Last week ended with the usual frenzied rush to accomplish many things. I now have new brakes on the car, which didn't set me back too much. I also have a new power steering belt. Apparently, the old one was about to disintegrate. I've been going to the same garage for awhile now, and trust them not to make this stuff up. They could have though, and I'd be none the wiser.

Saturday, Nate and Lexy both went to birthday parties. The one Lexy went to was a sleepover, and he made it through the night without calling home. I went to a birthday party as well, as an entertainer of course. The thirty dollar tip was nice. I've been depending on tip money to buy the occasional cd, so it is quite important that people tip me.

The evening brought about the welcome return of Sleepytime Gorilla Museum to their home base. Their end-of-tour show was at The Independent in San Francisco (or the club formerly known as the Justice League formerly known as the Kennel Club...). They were brilliant, as usual. This time around the festivities included a puppet show and a very important lecture about the Monkey Face Eel. Value for your money. I even spent some of my birthday tip on the new Charming Hostess cd. Unfortunately, the show didn't let out until well after 1 am. I was glad that they played as long as they did, but less than pleased about the amount of sleep I was going to get. While driving across the Bay Bridge to drop G off in Berkeley, we narrowly avoided an accident. A car in the lane to the right of us merged into the side of a car in the next lane over, causing both cars to bounce and screech across all lanes like pinballs on their way to meet the flippers. I slowed down enough so that one car shot across the lanes in front of us and the other one careened leftward behind us. Both cars struck the guardrail to the left. We crunched through bits of glass and plastic left in our lane, and continued. I checked to make sure other cars were stopping before continuing. My rationale for not stopping myself was that the cellphone was at home and I currently have no CPR training. In short, any assistance I could give would probably be next to useless. Not to mention that there is really no safe place to stop mid-span. I still had a two hour drive in front of me as well. I deposited G in Berkeley, and M in Felton before finally getting home at 4 am.

At 7 am I got up and went to work at the same place I work during the week. Instead of teaching, I helped supervise the community service people who come up to clean the site. I think that they're all people who got popped for DUI. I got payed time and a half for my end of things, while they all worked for free. That's what they get for drinking. One of the main tasks that needed seeing to was the splitting of an entire Oak tree into fireplace sized logs. The tree itself had been cut down after it died (possibly Sudden Oak Death). With the aid of a wood splitter (a gas powered hydraulic plate that forces logs against a steel wedge) we processed about three cords of wood, which I am told is around six hundred dollars worth. Now we have plenty of wood for campfires.

That night I fell asleep early.

Today I mostly watched kids while Jen shuttled around to various appointments. I'm only doing four days of science school this week, starting tomorrow. It's at the other site too, which means all of the trails will be new to me. It's supposed to rain too.

Tonight I almost plunged us into the dark ages by tripping over one of the cords attached to the computer. It made the damn thing freeze up, but after several tries at restarting it, we managed to revive it. It made me reflect on how much time I spend online. I used to be quite content without this. Oh, the insidious influence of modern conveniences! None of them are really necessary to our lives. Not microwaves. Not cellphones. Not computers. But here we are anyway, plugged in and loving it. But it bothers me. Maybe we need another dark age.