dying…dying…dead.

Big winter storm is coming, so I prepare. Put a extra sweatshirt under my jacket(aka other sweatshirt). Wrap my scarf around my face. Leave a half hour early.

I was bouncing between 2nd and 3rd gear the whole way, rarly making it up to 30mph. Every now and then my car would catch a ridge of loose snow and pull to the side, but it was controllable. My biggest problem was my windsheild wipers, which tended to smear wetness across the whole of my windsheild instead of ridding my windsheild of it.  Of course I couldn’t pull over to clean them, because then my car might get stuck and I’d be even more late to work.

So I trekked onward, noticing three or four times that my engine would occasionally drop in revs then very quickly pick right back up, regardless of the speed or gear I was in. And then…

…no power.
1st gear.
…no power.
sputter.
sputter.
 dead.

So I sat halfway onto the shoulder(snowbank) and halfway in the right lane of an expressway. Twenty minutes later, while waiting for the tow truck, I got my engine to start without stalling and managed to move myself out of traffic, who thankfully had yet to send me into the guardrail. I didn’t dare risk driving, if i could even get out of the deep snow, at the risk of having my engine cut out again, this time with another car on my bumper.

I just found out that my cold air intake and my manifold were full of snow and my air filter was soaking wet. My plugs might have to be replaced, hopefully no water was injected into my engine.

Fast forward a bit: tow truck. discuss Detroit three bailout. Get to Don’s BP. Talk with boss. Dad drives me home.

Trying to get into my neighborhood was another adventure altogether. There was already a car stuck in each entrance, but my dad still tried to force is RWD car up the hill, but to no avail. So we pushed the guy behind us out, then ourselves, and I walked home from there. brrrr.

The most unfortunate result of all this is that I missed my last day of work. Luckily my boss was very understanding and we were able to do my evaluation over the phone. It was very good, and I’m so relieved. This past spring’s co-op evaluation had a lot of room for improvement, much of which I account to the person who filled it out not actually having worked with me much. But this term I really focused more on my work, organized and prioritized things far better, and as a result got far more done.

So now I’m snowed in, and I’m okay with that. I hope to do some reading, napping, eating. Good times.

btw, Thank you very much to Brian for fixing the ugly case of the overlaps this site seemed to have caught.

Listening to: Here I Dreamt I was an Architect - The Decemberists.

License to Slack. or. Do I want this?

Just for the record, this is not a blog. This is a blag. BIG difference.

Get it right.

_____________

So tomorrow is my last day of work term. I know that it’s an internship, but it truly feels like a job (jorb). My first work term (last fall) was quite poor. I felt very stressed-out by my job, and my life seemed too cluttered.  When I returned to school in the winter I had dreams almost every night that I got a call from work and they needed me to come in right away. And I always would.

Last fall things improved a bit. I continued to learn more and do more, but I seemed to lack urgency in completing tasks, and not take enough responsability.’

The past 3+ months have been amazing for me!  I no longer worry about work once I get home (except for waking up on time), I feel like I accomplish a good amount at work, I’m certainly learning. My new boss is very good with positive reinforcement and letting me know what I need to be doing. Work has become far more enjoyable, it’s great to feel like I’m becoming more of a part of the team, and of the company.

Having said that, this is a crappy time to be in automotive. Due to the Detroit 3 dropping volume, my company is shutting down for a month(at least). This means I will be working three less weeks than anticipated. I was planning on working thru the 6th of January, but instead my last day of the term is tomorrow. I’m quite bummed about this since I was really looking forward to getting a lot of work done over the holidays, not to mention the loss of three weeks of pay.

On the upside, I have the first vacation I’ve had in years. The last time I went a week without having at least one class or 8 hour work day was….spring break…junior year….2006. Being productive is such a part of my weekly routine that I’m quite curious to see how my mind will react to this spare time. Sure I can hang out with friends, play lots of bass/guitar, read a lot, sleep. But how long will that satisfy me for?

I’m hoping that it will be way easier than I’m expecting, that time will fly by and I’ll get to invest some time into learning new things over these 3 weeks.

Tomorrow will be a bittersweet day. I will miss my co-workers while I’m at school, although I’m sure one of them will still flood my inbox while I’m gone. I’ve learned to take a lot of satisfaction in my work there. My friends can tell many stories of me occasionally geeking out about mirrors, but I suppose that if you don’t learn to love what you do, why do it?

Listening to: Garden State (soundtrack)