#this is autobiographical

[shadowymilkcookie]

I think sage likes it the normal amount

[idleseas-ops]

It's my first time driving thru the Appalachian mountains, & my partner's first time back in a decade.

We're homeless, living in our van with our 3 cats, fleeing back-to-back winter storms that are preceding a polar vortex & prolonged negative temperatures up north.

At first, we're watching the full moon rise over the mountain peaks into a pastel night sky, and it's magical.

Then, just after dark, something goes *twang* under the hood, and suddenly, we lose steering.

Thankfully, we're in a town. I pull over at the first gas station I see and it's HARD; even with all of my might, I can barely turn the steering wheel, and I only just manage to drift crookedly into a corner of a Speedway parking lot.

I suspect the serpentine has snapped because it's been squeaking. I know it won't be too expensive to replace, but we have about $60 between us & didn't budget for a mechanic.

Also, all the mechanics here are closed for the night.

We have nothing to do but wait for morning, when we can actually contact a mechanic & get a tow.

We have no idea what we'll do with us or the cats while the van is in the shop, or how we'll pay for any of it, but we've got no choice.

We go in to tell the gas clerk about our situation, and he's fine with us staying. He says if we can't finagle our way to a safe corner he can help us once he's clocked out.

We go back to the van to... Just have the rest of our night, we guess.

Bellamy is doing a fantastic job keeping calm and trying to reassure me, even as I walk through what all of our options are. Despite being in problem-solving mode, I cry for about an hour on and off. This just sucks.

I text all of our friends to let them know where we are, mostly for reassurance. A few of them immediately pitch in some cash for a mechanic, but it's not a lot, and we still won't know the damage until tomorrow.

Then, someone comes over and knocks on the window.

He says, "Do you guys need help? I'm a mobile mechanic. I'm open 24/7, let me take a look."

He spends a few minutes under the hood, removes the air filter, and quickly finds the problem: our tensioner, rather than the serpentine belt itself. The belt is fine and has only slipped off the track.

The tensioner is a $35 part, and the store up the road has one.

The mechanic drives over there and gets the part for us, comes back, installs it, and fixes our problem in under and hour.

I go to get cash for him and ask how much I owe him.

He says $40. Only the cost of parts.

I say, "No... No!!!" He shrugs and says, "You can gimme 60 if you want lol"

I am literally homeless and hungry and in no position to argue and turn down such good fortune. I do in fact give him 60, and wish I could spare 160, but I really, really can't.

Still, I can't believe our luck. What could have stranded us for days is resolved in an hour, and we're back on the road.

I found out later that the gas station clerk called the guy for us. He wasn't a friend; he had just seen the mechanic helping others in his parking lot before.

The mechanic tells me before he goes that he's on Facebook marketplace, but when I search for him later, I can't find him.

If it weren't for him, we may have been stuck there for days.

If we had so much as pulled over in another parking lot, we'd never have found him.

And to boot, the squeak in the belt had been bothering me for months. I was dreading the worst, anticipating the belt snapping deep in the mountains where we wouldn't be able to get help.

The thing I dreaded happened; maybe not deep into the mountains, but in the mountains nonetheless, and in the dark, to boot. We broke down in a strange place... And got fixed up and back on the road before the night was done. And now we're okay. No more weird noises, the van running fine.

Thanks to this mechanic, too, we were able to keep some of our cash for gas for the rest of the trip, and for food. If we'd gone to any other mechanic, we'd have been broke.

Bel says this is just southern culture, that folks are just kind enough to stop and help, and maybe that's true. Even while the mechanic worked, yet another guy stopped and asked if HE needed any help! Folks in the Midwest would never. I was prepared to be stranded there for who knows how long.

Still, I can't help but feel some kind of way... My first time through the mountains, lit only by the light of the full moon and our headlights, and my specific fear comes to pass. This man emerges from the mountains immediately, fixes us up, and doesn't even charge us $100, only to disappear entirely into the night. It's like some kind of folk tale.

I think that bodes well for the rest of the trip.

(original post on Threads) (read on Kofi)

[amphibianaday]

day 1730

[maddie-grove]

My library YA nostalgia led me to contemplate the charmingly jaundiced titles of the books in Barthe DeClements’s Elsie Edwards Universe (Nothing’s Fair in Fifth Grade, Sixth Grade Can Really Kill You, etc.), and the idea of a book called Man, Fuck Fourth Grade popped into my head. As well as its sequels, Fifth Grade Can Also Go Fuck Itself and Middle School, Motherfuckers! They’re just normal middle-grade books but the trio of friends at its center just discovered the joys of swearing and they all do it way too much. One of them also has a foul-mouthed older sibling in high school who’s like “ugh, but it sounds so weird when you do it.”

[princesskuragina]

17 year old: I'm depressed. I'm overwhelmed by choice. I feel like the stakes are so high that if I fail I could ruin everything forever. I feel a sense of obligation to my parents, but I don't think they understand me. Maybe none of this is worth it

Every 12th grade english teacher, without fail: *hands you the tragedy of hamlet prince of denmark* that's rough buddy

[hpowellsmith]

game-writing self-care is realising you've gotten in the weeds for a set of incredibly obscure choices that no one has any reason to choose and excising them

[geturasstomars]

wearing a delicate blush of mulberry juice on my fingers and lips to the club

[hurricanes-art]

Zagreus's Official Underworld Escape Strategy Guide!™

Tip #14 - Charge your spear's spin attack as your foes are forming!*

*DO NOT DO THIS IN ELYSIUM.