When cars don’t start

Christmas was fun and uneventful. Everything went smoothly, the food was fabulous, the company pleasant. A good day.

The day after Christmas, Deborah and I went snowshoeing up at Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood. I got to see snowy trees. I LOVE SNOWY TREES. And afterwards we sat in the crowded lodge and drank hot drinks. We drove home in the dark, which felt pretty strange. I did A LOT of hiking up at the mountain this summer, and driving home at the end of the day always took place in broad daylight because of the long summer days. Playing in the snow during winter is fun, but I really am a summer gal through and through.

That evening back at my parents’ house (where Deborah and I had been staying for the holidays), an unpleasant surprise awaited me when I tried to leave. My car wouldn’t start. The starter was working, but the engine wasn’t catching. It was too late to do anything about it, so I called a tow truck the next morning to take me to the mechanic. The tow truck driver was able to fiddle with the fuel line under the hood and managed to get the car to sputter to life. Something about stale fuel or bad pressure in the fuel line. I didn’t quite get it. (Glad to see everything I learned in that car class a year ago stuck in my head…HA HA.)

My car was running now, but I took it to the mechanic anyway. They had my car all day, and do you think they found anything wrong with it? Of course not. It started for them every time. They didn’t charge me anything for it, though, to my relief. When my mom heard that, she said “Oh to be a cute young thing again.” I burst out laughing at that. I did not feel good yesterday, and I’m sure I didn’t look much better than I felt. I did not look like a “cute young thing,” as my mother put it. Whatever the reason for not charging me, I’m grateful. I just hope that this isn’t the start of ongoing mechanical problems with my car. It’s 10 years old with 108,000 miles on it. But it’s gotta last me awhile yet.

Question of the day

It was pretty slow at the library today, unsurprisingly enough. Most people were coming in to stock up on DVDs for the holiday (and a few of them actually thought we’d still have Christmas movies in stock on December 23, HA HA HA). As a result, I got very few questions today. The question that took the cake, though, came early in the day. A guy in his early twenties walked in and asked if there was somewhere he could submit his passport application today (we are connected to City Hall, which processes those applications on weekdays). My response: I raised my eyebrows, and looked at my boss, who was sitting at the desk with me. First of all, it’s two days before Christmas. Second of all, it’s a Saturday. Any office in the Portland metro area that processes passport applications would be closed today. When my boss told him that and informed him that he could come back to City Hall at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday morning, he said, no, he needed it for a flight tonight. TONIGHT. Uh, okay. Even IF the various passport offices were open today, you do not just get your passport lickety-split like that. It takes weeks. WEEKS. You may be able to leave your Christmas shopping until the last minute, but you definitely cannot leave your passport application until the last minute.

Thank God I live in the NW

I finally got around to reading Sunday’s paper today. In it was a fascinating article about Christmas trees. Oregon produces a lot of Christmas trees. In fact, Clackamas County – which includes Portland’s SE suburbs and the countryside and mountains beyond – produces more Christmas trees than any other county in the country. This article in the Oregonian  (“Under Hollywood tinsel, they’re Oregon trees”) said that Californians buy half of Oregon’s 8 million Christmas trees every year. Holy cow! And people (like celebrities) often hire someone to design and decorate their tree for them! Dr. Christmas’s tree-decorating fees range from $2,500 to $25,000. Good God.

Even without the designers, the trees don’t come cheap. A tree that costs between $40 and $80 here would cost between $150 and $400 in Beverly Hills. Good grief! Yet one more reason why I could never survive in southern California.

My favorite part of the article described a scene the reporter witnessed while visiting the Mt. Greentrees lot in Beverly Hills, a lot that is run by Oregonians every year.

A young woman, wearing skinny jeans that hang loosely on her non-existent hips, steps purposefully out of her Mercedes convertible. She pads gingerly inside the tent, suddely unsure of her territory. Josh Sisco of Beaver approaches. “Can I help you find something?” he asks.

She speaks with piercing clarity. “I want a tree,” she says. Her eyes, hidden behind giant black sunglasses, survey the vast selection. She searches, sniffs — then despairs. “Do you have any, like, trees that aren’t fat?” she demands… She punches a number into her telephone. “They’re all fat,” she reports, and clicks her phone shut. She roars off.

All I have to say to that is, bwahahahahahaha!

Christmas lights

I’m sure most of you have seen the video on the internet of the house with Christmas lights synchronized to music, which was a big hit last year. Not surprisingly, I think this is just about the coolest thing ever. I have watched it pretty much every day for the last three weeks. You know this will totally be me someday.

Christmas carols

I took this fun Christmas Carol quiz today. I rocked it, of course, which will come as no surprise to those of you who know how much I love Christmas. I only got one wrong (#5, because, hello!, I don’t know any Latin!), so my score was 96%. I LOVE Christmas carols. When I was in sixth of seventh grade, I gathered together all the Christmas song books my mom had for the piano, then typed up all the lyrics for all the Christmas songs I could find. I made a nice little graphic-heavy cover for it in Print Shop (remember that program?), and printed the whole thing out on our dot matrix printer. Then I carefully placed Christmas stickers throughout the pages, and stapled it all together into a Christmas Carol lyrics book. It took me weeks, and I loved it.Plus, ever since I was a little kid, I spend the entire holiday season listening to Christmas music. My Christmas CD collection grows more and more every year. And this year there are two Portland radio stations playing nothing but Christmas music up through Christmas day, so I can tune in from my car whenever I feel in the Christmas spirit, which is often. Most people get all bah-humbug about the constant barrage of Christmas music in December. But I say, “Bring it on, baby!”

Antzy

November was the rainiest month on record in Portland. Thanksgiving weekend was terrible for weather across the whole Pacific Northwest. Now last night we had a severe windstorm and we’re under a flood warning. Winter hasn’t even officially started, and I’m already ready for spring. I have severe cabin fever. I’m inside nearly 24 hours a day. I can’t go hiking, and I can’t go outside and take pictures. It’s dark a lot. I’m so antzy!

I need something to take my mind off the weather and the many hours of darkness. Something besides work and reading, which seems to fill up about all my time these days. I was supposed to go to an on-call librarian Christmas party last Friday, but I screwed that one up. (I can juggle a five-library schedule, but I can’t remember the correct time for a darn party.   I made Christmas cookies and everything!) I have a Christmas get-together on Sunday. Hopefully that’ll help my antziness.

A week from today the days will start getting longer again. THANK GOD.

Christmas Tree!

We got our little Christmas tree up last night. Even though we have tall ceilings, I didn’t get a big tree because they were more expensive. I never dreamed this little 5.5 foot Doug fir would look so small in that corner! Sure smells nice, though. Mmmmmm…..

Funny old guy

A conversation I had at work today with a funny elderly man who wanted to get ahold of Bill Bryson’s latest book, The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid:

“Every copy in the county is checked out and there are 59 holds on it,” I said. “Do you want me to put you on the hold list?”
“No thank you!” he said. “I’m liable to die before I get it!” And then he burst out laughing.
“You know, I normally talk to the guy who usually works here,” he said to me.
“You mean [insert librarian's name here]?” I said.
“Yeah, the ugly guy,” he joked, and laughed again.
“He’s not your husband, is he?” he asked. Now it was my turn to laugh.
“Are you married?” he asked.
“Nope,” I said.
“Why not?” he asked.
“I’ve been busy,” I replied.
“Well how old are you?” he asked.
“I’m almost 28,” I said.
“Psh, you look like a teenager!” Then he said, “We were 27 and 28 when we got married. There’s still hope for you!”

I need measuring cups for that?

Yeah, so……Some really essential baking tools are measuring cups and measuring spoons. And if you’ve moved recently, you might want to check that you have these things before you get ready to bake. These important items might still be in a box in storage, a box which you have yet to retrieve. In such cases, do not plan to bake cookies for the Christmas party you’re attending that night, because you will fail. Instead, do what I did. Curse and swear for a few minutes, then go to the store and buy chocolates and candies to take to the party. I’m sure the other guests will understand.

A great TV commercial

I think that 99% of TV commercials are dumb or boring. You have to make a pretty clever or funny commercial for me to like it. I love such classics as “Where’s the beef!” and the Volkswagen stinky chair commercial and that Nike bouncing-basketballs one.

But right now, this holiday one from Garmin is my current favorite. I laugh and laugh every time it’s on TV, and thanks to the genius of the internet, I can watch it anytime I want. I love the bellowing moose!