the company of my family because we havent seen each other in two weeks and we get along very well. I will also enjoy a nice dinner, which I haven't been enjoying lately at the cabin by myself. I will get to take a shower without using melted mountain snow runoff like at the cabin. And some where in there I will probably get hugged or maybe even kissed by Loo, which I have been without this last week. She will probably ask that we go out on a date because we haven't done that in awhile. I think the reasons are evident in this post, but it always ends up on me somehow. i.e.: I do all these things because secretly I don't like her, don't want to go out with her, and keep her around as my personal play thing.

Then I will most likely come back late Sunday night or early Monday morning (class is at 9AM, the 405 makes the trip at least three hours) and hope I wont be scheduled to work that day. I'll find that out at work today.

That about covers it. Enjoy your weekend.