"From the darkness, sleeping light." Formerly luminus dormiens. Lux pacis, light of peace.

Quote: "Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us." --Bill Watterson, cartoonist, Calvin and Hobbes

20030422

Two posts today.

I just got a fucking parking ticket because I forgot to get my parking permit in the car.

Here's the story: I have a new old car. My uncle gave it to me. But because of the California law, I must submit it to a smog check. Uncle already smog checked it BEFORE giving me the title, as the California law dictates. Then I must submit it to a smog check AGAIN before the car is officially mine.

The car is also a stick-shift, meaning that I have to do the work of changing gears. Because I never drove stick-shift before, I had to learn. So after driving it for a while, I was scared because this car takes so much energy. I have to focus on all my driving, pay attention and everything in between. That means that I stopped driving it for a while, both because I was nervous about driving to school EVERY SINGLE DAY and because my mom was not comfortable with my driving.

The car, a Toyota, being older than me by one year--I'm born in 1984--failed the smog check. We speculated on why the smog check failed when Jeff's smog check passed. We settled on the explanation that not driving the car for a long time causes the gas not to burn well because the gas gets worn out. So we made a practice of driving it to get rid of the gas so we can wash the gas, clean the carburetor, and replace the air filter. I also drove it every day because I had to drive it to burn the gas, because my mom forced me to.

So I drove every Saturday, gaining more experience. Eventually, I drove to school every day.

The smog check failed again. The main problem was that the car emit too much HC. (I think HC means hydrocarbons.) The previous smog check shows the problem was at 2500 RPM (revolutions per minute), too much HC was emitted. This time, at both idle RPM and 2500 RPM. My car was then labeled, "Gross Polluter."

Being worried about driving a Gross Polluter because I am an environmentalist, I was conflicted between whether to go back to driving the family car, which is a Honda and automatic shift, or to continue driving the Gross Polluter car. The first day of school, I drove the Honda, nearly forgetting the permit so I put it there. Then the second day, I decided, "No, I want to continue driving the Gross Polluter car, I'm more comfortable now."

So when I drove to school, and parked my car, and go to school doing my business, a parking bureau officer saw that there was no parking permit and put a fine on it.

Damn, damn, damn. This is not being a good week. I wonder what warning is the Power(s) that be in heaven trying to give me. Yesterday, I almost crash. Today, I got fined. What tomorrow, what Thursday, what Friday? What for the rest of my life?

I can think of one reason, though. I am super-tired. Since the Daylight Saving Time two weeks ago, I've not been sleeping at the new 11 o'clock, instead staying up late to 12 or 11:30 because I didn't feel sleepy. I've been doing this for two weeks now, so, I'm as groggy as all Hell. I'm sure my mind is not thinking clearly. I must sleep at 10 tonight, or even at 9, to recover the stupid loss of sleep.

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