Spent a big chunk of the morning in a Denny’s trying to do some work, with a crying baby in the booth behind me and a curious toddler watching me from the booth on the other side. Other kids seemed to be trying to see how fast they could run down the aisles, but mostly they just screamed until their Madre screamed back. Despite all that, I got more done and had a more comfortable wait than I would have in the awful seats and and with sludge called coffee they offer at my mechanics’ place.

Started smelling antifreeze in the GreenTracer’s ventiliation last week when I was in Ventura, and figured I should get it looked at before the fumes’ brain damage became irreversible.

End result: I’m going to be driving a car without a heater for a while. The estimate from the mechanics was high, much higher than expected, but the bigger problem was that they wanted the car for at least two days to replace the heater core. Sorry, it was tough enough clearing the calendar for one day, and they weren’t offering a loaner. Better to bypass the heater, stopping the radiator leak in the process, until a change of seasons forces me to re-prioritize. Wait, I live in San Diego. We don’t have seasons here. Maybe Santa will bring me a new heater core. Or gloves and a little blower for fog on the windshield.

At least I got a good swim in after they finished trying to find my wallet. Very relaxing.