wookiemonster | Wednesday (Reply)

What an exhausting day...

It started with me taking Rocky to the vet for a glucose check. I figured I had the time, it had been 12 hours since his last insulin shot, and he'd been working on his bandage, so, better to make the trip sooner than later and maybe get his stitches/staples out. The good news is that his glucose was at 97, so, his insulin dosage has been reduced to just 5 units, and it's looking like he may be off the insulin in the near future. The bad news is that Rocky had already removed all his staples and had a small abscess. He's got another bandage, which will probably come off on Saturday, when they check his glucose again. Oh, and he gained another half a pound since last week.

Then there's the car... Went up to the Wilmington DMV for re-inspection. It passed emissions, though, it was close on the fast-idle CO. The repaired accident damage passed. But there was a code for non-regulation clear lenses for the front markers that wasn't well marked on the failed inspection notice from New Castle and that they didn't tell me. The tech who did the re-test told me that yeah, New Castle were pricks with the whole amber lights and older cars and also with not telling people why their car failed. But, it passed re-inspection.

So, I go inside, get my number, and settle in for a long wait, as I was number 536, and they were just calling 482. Then I look at the inspection sheet and see that it still has the whole lens thing and that I failed inspection...

!

So, I wait a few minutes and see that the line is moving with the speed of molasses, then take my stuff and walk around the building to the inspection lanes. As I approach the lane where I was, I see that there is (already) a different tech. He greets me, and I explained my problem. So, he sent one of his other buddies to go to the parking lot and check the lenses. Of course, everything's fine (finally!) and he apologizes, saying that sometimes they hit an "enter" key too quickly and it doesn't register... Hey, it happens. It's all good. He prints out another inspection sheet for me that shows I passed. So then I went back inside and waited. For over an hour. Fortunately, the person at the counter was nice and on the ball. Took care of the registration renewal and didn't give me any problems with the final steps for switching over the vanity plates and printing out another, updated registration form for Mom's Hyundai. (Which will be updated again when she gets the Gift of Life specialty plate, but whatever.)

So, it was a long, drawn out, painful process, but, I finally have Cammie registered and such for another two years. In the meantime, I'll see what I can to to recondition the front marker lenses, plus get some other metering rod sets for the Edelbrock carburetor. There's probably be a set optimum for summer, another set optimum for winter, and maybe a third set for in between. Plus, I'll get a set to run the car really lean for emission inspections purposes. From what I understand, the metering rods and springs are really easy to swap out on an Edelbrock carb.

On the way home, I stopped at Christiana Maul and went to Build-A-Bear to buy/make the Memorial Bear, primarily for TomTom, but also for the others. I'll post pictures once I have him all dressed up and figure out how to work in the collars or tags and such.

And good gods, could they make the traffic patterns any more convoluted and confusing? They're re-designing all the ramps and overpasses and such in the area and...it's...just...a mess. No nice way to put it. And with the holidays approaching... Yeah, I plan to avoid that area for a good, long while.

So, the past few days have been busy, but, a lot of the major stress issues from the summer are finally resolved. The accident damage from March is repaired. The car has passed inspection and the registration is renewed. I no longer have a misinterpreted vanity plate and instead have the plate my father had on his Triumph Spitfire since before I was born (CIAO). Rocky is approaching ideal health, despite his penchant for removing any kind of stitch or suture. And now, I am just totally, completely exhausted.

Garfield