I am hoping that we are progressing towards being Unstuck.
Mark is plodding along with the engine. He does not know if it will be finished in time for the weekend, but he thinks that the turbo is working and he has got the cam timing in the right place.
I do not have the first idea what either of those things are but I smiled and nodded and said Oh, That’s Nice, Dear, which seemed to satisfy him.
Also the new bits have arrived, which is also a very good thing.
We will be a lot less Stuck once the taxi is working and we are a two-income household again.
I have been desperately hoping and hoping that the taxi will be mended by tomorrow night, because we can always earn far more money at weekends than we can during the week. If there are two taxis then we might earn enough to pay the mortgage and the gas bill and even go to Booths.
Also somebody sent Mark an email this morning which made us think that there might even be an oil rig that will need mending after the wedding, so we will probably not need to sell our kidneys after all.
I decided on my fell walk this morning that I have been miserably grumpy, and that I would do something about it. The sun was shining, which helped, and the day was so hopeful and damply promising that I even took my raincoat off and only got a bit wet.
I saw two swans landing on the tarn the other day, and forgot to tell you about it. They were beautiful, sailing majestically down, reflected so brightly in the water that for a moment it seemed there were four of them, and they landed without even the tiniest splash.
When I came back today I peeled off my sodden boots and set about cleaning Mark’s taxi out.
I might have mentioned that I do not like driving Mark’s taxi. Actually I know I have mentioned it. I know I have grumbled about it practically every day.
Today it dawned on me that I might feel more contented with my Lot In Life if I was not driving a disgusting filthy taxi in which Mark had been abandoning his rubbish in the footwell, vaguely imagining that he would tidy it up One Day.
He thinks things like this. He is the most untidy person I have ever met, apart from a couple of others whom I shall not name here but they know who they are.
Today I cleaned it out.
I had to empty the hoover twice, and it used up two whole hoover batteries.
Mark has been hauling firewood and dogs in it.
I was very pleased with myself when it was done.
The carpets were clean and the steering wheel was not sticky and there was not a single squished-up wrapper for Babybel Cheese anywhere.
Better still, I found an unused air freshener underneath one of the mats. I got it out and hung it up, and am now breathing in Sweet Rose Freshness instead of Mouldy Wet Dog And Oily Overalls.
After that I took it down to the garage and gave the outside a Heated Foam Power Wash And Jet Force Rinse.
It took hours and hours, but it has improved my life very much indeed.
Mark is not going to be allowed to get back in it at all, not even for a moment, until my own taxi is fixed and I do not need this one any more.
I was so pleased with it that I did not even mind knowing that we needed cash so badly that I should go to work early. I made a flask of tea and brought my sewing with me and came out with a Spring In My Step.
I have finished the sewing, which was a curtain tie for the camper van, and I am sitting on the taxi rank feeling that really life is not very bad after all.
I might get my taxi back tomorrow.
I am very pleased to have realised that this one is so nice now that I really won’t be very upset if I don’t.
