Today was a nice lazy hot day. I woke up especially late after a wonderful sleep, to a nearly empty house. The others had gone off to brave the heat door to door, while Josh and I stayed in. I made myself a nice egg and toast breakfast with the sandwich maker the Hazael's provided for us. Everything we need is layed out in our little kitchen down to the cooking spray and egg flipper. Here is a better idea of how nice the view is from our upstairs window. The green island visible on the left is Coochiemudlo, where Matt and Peter had a sail yesterday. (I knew I'd eventually get the spelling right.) On Monday, Josh is going to take me spear fishing off the catamaran over there.

The View From Our Window

Coochiemudlo Island

Here, finally, is a view of Josh's wonder-bug (as in, "it's a wonder it's still on the road"). Josh took me out for a ride to his unkle Steve's place (Dave's dad) to burn a CD of my photos. The little engine sounds like it's screaming, cruising up the road, attracting stares and glares from passersby. Well, as we went to leave, the car didn't budge! No response when the key turned. After pretending to search the car underneath for the possible problem, Josh reattached the negative battery terminal, which sometimes shakes loose while driving! So off we went, to meet Carmel and Peter for tea at a friend's house, and nearly there, we pull off to the side of the road. This time, the concern looked genuine, Josh tugging on the throttle linkage to see why it won't idle properly. We drove the rest of the way with the trottle stuck halfway open, in a hysterical feet-free sort of cruise control. Using nothing but clutch and brake, we tore through a dirt and muddy road, repainting the white car with brown, while my seatbelt latch was stuck on the outside of the door. It was sopping brown, and is almost visible in the last photo, just below the passenger door.

VW Tied On	Josh and His Car	Why Isn't It Starting	Reattaching the Loose Negative Terminal
Throttle Linkage This Time...	Don't Take a Picture of This!	Cruise Control	Repainted It

We had a really nice time visiting with their friends from the hall. Their house is just at the end of a really long, narrow, rickety pier, only about a foot above the surface of the water. As you walk along it, you feel each randomly spaced board yeild under your weight, and the span sort of wobble a bit between the pylons. It didn't help to be informed that the surrounding mudwater was full of agressive bull sharks. Weather or not that was true, it added to the effect. The sun began to set while we were out there, and in the dim light, focusing on my step, being sure not to step where the missing boards were, I bonked my forehead pretty soundly on an unnoticed low hanging branch!

Halfway Down the Long Rickety Peir	Windcatcher	Bull Shark Bait	Setting Sun on Rickety Pier
Orange Sunset