forgot what day it is O.o

[lavandarlizard2]

It's been one of those weeks. The adrenalin from Spam Day lasted until Tuesday and then just... left. O.O Probably scared off by RL...



August is registration month for my truck (ain't never doing registration AND insurance in the same month as the kid's birthday again. >.< never.) and this year Akachan needed a smog test. This should be an easy thing; twenty minutes, they send the cert, I pay; I send my registration fee and get my sticker. No problems. Never, in four vehicles, have I had a problem passing the smog, even with my 16-year old, 180K mileage Chevy. Didn't have a problem with Akachan passing two years ago. This time, no such luck. >.< And it's not even his numbers that failed; they are all right where they should be. No, there's something weird going on with the 'check engine' thing. *huff* So, now I have to take it in and find out WTF?! Three car geeks have told me not to worry; it's probably nothing. Just needs to be reset. Maybe a loose connection. But I understand the Power of Worse and I am twitching. O.o

I am still not working, so the money is pretty much nonexistant, especially this month. (That reminds me... [smacks the bloody motherfucking assholes who think this economic mess is a figment of the imaginations of "whiny" people] been doing that daily for the past 17 days) And I have little hope of being able *to* work with no vehicle, so I have to get this done regardless of whether I can afford it or not. >_> Like I said, I am seriouly twitching. I should find out Tuesday whiskey tango foxtrot. *chews on talons* Until then, expect odd and somewhat bewildering... stuff.

...end rant...




Anyway.... ^____^ This one was featured in the spam day flurry, and since it's not all that long, I thought I'd start putting it up.






Walkabout

Part 1


I stepped out of the rail car and turned to offer a hand to the elderly woman behind me. She accepted gracefully, even though she had already told me of her exploits during three wars. That little old lady had been in the resistance each time and probably gave the Alliance generals every bit as many fits as we gave the Alliance, OZ and Romefeller combined.

She patted my shoulder with a smirk. “Nice talkin’ to you, Heero; hope you enjoy your visit.”

I thanked her, and she headed purposefully across the mall parking lot, ready to take no prisoners at the big holiday sale. I crossed the street and walked toward the residential district.

He didn’t know I was coming, but it wouldn’t be that much of a surprise. I talk to all of my friends several times a year and we email to keep up on what’s going on with all of us. We haven’t met in over three years, though. Every time we say goodbye, Duo tells me to drop in anytime; I always promise that I will, whenever I’m in the area.

When I walked out of the hospital after the Mariemaia thing, I had only one goal: to see everything I could, now that no one was shooting at me, and to learn as much as I could absorb along the way. And thanks to some really shoddy bookkeeping on the part of the Alliance, OZ and Romefeller, as well as J’s blind accounts, which were now my blind accounts, I had the funds to do just that.

I started with L1 Colony Center and worked my way out. It took about a year and a half to see everything of interest – and a lot that bored me silly – in space, and then I started on Earth, in Japan; supposedly the land of my ancestors. My oddly-accented Colonial Japanese made people wary, and I had to work to remember to be more formal than I was used to. There was no overt hostility, though, just the normal amount of xenophobia.

Eastern China, Southeast Asia and Pacifica were next, followed by Russia, the Middle East, Africa, Europe and Scandinavia, and then back to Australia, New Zealand and the Hawaiian Islands and so on to South America, Central America and North America. Now I was walking down a wide boulevard in sunny California, about to drop in on one of my oldest friends.

Comments

[merula31]

Oo. I do wonder how Duo will deal with being dropped in on... *grin*

[lavendarlizard.livejournal.com]

That comes waaaaay at the end. The body of this thing is flashbacks, and for other people (since I know this doesn't apply to the birds) no, I will not be inserting little -flashback-/-end flashback- notes. You're on your own with that, folks. ^____~

Let's just say he ain't gonna make Heero sleep on the porch swing, shall we? ^.o

[pellsfan.livejournal.com]

Oooh, goody! A new one. I was fascinated by the reception Heero got in Japan. Of course his accent would be different.

And I loved the tough little old lady. I fear for the other shoppers. *grin*

"Hi Duo, I'm hoooome!

[lavendarlizard.livejournal.com]

Times be changin' there, but they still harbor a certain warines of Japanese who speak foreign languages fluently. ^____^ One of my former bosses spoke excellant english, but whenever we had visitors from Japan he would speak to us in almost pidgin in front of them.

He said it was because it wouldn't do for him to speak better english in front of the lowly employees than the big bosses did. Weird. But he was a pretty cool guy. ^___^

I kind of suspect the little old lady carries some anti-personnel weapons specifically for mall-shopping during the holidays. ^___^

[bleedtoblue.livejournal.com]

Can't wait to see Duo's reaction!

[lavendarlizard.livejournal.com]

He's not going to faint; that's all I can promise. ^___^

[turnippatch.livejournal.com]

*patpat*  I've driven around for days with my engine check light on.  All it means is that one of the sensors reads emissions that are outside the normal scope of operation.  For me, it just meant my air filter wasn't doing its job.  Popped that thing open (since it's been shoddy before. i get some rough starts on account of it.), resecured it (seems one of the clips had popped off or something), and bam, engine light goes off.  Not a problem.  The check light is far more intimidating than it has any right to be.

[lavendarlizard.livejournal.com]

This isn't the actual check engine light; this has something to do with a self-test that didn't finish. All my testing numbers are fine, but because some dumb test didn't complete, we failed. The prevailing opinion seems to be that at some time recently, the battery was unhooked and possibly the computer was cleared and for some reason didn't reset. >_> Anything having to do with the computer makes me want to hide under the bed and clutch a plushie. O.o It usually means my wallet is going to get vacuumed. *whimper*

[turnippatch.livejournal.com]

Whoa, hey, check you out and your fancy purpley pinks!  I see you got yourself a tags list, too. ^_^

*totally irrelevant comment, just to have somewhere to park this observation*

[whispurr267.livejournal.com]

*Crosses fingers that you have better luck than I did*

I had a mess with the emission test one inspection ago. Plus the garage I took it to couldn't find out what was wrong and I ended up at the dealer to fix it. THEN, since I didn't start with them, had to go back to the first garage for them to re-run the test and give me the sticker.
It made no sense to me.


Mmmm - Is Duo just sitting around waiting for Heero or do you have some angst planned? Can't wait to find out. I think the little old lady would make a great side character.

[lavendarlizard.livejournal.com]

This is the first time I've had any sort of problem wth the smog. And I certainly wasn't expecting any problems. O.O The Bro likes cars that seem to delight in failing their smog for whatever reason, so he's got lots of experience, but this was new to him.

Right now, the possibility of me ever buying a Ford again are circling the drain.... =_=


Duo's not waiting around for Heero. At least, not any more than he has been. ^___^ That little old lady would run roughshod over any story; that's why she's just an extra. ^.o

[yanagi-wa.livejournal.com]

This is starting out really good. Wonder where all he's been.

[lavendarlizard.livejournal.com]

Pretty much everywhere ^___^

[sunhawk16.livejournal.com]

Make the Bro come up and pull that battery cable! ^o^ And what's up with the temp people... crack that whip! They're not doing their jobs here. O.O

I really like the tone of this one; it's a different take on the 'Heero disappears after the war' thing. ^____^
And I'm hearing that song... 'I've been everywhere, man... I've been everywhere...' *snerk*

[lavendarlizard.livejournal.com]

Nobody's hiring right now. At least nothing that I can do. >.<

Great. Now I have the song in *my* head. O.o It's the theme for a chain of hotel/motel commercials at the moment. It's very easy for it to get caught in my head. >_>

Oh so true, though! Heero *has* been everywhere. ^____^

[annakas.livejournal.com]

Ohhh intriguing new beginning to a story.
Loved how Heero wanted to see the whole world.

Heee and Duo will be surprised, pleasantly I hope so :)

annakas

[lavendarlizard.livejournal.com]

It'll be a particular surprise because Heero's about 6 months early. ^___^