24-VIII-2000.

Last day on Nags Head. She is feeling better. Nina is all swollen with sunburn. Go is quite sunburned too but holding alright. Lena and I had no problems. But the Corolla did - the alternator was shot. Actually its pulley was worn out, so the belt didn't quite pull and it wasn't turning anymore. We started the car by pushing, and it had enough juice to drive half a mile to the nearest Advance*, where I replaced the alternator with just what little tools I had. I didn't unscrew the terminal from the battery, so when I made one wrong move, the whole thing shortcircuited and... well, now that I got the alternator to work, it wouldn't fire the starter. I guess it was the starter's fuse.

So we got around by pushing the car to start a couple of times (right then and there, then when we got gas somewhere along the way, didn't make any other stops).

When we got home, I studied the wiring and opened both fuse boxes... and found it. It was impossible to take out, so buying one didn't solve anything. So I just took small pliers and twisted it until the molten parts made solid contact. It kept working like that for years.

The next day was our birthday. She made a cake, with lots of whipped cream (from a spray bottle, artificial I'd say), twentyone candle. Ricardo was here too, got me a nice traditional chinese ashtray for a present. I kept really using it for years.

----

* the shop is, inexplicably, called „advance auto parts“. True to nature of english, you don't know which word is context for others, so whether this means the parts for an advancing/advanced cars, car parts you should buy in advance, or those you should advance in a chess pawn (shop) manner, is beyond me. Got it: the auto, which once advanced, now parts.

---

Mentions: Gorana Sredljević (Go), Jelena Sredljević (Lena), Nevena Sredljević (Nina), Ricardo Manuel Bariero (Ricardo), in serbian