At 200-and-some miles, on the over-the-hilly bit between Paso Robles and San Luis Obispo, the vehicle engine commenced to misfire in a very worrying manner. (I now know that this is what the previously intermittent rumblings were about, engine misfires.) On the way back, the loss of power up several grades got so pronounced that I had to have the car towed from Salinas to San Jose, and now the beastie has a replacement for the year-old, after-market, catalytic converter that was in it. The vehicle just purrs like a kitten, sort of, and somebody at the conference spit Covid all over me. You could call it a lively couple of weeks.

And this is not to say I didn’t have a good time. Here is the output from my Kumihimo on a Marudai.

Toitily guards them.

The dark blue one is the first effort, and one generally has a fondness for the first. It documents a sizeable disruption to the learning process, brought on by an unseemly arrogance. I took a break. I piled the Tama onto the Mirror (the round face of the Marudai) to take the weight off the cords. I knew the Mirror was as slippery as the terminology suggests. I knew I would have to be very, very careful, when I came back to the work. But I wasn’t. Tama, cords and all slid right off the mirror, onto the floor, in a nice tangle. Teacher says this happens at least once per class, and I was so pleased to have it be me on this go-around.

Paradoxically, I pride myself on the weary acceptance of my fate, in the moment. I took a breath or two, and conducted a calm assessment of the tangle. And, not only did I get the sixteen cords on their Tamas back onto the Marudai in something under half an hour, the resulting bobble in the cord is not that bad . . . not bad at all.

They look nice in a pile. I am pleased. The teacher gave us four different braid patterns to sample, and on my second effort, the green and brown, I was familiar enough with the technique to make longer sections that can be cut into bracelet lengths and glued into hardware. More stuff to shop for!

I will admit be being bummed about the replacement of the Cat. I will not tell you what it cost.

And the saga of my catalytic converter is long and tragic. It began nearly two years ago, when the check engine light came on. The mechanic said that the Cat was failing, but I could still drive it for a while, and I did, for some months. Finally reconciling myself to the necessity, I was still grieved by the cost. This was shortly after the Covid lockdown, and subsequent supply chain kerfuffles, and Honda … unable to get new cars to market … had criminally jacked up the price of car parts.

Further, I make poor decisions, and do not listen to good advice. I have two mechanics: the expensive one and the not so expensive one. They both charge the same for labor, but the expensive one flatly refuses to install after-market parts.

One Calalytic Coverter: Honda – $2500; After-market – $1800. Seven hundred dollars is no small sum.

And I made the poorer decision, but that was nowhere near the end of it. I had the Cat replaced in December of 2021. In June of 2022, a couple months before the car must be smogged, the check engine light is on, and has been on since the Cat was installed. I can’t do it justice, but this is yet more building of the tragic saga.

They put the device in. The light comes on; I take it back.

A bad weld, they say. And off into the world I go again.

The light comes back on, but I, a weary soul, leave it on until June.

The replacement Cat is bad, they say. The warranty is invoked and the replacement Cat is replaced.

Do I have to say it? That damnable light will not go off. An oxygen sensor is replaced as well, and I am smogged !!! Oh Joy, Oh Bliss … ostensibly for two years.

No such freakin’ luck.

It was probably about six months after that the vehicle starts acting up, repeatedly, after some freeway driving, but will it do this for the mechanic and get diagnosed? No. Not until I run the poor beastie into the ground, can I find out what the deal is, and get it fixed, again.

And all this diagnosis and treatment (I left out the bit where it goes to the transmission shop), I have to do while feeling poorly with the Covid. This latest incarnation comes with a nasty headache . . . and after the booster I got in July !!!

And still I am pleased with my braids. It is a wondrous life.