WillowGrouse of Sleet

The Sparrowhawk took the car in yesterday, to have the annoying rattle-clunk examined. They never got around to fixing it yesterday, so I had to call Madame and put off our usual lunch date until tomorrow. She seemed fine with that, although she called me twice to check that it's what we were doing. I was not expecting to have a car today, but they called pretty early in the morning and invited the Sparrowhawk to come and pick it up. I thought it was something in the front suspension. It was the sway bar. And I quote: "A sway bar is part of your vehicle’s suspension, which includes your wheels / tires, springs, shocks, steering system, linkages, bushings, and joints." Check. "The most obvious reason why sway bars are important is to ensure your vehicle doesn’t roll too much when handling turns. Aside from safety, sway bars help prevent lopsided wheel alignment and work to maintain an overall better grip on the road." Check. "The easiest way to determine if you need a new sway bar would be by taking your vehicle to a certified mechanic. In the meantime, you should be on the lookout for rattling or clunking noises coming from your suspension (especially when going over bumps), poor handling, or a loose steering wheel." Check. I feel smug. My diagnostic skills are impeccable. Unfortunately, I don't know how to fix any of the things that I can clearly perceive are a problem.

I woke up with a splitting headache and felt terrible for a couple of hours, but it gradually got better. I used my little bit of free time to call my friend in Minnesota back. She had called on my birthday, and I've been too busy to return her call. She has recently had to start using a walker after falling repeatedly, so I figured she could use some cheering up. I did my laundry, which had been piling up. The Sparrowhawk and I went out for lunch and used our bakery coupon on the last day before it expired, and we bought another fat piglet loaf of day-old bread. I dumped the pre-Christmas catalogs in the recycling. While I was "working," he ran some errands and signed off on our birthday gift for Thomas, which arrived at the store but had been sitting there while we had snow, visitors, and car problems. He also brought home a roast chicken and some green beans. I found the brussels sprouts that I bought at the farmers market but never got around to using. They looked bad, but it turned out that if someone wanted to painstakingly trim them, they were mostly still green and good on the inside. I put the chicken back in the oven for half an hour, because they never cook it to my satisfaction. We had an excellent dinner of chicken, potatoes, brussels sprouts with herbs and parmesan, green beans, broccoli, and lettuce and cucumber salad. I'd love to have a few more days like this, minus the headache at the beginning.