That never woulda come to me
Workin' on a mystery,
goin' wherever it leads

Tom Petty, "Runnin' Down A Dream"
---

After about two weeks of using today as a hard deadline to fix the car, it didn't work and I had to tow it from Thousand Oaks all the way to Ventura in order to get the device hooked up to a modem to have its log stored. The tow truck driver was really cool, and while we were stuck in traffic by the Outlets (you may know those stores from other stories that involve me being in jail) we chatted at length about families and parenthood and television and real estate and Tom Petty. All in all, a cool guy, and he cut me a deal on the round-trip tow.

If you're curious, the new engine cranks but there's no spark. Distributor doesn't want to play nice. My role, I must note, in this whole engine swap process has been fairly minimal, as you might expect. I am most useful in doing things regarding the exhaust, since my brother doesn't want to bother with getting under the car. As an aside, it's nice that I'm getting to spend more time with Ray, despite the fact that his is a life of constantly juggling his schedule. The man is just in demand.

But it's just nice not to be have to deal with a possible probation violation anymore, you know? One less thing. No, I still don't have a running car, but my mood is so much brighter now, and it's because I realize that, despite the fact that I live in the middle of Car Culture, California, my most important goal is Not Going To Jail. I want some credit for some shit a normal man just does.

It's raining out right now. This season is one for the record books, so it's nice when "literally" meets "metaphorically".