Tricks'n'Treats

[gerisullivan]

My car played a trick on me, and earned a new treat in return.

The convenient map light has been burned out for awhile, and I kept forgetting to mention it when I had the car in for service. Sunday night, when I returned from a Smofcon-related trip over to Boston, I turned on the dome light to record my charitable mileage. Alas, I neglected to turn the light back off when I was done. Two days later, the 5+ year old battery was dead, dead, dead.

I borrowed a battery charger from my neighbor, but the battery wouldn't take the charge. So today, I called AAA for a jump (the neighbor offered that, too, but that would have involved more work than simply calling AAA, and I wasn't at all certain I wouldn't end up needing a tow. (My service guy recommended one, fearing that I'd end up stranded between here and Westborough. I figured I'd just call AAA again if that happened, and saved myself $110 in the process when the car made it the 40 miles without incident.)

The car now has a new battery. It was time anyway, and I just didn't need the uncertainty that the battery might not charge enough to start again tomorrow or during my upcoming trip a few hundred miles south.

As I wrote in minnehaha K's and debgeisler's LJs yesterday, my mailbox and other bits of frontage were included in the massive TP'ing that stretches over 3/4 mile along Monson Road. I like watching the TP draped over my power lines blowing in the breeze. It makes me feel like a member of the community, even if it would be more accurate to say the kids were simply more energetic than they've been in the past. I don't remember them ever making it past the pond before. So that counts as both a trick and a treat.

My Ravelry invitation arrived today! That's pure treat, I hope, though it could prove to be a time-consuming one. Ravelry is, in their words, "a place for knitters, crocheters, designers, spinners, and dyers to keep track of their yarn, tools and pattern information, and look to others for ideas and inspiration." Edie Stern is having a blast with it, and I hope I will, too. In my Copious Free Time, of course. snippy, I've just friended you there, and joined the Ravelry LJ group, too. But when will I have time for knitting?!?

Speaking of treats, I have a new client. Thanks to elaine_brennan referring me to rosefox, and Rose then referring me on, I'm going to be helping with layout on the bi-monthly Annals of Improbable Research! Whoohoo! And speaking of work, I'm going to toddle along and do some more of it now.

Happy Halloween, everyone! Best wishes for a treat-filled night!

Comments

[holyoutlaw.livejournal.com]

I like AIR, it's a fun read. I hope you have fun working with them. Yeah!

[smofbabe.livejournal.com]

Congrats on the new client! Your mention of AIR reminds me of a similar magazine I used to read, The Journal of Irreproducible Results, back when I worked for a social science publisher and the articles were eerily similar to the real stuff I was editing! They're the ones who published Scientific Truth in Product Warning Labels.

[ckd]

In some sense, AIR is JIR. After an ownership change, the editorial staff of JIR basically left en masse to start AIR.

[smofbabe.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the added info. I knew they were separate publications but obviously didn't know that they were so closely related.

[maruad.livejournal.com]

Gratz on the new tp record and the new client!

[kip-w.livejournal.com]

I'll say it in writing now: Congratulations! You rock.

[shsilver.livejournal.com]

Totally unrelated to this message, I just got a catalog that includes a book entitled Minnesota State Fair: An Illustrated History and one of the quotes is: "Whether you are a 4-H'er or just love food on a stick, this it the book for you." (emphasis mine).