Barracan

I've been following the news from Tripoli Libya since the overthrow of Gaddafi. I found a news site called The Tripoli Post, very dry and no pictures. Today, someone put up a link to the Libya Herald, which looks like every other news site out there (I swear there's a template somewhere) but it does have lots of pictures.

One of the articles was discussing the buying of new clothes for Eid, the end of Ramadan, and what that meant years ago and what it means now. There was some discussion of traditional dress but no mention of the barracan.

When I lived in Tripoli (1955-57), there were two types of dress for women: the indoor barracan and the outside barracan. The outdoor one was a large shapeless piece of wool that women could shroud themselves with and only have one eye showing. But here's a picture of my mother wearing an indoor barracan at a costume party (she borrowed it from our maid). The piece hanging down comes up over the head and face if the woman needs to, say, answer the door.

Dog Napped

Yesterday, about 12.50pm, Mamie bulled her way out the back screen door and disappeared into the neighborhood. She's a 13-yo black Lab mix, maybe 50-60 pounds. Normally, she doesn't get to go out because she has a whole fenced front yard to wander in. She's occasionally done this escape thing before but usually comes back with an hour or two.

Not this time. Amy went on to work at 2pm and was back at 10.30pm. During that time, I called and looked; Bruce called -- nothing. We posted on the West Asheville page on Facebook so people could be on the lookout for her.

Then Amy was told last night she had to be at a mandatory class at 9am, and I had a job interview at 10am. So we got up at the crack of dawn and I dropped her at her class and went to my interview, then back to pick her up. Then off to the Pound.

And there she was, looking pitiful. Turns out she had pranced up to the animal control folks' truck at 1pm at 91 Virginia Ave. (we live at #72). So her wild rampage lasted about 10 minutes and she'd been in jail ever since. She had no collar or microchip and is very friendly, so the dog catchers had no trouble with her.

She got a lot of shots and a microchip. Amy brought along her collar and leash and spoke sternly to her. But at least she was safe.

I think the interview went very well, but I've thought so before and been wrong. We'll just wait and see.

RIP

Phyllis Diller (comedian)
Ron Palillo (Horshach, in Welcome Back, Kotter)

Also, it turns out that I'd already said much of the stuff I posted yesterday. That's a good measure of how little is happening these days. I am going for a job interview on Thursday so maybe there'll be some good news soon.

Rocking along

Well, I got my new windshield and it's gorgeous. Of course, I'm still having that intermittent starting problem. I can usually get it started by going under the hood and banging on the starter motor, but I shouldn't have to do that. So I'm looking for a mechanic to do some diagnosis and repair.

Amy's car has been in the shop for a whole new engine (oil seals were allowed to dry out and then crack so it trashed the engine). Anyhow, two night she couldn't find anybody to give her a ride home so I got to go after her in the rig. Haven't had it out at night much at all. Fortunately, all the running lights work great. Also, she gets off at 11pm so there's not much traffic. She has it back now and it's running fine.

I took apart the cushions I'd made and have used the batting to cover the wheelwell. Then I put rubber matting over it to keep storage bins from sliding off it. I'll be using more batting to cover the nozzle housing so it's more comfortable to put my feet on. Next thing is to rework the fabric to make curtains.

Other than that, still no job. And I have serious road envy looking at the bogs of my RVing friends. Ah well, some day I may get back out there.

Vehicles & Ebay

So I got my new windshield put in Wednesday and it's gorgeous -- had a green tint because they couldn't find a clear one. Fine by me. Wholesale Glass Co. in West Asheville did it and there were no surprises and no overages and everything went well. The installer recommended that I get new wipers, too, which I knew I needed anyhow,  so I got some best quality ones directly after leaving the glass yard.

Of course, there had been the drama of the motor not starting when I was getting ready to go. Just a little click click and then nothing. So I pop the hood, check the battery, and bang on the starter motor. And then it starts right up.

Last night at 11pm I went in Amy's car to pick her up from work and there began a loud clatter from the passenger side of the car, connected to the throttle. I got off at New Stock Rd and eased on down the road at low rpm. The oil light had been coming on intermittently for days and I had picked up a quart of oil to put in, thinking it might be the cylinders chattering. So I put the oil in and it still clattered. She got a guy at work to come listen and he says it might be a rod knock (maybe) or rings (I don't think so). So she drove it home on surface roads at low rpm, easing along. We left it at Organic Mechanic with a note and walked home from there (me in my caftan and flipflops). They've said it'll be next week before they can even look at it unless somebody cancels their appointment.

I once had a loud clattering like that in the Toyota and everybody said, oh it's a rod knock. Well, it wasn't. It was a bolt working loose so that a housing was banging. Fixed in 2 minutes.

Last week or so I listed a bunch of 78s on ebay (for MaryJo). About half sold, so I spent today cutting down cardboard, bubble-wrapping, and sealing up packages for shipping. A friend's going to take me to the post office tomorrow morning.

Oh yeah, the TV antenna has decided not to pick up more than one channel at a time. Very annoying.