If yesterday’s phone call had come a week earlier, my upcoming fall would look very different indeed.

The shop called around 5:30 with an update on Lola. She is both leaking and burning oil into an alternate dimension – the oil isn’t getting to the engine, because it’s going SOMEWHERE. Where that is, we don’t know. It’s just .. gone. All signs are pointing to a ghost in the machine (herp derp) and also a valve seal problem. Best case scenario: the leak can be fixed externally, the parts are in stock, and I get Lola back sometime next week. Worst case: the engine has to come apart, the parts need to be ordered, and I’ll get Lola back in time for Thanksgiving. This’ll involve opening up the cylinder to see if I did any damage to it while riding around without oil; all of which basically adds up to a METRIC ASS FUCK FULL OF MONEY. In fact, regardless of which cuisine reigns supreme, this repair is going to be vomitously expensive – and if it happened last week instead of this, I certainly wouldn’t have been buying tickets to London for a spot of tea with the Queen.

Don’t get me wrong – I’m perversely glad it happened this way, because I’m still so excited about going to England I could pee glitter. I’m just thinking about the cost – it doesn’t really matter what happens at this point; that bill is going to hurt. A lot. And it’s scary to think that if I hadn’t taken her in, I could have very well destroyed my scooter. The day I dropped her off I was having second thoughts about the necessity of it all – she was riding fine, none of the weird things had happened in a while, why bother with the expense – but I couldn’t shake the “what if”, and I took her in. It’s good that I did. I will still have a scooter at the end of this. A scooter and a very, very sore bank account what with all the expensive and intrusive anal reaming.

I spent all of yesterday being so stressed out about Lola that I was in no shape for socializing, so I spent the evening cram crafting for Sunday. I made some new stuff, too – in addition to the Lego necklaces, I’ll have some nerdy magnets, rings and pins made from l33t Scrabble tiles:

i have more tiles on the way. coming soon: SWEARING!

Come on by! Also, say the secret phrase for some FREE SMUTTONS! The phrase for tomorrow is “I’ve got taco fever” – tell me all about your insatiable lust for tacos, and you’ll get some free wearable porn. Hooray!

Back to worrying about my scooter now. Boo :(

me in happier times