Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

I took a look at the car. I did manage to get the hood open, and peered inside. I didn't see anything obviously too broken to drive to rehearsal, tonight, but at my level of car-expertise that really doesn't mean much. Started the engine, turned the steering wheel both directions, didn't hear any untoward noises. The tires appear to be pointing in the same direction. I spent a while with bell wire and gaffers tape (couldn't find the duct tape) putting the remains of my left headlight into some sort of reasonable-looking position. I figure it's not going to throw the same pattern of light without the lens and two thirds of the reflector, but I can at least make it look like I've got two headlights, y'know? I just hope that halogen bulb doesn't burn the insulation off the bell wire -- that'd be smelly and messy. As I'd feared, however, I couldn't get the hood closed again. When the state trooper helpfully smooshed it down so the peak of the crease in it wouldn't be in my way driving, she made it so the little loop of metal on the bottom of the hood no longer quite lines up with the catch. An hour and a half tinkering with the car, and more than half of that was just trying to close the hood again. I finally got the outer catch to catch (the one you release by sticking your fingers in the front after you've pulled the release inside the car) by bending the hook forward with a ball-peen hammer, and I think that'll be okay temporarily, but I really need to change the geometry of the hood and shorten it by a quarter of an inch so the main catch will latch. I need a bigger hammer. (Hmm. Do I have a small sledgehammer in the basement?...)

But I'm pretty sure the car will have to be local-driving-only for a while (possibly forever), though "local" for me means seventy-mile round trips twice a week or more. Anyhow, it looks like Contata is now completely out of the question. It was pretty unlikely already, what with financial and time constraints and my having to leave Saturday night so I could play the Homespun Ceilidh Band gig at the WAMA Crosstown Jam (they finally got the current information posted!) on Sunday. That would pretty much mean driving myself rather than catching a ride, and I don't think I want to take my car across a couple of states in its current condition. So no networking with other filkers this weekend. :-(

Now I'm thoroughly tired and Really Really Want A Nap; the last thing I want to do right now is go to band practice, but a) I really have to go this week, and b) that was the whole point of the bang-on-the-car exercise. *sigh*