Weekend Update

Well, that went by all too quickly. Southern Man had a three-day weekend so he started out by heading to a town a bit south of the city for some free brick (construction leftovers) and a little out-of-town geocaching, then met with the church single's group that evening for our monthly bowling outing. Southern Man was paired with a friend who is really the better bowler but beat him three games out of five - and two of those by one pin. There was plenty of brick left so Saturday morning he rounded up a friend (well, the same friend), went to men's breakfast at the church, and headed out to pick up another load and we did more out-of-town geocaching. We got it all back to The Land and unloaded and sorted and stacked and headed back to La Casa where friend's car refused to start - a balky starter that had been acting up for about a month - so we had to call for a tow truck and have it hauled to the nearby dealership that services it. A new starter will be nearly six hundred bucks (a far cry from the days when a starter was forty bucks plus the old core and could be installed in an afternoon with a flat-head screwdriver and one wrench and little fuss other than the inevitable bloody knuckles - not to mention that when our cars broke down we pulled them home or to the shop with another car and a rope) so Southern Man is glad that his vehicles haven't acted up lately. Southern Man drove his friend home and stayed for dinner (crackers and home-made chili) and conversation. Sunday morning proved chilly and blustery but he headed out to The Land anyway (geocaching on the way, of course) and cleaned up The Trailer after the latest mouse incursion (they did take three casualties but Southern Man still hasn't found how they're getting in so all he can do right now is make sure there's no food out and set more traps) and stacked more construction material and firewood, then came home and showered and headed out to the ancestral manor for Sunday evening dinner with parents and brother and sister and both older kids and son's girlfriend and a couple of nephews. Brother has a new job and Teen Daughter finally got her car back and starts her new job tomorrow. And tomorrow it is back to work for Southern Man as well but if the deans refrain from scheduling any meetings on Friday it will be another four-day workweek.

[added later]: friend's problem wasn't the starter but a malfunctioning anti-theft system, which turned out to be a lot less expensive to...well, disable. I think they put a underdash switch on it for him. The same thing used to happen all the time to a former gf's Jeep and we'd be stuck wherever until it decided to recognize the key again.