What saved me today was the sun shining on me. The air had a summery warmth to it for a few hours this afternoon. That's what kept me from cursing the unmerciful fates that were trying to take me down. Despite evidence to the contrary, nothing could be all that bad on a day like this.

I didn't think so this morning, when the gas station I was trying to get into was blocked on three sides by traffic cones and I couldn't find my way around enough city blocks in that swanky part of town to get in the back way. Even though I finally made it, I wasn't thinking it was such a wonderful day then. Nor was I particularly enchanted when my poor old Honda wouldn't start as I tried to leave the gas station.

To his credit, the attendant was there almost immediately, tinkering under the hood. He unscrewed things and looked inside them, and the tapped on other things with the blunt end of his screwdriver. Eventually the car started, whether it was from something he did or just because it was ready to go.

He told me to have the defruminator (or something like that) and the philandrum (I'm pretty sure about that one) checked, because I was getting a pretty weak spark. Well, I've been getting a pretty weak spark most of my life, so I don't think it's the car that's the problem. Anyway, I'm not sure if he was just making things up or if he really knew what he was talking about, but the car was fine the rest of the day.

That was my morning, but it was all happening in brilliant sunshine, so it could have been much worse. My afternoon was spent trying to track down my trusty copier guy, who seems to have left the planet. His pager number was no longer in service, according to the voice at the other end of the line, so I tried his toll free phone line.

This time the recorded voice referred me to a 900 number. Well, I've heard about those. You get naked people when you call those numbers, and the last thing I want is a naked copier repairman. One of the last things. Pretty close to the last, though.

So I'll have to look in the yellow pages for a new service tech for my copier. What a pain. Knowing me, it'll take me weeks to get around to doing that. Meanwhile, I'm using the fax/printer as a copier. It's less efficient and much slower, but I'll make do.

I sent a letter to my guy's last known address. Maybe they'll forward it to whatever planet he's gone to, and he'll call me and make a special trip to clean off the synchronic plastinoid, or whatever. I know as much about office machinery as I do about cars.

It was still quite warm tonight, but that was due to a spooky wind that blew through. It was strong enough to rattle the dormer windows and howl through the eucalyptus grove, but it was a hot, dry wind, not the kind we expect this time of year. It was more tropical than arctic. As I said, spooky.