career choices

Damn, I should have listened to my English teacher and developed a British accent. Though I still might make a good villain for a British movie, being German and all.
(Read this article to understand what I'm talking about, it's hilarious.)

Also:


I'm going to give you more picspam today, I think.
That is all.

ignorance is bliss

Two posts tonight. This one will be solely dedicated to my car and the emotional rollercoaster I've been through since about 5 today.

At 2:30, I brought my car to ATU. They said they'd call if there was anything major.

At 3:30, they hadn't called yet. At 4:30, they hadn't called yet and I started to relax a bit.
Around 5, they called.

To tell me that not only would I not pass inspection if I tried, but that they would not let me drive that car anywhere. They said the brakes on the front wheels needed new brake disks, and that the shock absorber of the front left wheel was not connected anymore at the top, having rusted away. That didn't sound nice at all, even for somebody who has very little idea about cars.

So I called Dad. He got totally angry and yelled at me like crazy. First off, I should have not gone to get the inspection done this weekend. Secondly, I should have gotten the repairwork for which I had the parts ordered in Hammelburg done before I tried the inspection. Thirdly, I should have gone to inspection weeks ago. More of the same, it ended with me hanging up on him.

He called ATU and told them they couldn't keep the car from me. He must have been really terrible about it, they were in kind of a state of shock when I next saw them.

Anyway, they called me again to tell me I could get my car but it would be on my own risk.

So I walked back to town, imagining all the things that might happen if I drive the car. You might laugh, but I have very little idea of what can happen if a shock absorber isn't really attattched body of the car. And my dad had basically told me to drive that car back to Hammelburg on Sunday, I was having all kinds of nightmares about it.

When I got there they told me over and over they couldn't understand why my father had reacted the way he had (which told me he must have yelled at them pretty badly, I wonder why I didn't hear it, he usually seems to be loud enough to cover a radius of a few kilometres). They also showed me how that thing looked, the non-attattched shock absorber.
Basically, they had the car up on the lift to show me the brake disks, then when they let it down again, one person had to hold the wheel in the right position so that the shock absorber would get into that hole where it's supposed to be hanging.

And that was the point when it clicked for me. The problem was just the same as the guy in Hammelburg had told me. Only he had used otehr words that hadn't sounded half as dangerous. He had talked about the "Domlager" (which is the top piece that attattches the shock absorber to the body. LEO doesn't know that word and I don't blame them, I had never heard of it before that day either.)

So the parts needed are ordered. And when I had them there and asked them about the worst case scenario, they actually said as long as I drive carefully, it should be alright. The shock absorber can't really go anywhere. Only if the car would jump up far enough for the wheel to lose touch with the ground completely and move so that the shock absorber doesn't get in right when I land - then I would be in trouble.
But if I take roads in good condition and drive carefully, I whould be alright. And actually, it likely has been that way for months. But not knowing anything was much better than a) knowing that something needed to be done, which was my state for the past weeks and b) seeing what it looks like. I don't know much about cars, but I do know when something doesn't look right at all, and that definitely did.

The other thing, about the brake disks, is not quite as bad as they first made it sound either. It depends on who's doing the inspection, they might still accept it. What I need to get done are the brake hoses and brake pipes. But that's not going to cost me the 1100 Euros they were talking about on the phone.

When they first called, I broke down completely. I was a wreck and could hardly speak when I called Dad. And he wasn't really helpful, reacting the way he did. I was scared as hell walking back to get my car, not knowing what might happen if I dare to drive it.

Now, I am a little more at ease. I still would have preferred not to know, but there's nothing to be done now about that.

So I guess I will drive to Hammelburg on Sunday, hand over the keys to the car to the repair guy on Monday and then not worry about it anymore until I get it back.
Still, on the bill (they did change the motor oil, oil filter and air filter) it says I know that the car is not roadworthy and am taking it on the road on my own risk. That sounds really ugly.

But I'm going to be fine. I just have to be, there isn't much choice I have. Train would not be a real alternative, not with the terrible connections you get to go down there, and the base is too far away from everything not to have a car. And I can't afford a new one. Even if I do put another 1000 bucks into this one, if it will get me through inspection for another year that'll still be cheaper than taking public transportation all the time.

emotionwise, I am completely drained. I can stand a lot of stuff, but damaged car just freaks me out. I kept starting to cry even while I was talking to the guys at the store. I am still uncomfortable, but I'll manage. And it's just going to be one more trip. I likely have made dozens with the car in exactly this same state.

I'll be alright.

picspam! post

Like yesterday, there are links to pictures.

So, this is the post I had in mind this morning. It's going to be full of good stuff.

This morning, I cleaned the car. It looks so nice and innocent.. Except for the damage on the driver's side from back when I hit the guard rail.

I took it into town and walked back with my discman, David Bowie and the digital camera. At first, there was nothing much to be seen. Pretty boring, and rather ugly. As you can see, there is a McD. We're a civilised country, yay. /sarcasm

The only thing that was kinda cute was this poor dog, tied next to the sausage stand. No, the lady did not come out to give it a sausage.

But I walked on and soon the scenery changed into something nicer. We're an area with quite a bit of agriculture. And poppies.

First entering the village, I saw this beautiful climbing rose. It's hanging over most of the sidewalk there.
Unfortunately, around the corner from there there is the garden from hell. Or, as the owner might see it, garden gnome paradise. The most of their figures are to the left of what's one the picture. Animals and gnomes and all kinds of stuff. Yuck.

After that, I needed a rest in some nicer surroundings.

At that point, the batteries in the camera had given out for the first time. I had replaced them with the ones in my discman but at that bridge they didn't even have enough power for that, so from here on I am music-deprived. Also, it is terribly hard to get pictures of yourself.

As I walked on, I spotted a place I used to play when I was a kid. Or rather, we would walk over the pipe and play on the other side of the rivulet. Why we did go across the pipe (and yes, we did walk across, even though it goes about three or four metres down at the deepest part) I don't know. We could have just gone up to the bridge and go across there. Would have been longer and less exciting though.

To prove a point, I got up on the pipe.

I didn' walk across. But I think after a bit of getting used to the feeling, I still could.

Then I was almost home. I could see the gable of the addition to the cow barn that my great-grandfather had built in 1924. (See his initials and the year on there Ignore the sign of the office supply shop that is using the place now.)

And I was greeted by the cats of our neighbors. There's Rudi, who is a leftover - his former owners moved away from our place and he didn't want to move with them, kept coming back. And then there is Minka the cat from hell. She's the mother of the tomcat I named Toby because he screamed so much when he was little. She looks nice enough, but even I took a few weeks before she trusted me to come to me and let me pet her. After that, she also trusted me to babysit her son for her while she went hunting. No, really, she did. I was sitting outside petting them both. She meaowed and left. Toby followed her, she went back to me with him, meowed again, waited until he lay down at my side, nudged me, walked away again. So I sat there until she came back with a mouse, she gave it Toby to play with and then nudged me again - babysitter payment, I guess.
But she attacks just about everybody. The dog and her have come to an agreement. Umbra ignores her and in exchange she only hisses at her, doesn't scratch or bite. Today Umbra almost stepped on her because she was lying right at the foot of the stairs and didn't want to move. Minka lay there and hissed, Umbra just walked on. Also, when she's tired of you petting her, Minka will tell you by biting and scratching your hand. Whereas Toby has a liking for attacking shoes and feet.

Anyway, I walked the dog and she seems to be doing fine. She now has her own personal album in my LJ scrapbook, due to popular demand of a single person to see more pictures of her. (I'm not naming names, but hers starts with lucie_p.)

Oh my, time flies when you're having fun.
It's almost ten already. Almost time for her nightly walk.

Tits!

English is fun and Brits have the best sense of humor.
http://www.nice-tits.org/
Brought to you by way of a tit conversation with jonthedull.
Don't forget to check out the shop on that site.
And the history contains things like the "Trial of the Tits". And which library owns "Tits for England"?