Life, The Universe, and FrankenVan

So I haven't put much effort into blogging for the last few days, as some of you have noticed. Part of that was real life, part of that was my main hobby, and part of it was just a desire to stop blogging for a couple of days.

The real life part was that I was sick, my fibromyalgia was flaring up a bit on Friday and Saturday. I keep wishing that the weight loss will kill the fibro, but it doesn't seem to be happening. On Saturday we had an Androgums party, and I discovered that I have a weakness in my dietary counting... namely chocolate glazed donut holes... that caused me to gorge myself to the point of absolute illness. When you add stomach ache to fibro pain, the result is not pretty. I simply did NOT feel like blogging.

The main hobby bit is the news that Aquaman is on the bubble yet again, and unless sales jump immediately the book will likely be canceled with issue #57. I'm not surprised, but I am depressed because a) I was really enjoying the current storyline, b) I was hoping to see the tribute to Leah Adezio show up in the book, and I'm not sure it will make it now, and c) Tad Williams has indicated that if the book is canceled, the return of Orin to the role of Aquaman will not happen. Ack. So add a minor case of depression to fibro pain and stomach ache.

The last part was me wanting to take a short break. With everything else going on, this really seemed like the logical weekend, no?

So I'm preparing a Ripples Through Time for tonight, and a large link post. They will probably be posted very late Pacific Time, but at the moment I plan on posting them.

But don't count on it. And here's why. I usually try to go swimming at the therapy pool on Mondays. I got all ready, jumped in my van, and started out for the pool at about 5pm today. I got four blocks then my van shuddered deeply and made a strange rattling noise. It sounded like my driver's side door wasn't closed all the way. I felt off-balance as I pulled up in line at a red light. When the light changed and I started up again, the noise way much worse. I managed to make the light and turned the corner, then finally figured out what was wrong. Flat tire. Rear driver's side.

Panic did not set in. I actually felt very relaxed. I passed the first driveway, but looking in my rearview mirror could see that the tire was flopping around. Better get off the road, since I was suddenly sure I couldn't make it to any of the car servicing places nearby. So into the parking lot of Seattle Home Appliance I went, and found a good spot to park in, then I jumped out of the car and checked the tire.

I've seen flat tires. But this was a dead tire. Completely dead. There was a HUGE hole in the sidewall. I should have taken a picture with my camera phone, but I was far more concerned with getting the thing fixed as soon as possible. I luckily have AAA in my contacts list on my phone, so I gave them a ring. Twenty minutes later the tow truck arrived, and we made a quick trip to Les Schwab about four miles away. A note: When hubby-Eric and I dealt with bills last night, we paid for our AAA renewal. I just want to say that knowing for sure that somebody would help me get my van where it needed to go is worth every cent we paid.

The wait at Schwab was unfortunately much longer. I arrived only about ten minutes before they closed, but they took my FrankenVan in anyway. Good thing, as I would've been stuck at that point. But I did have to wait while they finished all the rest of the jobs they had queued up. The result was that I didn't get to go to the swim tonight. Instead I sat in a cold waiting room for an hour and spent entirely too much money on new tires.

Now I'm home and extremely annoyed at the lack of therapy pool. And my fibro is flaring up again, which is probably due to the stress.