September 21, 2006

• Sunset Yesterday

  

  

  

  

  

  

  Thanks, everyone who advised me on my transmission noise and/or
  wished me a happy birthday.  Since I lack adequate tools and any
  indoor space to work on my car, I suppose I’ll call Ray, the closest
  local mechanic, and see if he can spare the time to change my
  filter.  I had the very best kind of
  birthday:  uneventful.

  Things have been happening here:  normal things and some novelty
  as well.  It took two trips up the road to the hardware store
  before I had all the parts I needed to replace the stovepipe that had
  burned through during a creosote fire last winter.  I had been
  fairly sure that we didn’t want to try to get through a whole winter
  with those aluminum foil bandages around the pipe, and I was right
  about that.  When I peeled the foil off, I saw that all but the
  outer layer had melted away over the biggest of the holes.

  On the first trip, I got two sections of pipe, glanced at the drip
  adaptor that goes on top to form the attachment with the undamaged
  Metalbestos that passes through the roof and forms the outer chimney,
  and decided not to buy one.  I figured I could remove the old one
  from the damaged pipe and reuse it.  Neither Doug nor I could
  unstick it, however, so together we went back to get a new one. 
  That time, with his help, I remembered to buy the duct tape and light
  bulb that I’d forgotten the first time.

  That’s the routine stuff, winterization that we do in one form or
  another each year.  The night before last, I cleaned all the damp
  old ashes out of the stove and lit the first fire of the season to take
  the chill off the house.  It went out during the night and there
  was enough solar heat in here yesterday that I didn’t make a new
  one.  Cloudy today, and I haven’t decided yet if it’s worth the
  bother to light a fire.  That’s routine, too, this time of year.

  When I went up to Trapper Creek to the DMV substation at The Other
  Place to renew my driver’s license, Doug went along.  He took all
  the ID he had:  birth certificate, two high school ID cards, his
  Selective Service registration and Alaska voter registration. 
  Since his Social Security number was on the draft card and the name and
  numbers matched in the computer, and my ID matched his mother’s name on
  his birth certificate, he managed to get his license even without the
  required original Social Security card, just as Greyfox had predicted.

  We have gone out onto neighborhood back roads for his first two driving
  lessons.  He did better than I did on my first try, and Greyfox
  said that his own first try hadn’t gone so well, either.  The day
  we went to buy the drip adaptor Doug had wanted to drive.  I
  wasn’t sure he was ready for the highway, and by the time we’d gone the
  six or seven blocks on back roads to get to the highway, he was of the
  same opinion, so he pulled over and let me drive.  He still needs
  practice to coordinate clutch and gas, and hasn’t been out of second
  gear yet.  He won’t be able to get out of second gear until he is
  proficient enough to get out in traffic on the pavement.

  

  • 3:11 pm
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