unexpected adventures...

Who knew I would be doing such guy-ish sort of things such as spending a day at a desert race and working on my car?! But they're pretty fun! Of course I'm still keeping skirts on and my hair curled :)

This week I finished up the work duties at my parents house, which was a relief and felt good to get done. Then on Thursday night my Dad and I went 2 hours north-east of Vegas to Rachel, NV. My dad has a friend there who has a house in the middle of the desert, literally, he's like 4 miles out of town. Rachel, NV is very near the infamous "Area 51". At night we got to see tons of great stars and play hide and seek with all the aircraft (no UFO's seen) that fly overhead doing maneuvering drills or something, they make a lot of noise that you can't hear until they're long past you because the jets move so fast.
Then early the next morning the "Best in the Desert" race began, first motorcycles, then quads, then trucks and buggy's passed by continuously from 8am to about 5pm...quite a day of dust, sun, and excitement. They go right past a turn at the house, on the dirt road, at really fast speeds (my dad says they go 140mph on the straightaways!)
It's a great little place out there, regardless of my recent despise of desert heat....I was envisioning the first ever desert bluegrass festival being hosted there, he has a cute little barn and everything! Yee haw!

And then to my car...the carburetor proved to be too big a job. Perhaps if I had disassembled it, but seeing as it was already apart when I got it, it's just nearly impossible. I gave it a good go, then realized there was just too many tiny parts and intricacies and too little directions (none really, just some really inadequate picture diagrams.) I may continue to work on it, kinda like a good ol' puzzle, in the future.
So then I ordered a carburetor, and waited. And it came and didn't fit quite right (it needs to be lifted up a tad so moving parts don't hit the manifold under it.) So now I've ordered an adaptor kit and am waiting again. But those parts will be here on Monday, then we'll be good to go (cross your fingers.)
Today I got to do some work on the car, my first real progress alone...the fuel pump was attached and valve covers cleaned (well not completely, I had some directions from my brother Matt.) I got real oil filth ingrained on my hands for the first time! Boy was it a mess, I cleaned the valve covers which are just lined in black grime, I forgot to take a picture at the beginning but here they are back on the engine at the end (along with the shiny new carb perched there.) Monday they'll get a quick paint job while we get everything else put on.

And now it's nearly 1am...and I can't sleep, so I'll just ramble on. There are many things swimming around in my head, but nothing imparticular. There's thoughts on things in Vegas, LA, and SF. There's thoughts on things around the world, and things in the Bible. There's thoughts of people known and unknown, known well and known only faintly.
I've been a bit homesick for SF lately...partly the fact that I haven't had my own routine, etc for the past couple months, partly weather, but mostly the people and the city. I just want to walk out my front door and see somebody else, and be able to walk a few blocks and hop on the bus. I want my morning walk back, down to the panderia for my favorite mexican pastry. I began a little poem before I left, and never got past the first line...but I really like it....'i want to wrap this city in a bow and put it in my pocket.' I can see that it's been (and I think will continue to be, even more so) good that I've been reading in the book of Exodus this summer. Kim picked it 40 days from when we were moving to LA, because it was the only book of the Bible with 40 chapters, and it just so happened that I had read something from that book the same day she said she'd picked it out to read, so i jumped on the bandwagon so to say. ANYways, I think it's been good because in Exodus is when the Jews become enslaved in Egypt and pharaoh won't let them go, and all these miraculous things happen to persuade him, and finally he lets them, then he changes his mind, which leads to the parting of the Red Sea...and then to the Jews wandering around in the desert...and they begin complaining to God "why, why?" because they fail to remember where he brought them from and they fail to remember where he's taking them to. And so, as I'm homesick for SF and at times pondering what exactly it is I'll be doing in LA (for example, my one thing that I kinda had planned out, was to get an ER job...and that doesn't seem to be coming through, so now I'm broadening my job parameters...it's not altogether bad, but just a bit disheartening and unsecuring.) But I'm trying to learn a little something from the Jews in Exodus...and I'm trying to look at the much larger picture and have a little faith...and it's good.
Well...I think I've rambled on enough for tonight...till next time...(hopefully in a couple days when my car is running...'my car,' she's needs a nickname...I haven't quite decided on one yet.)