The rest of math deployment

I am still waiting to see if I will actually teach math next year. Long story, but I am hoping that all I learned at math camp will be put to good use! Cross your fingers for me.
The best way to describe my math deployment is through the ups and downs of Job the Jeep. Job is old, he's tired, he's been through a lot (hence the name!). Job was supposed to be a weekend car, a feet-on-the-dashboard kind of car. Job was never supposed to be a 70,000+ mile workhorse, and he gets mad at me when I treat him like one.

Last year, Job thought he would show me who's boss by quitting with the A/C just as I moved to a climate where it's over a hundred degrees 5 months out of the year. I actually hate A/C, so this wasn't a big deal and we've never gotten it fixed. Yes friends, I drive all around Borderland in the sweltering heat with no A/C. I like hot.

Anyway, the drive up to San Angelo was just fine, as I blogged about previously. I took the top down and had a blast listening to my book on tape and trying not to hit any deer.

By the way, it's actually a book on iPhone. CDs went mainstream when I was in, oh, 5th grade, and mp3s got cool when I was in high school. I don't know why I say book on tape, but I ain't changin'.

I digress.

That Friday, I drove up to Austin from San Angelo. It was windy. Job turned on his check engine light. He sometimes does that just to spite me, like when I don't put the gas cap on correctly. I'm supposed to turn the car off, and then on, off, then on, for a few times and it's supposed to go away. I vowed to get it checked out in Austin, along with an oil change.

This is Austin. Pretty, right?

We met our friends Tony and Betsy there. Tony is a T-6 FAIP too, at a different base. They are super fun and it was so nice to hang out with old friends.

Austin is weird. Awesome, but weird. Case in point: walking down 6th street, window shopping and people watching, we stumble upon this sign blocking the sidewalk:

Well then. Like normal, rational people, we stop and decide to take up this bartender on his Casey Anthony special. I'm pretty sure it wasn't before noon, but I won't swear to it.

Cheers! (PS - Why do people insist on calling a drink that size a "shot?" It took me a good 3 minutes to finish it, and only under extreme peer pressure. I'm old and boring.)

We got this lovely shot while talking to a local expat from Cuba. He was so interesting, especially when he was talking about local Cuban food. Yes, I asked a stranger about foreign food. I like learning. Art likes bananas.

That's not as random of a comment as you might think. Every time my Cuban friend talked about plantains, Art said something along the lines of, "I love bananas!" "Plantains? You mean bananas." "They sell plantains in Del Rio. But they call them bananas."

Oh, my husband.

After the four hour drive to Austin, Job was super mad. Every time I hit the brakes, the whole car shook like it was going to stall and Job was going to quit at life. So on Sunday, Art and I went to get the oil changed and while we were there, ask the guy if he knew what was wrong. He didn't. He knew how to change oil. Strike.

I swore to Art I would take the car right to a mechanic as soon as I got to San Angelo, but I didn't want to take it someplace in Austin. If it was something that had to be done overnight, I couldn't wait because I had to be back at math camp the next day. So off we went, Tony and Betsy back to Wichita Falls, Art to Del Rio, me to San Angelo. I sweet talked Job into starting and told him everything would be all right.

Wrong.

I may have been ten miles outside the city limits of Austin when THIS HAPPENED:

When it rains for Job, it pours. Within two months in high school, Job got rear ended by a drunk driver and broken into in Welcome Stadium's parking lot. That night, however, turned out great, because that was the night Art and I had our first conversation. This night, however, not so much.

The sad thing is that I JUST got the windshield fixed right before we got married because of the same problem. Ugh.

I did what any normal girl would do. I pulled over and got some ribs. They were delicious ribs. From Opie's in Spicewood, Texas.

I didn't have much choice but to press on. Job was going to make it to San Angelo if I had to Fred Flinstone it there. And we did! By Sunday evening, I was back in my hotel, happy as a clam.

Until 8:50 am the next morning, when Job would not start. He tried, he made some gurgling noises, but then noises that sounded like metal on metal and I decided not to push him anymore. Leslie, the woman in charge of math camp, gave me the number of a good mechanic, and I called a tow truck to take Job to the hospital.

This is the tow truck guy moving Job with his bare hands. Say again?

The mechanic was nice enough to give me a ride to the Service Center, so I didn't miss too much math camp. I got a ride back with Leslie to the mechanic, who assured me that all was well with Job. $250 later, he had a brand spankin' new... something. Throttle something.

The car wouldn't start in the parking lot of the mechanic's. I should have taken this as a sign, but one of the guys working there started it up and promised me it would be just fine. And it was!

Until 8:50 am the next morning, when Job would not start. This time, he wouldn't even make a noise. No lights, no nothing. Dead. Luckily, I kept the mechanic's number in my phone, since I had been there 12 hours prior. He said he'd be right there to pick me up and try to jump the car.

So I sat there waiting for him. And then I heard a beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Job is talking to me. In beeps. Exorcist style.

And then this happened:

Now, apparently, this is normal. Jeeps do this sometimes when alternators or batteries are going awry. Ok dude, whatever you say, but it not normal when, at 9am in July in San Angelo, Texas, my car starts beeping and dash panel dials go haywire.

The mechanic was able to jump the car and diagnose Job with a dead battery. This is even more bizarre to me. If the battery is dead, how is it talking? The mechanic didn't take my queries too seriously.

$150 later, the mechanic told me that if he saw me again tomorrow, he'd buy me a new car. Job behaved after that. Under threat of retirement, it seems my little car is quite capable.

I was supposed to drive up to Fort Worth for Math Camp Part 2, but after all that horseplay, decided against it. But before I left, I still had a windshield to worry about.

This is the after picture. The guy swore to me that this was "fixed," but it looks exactly the same to me.

Right? Whatever. I'm done with Job and his neediness.

That's pretty much all we've been up to, outside of spending as much time on the lake as possible. The life of the Bulls. Pretty rough!

Here's Art and his beloved new Swamp People t-shirt. It had sleeves, but they just didn't seem right. Swoon.