Pfhew, so I’m back in school and things are more hectic than I figured. Work at Lexmark has been pretty steady, as I work my 15 hours per week, but the other stuff has been up in the air. I had a meeting with my professor yesterday to discuss work on the Baby Health charity clinic site and instead of getting paid for it, because the clinic can’t really afford that (they’ve got kids to provide health care to!), I’ll be getting 2 hours course credit for it in the form of an independent study course. That means I can almost drop my Holocaust class, which sounded from the first day like a whole heck of a lot of reading (which I figured), except that would leave me with 11 hours instead of the 12 required to be a full-time student, which I want to be. So, after poking at my professor about this problem, he suggested another CS professor sign me up for a second independent study class, and I’ll do some other project for him. I feel like I’m going to be hopping this semester, but at least my class load will be easy… Except for senior design, which will involve a big programming project. Crappo, I need to submit a form allowing that senior design project to count as my final Honors Program project, too. Anyway, so that’s what’s shaking on the class and work front.

In other news, my uncle that I mentioned in the last entry, the one that had cancer, passed away the day after my mom, aunt, and I visited him. I couldn’t believe it; none of us could. I got back in Lexington that day and saw I had a missed call from my brother. I called him back and he broke the news to me; I was just flabbergasted, because when I had visited my uncle, he looked swollen and seemed weak, but I didn’t think he looked on the verge of death or anything. He sat up in bed and talked with us, napped some while we were there, and made jokes like usual. My aunt thought he looked really swollen since the last time we’d seen him. I called Mom after getting off the phone with my brother, and we talked about his death, each of us expressing that we’d expected my uncle to live for another couple of years, maybe, but certainly not for only a single day more. His funeral was the following Wednesday and I didn’t go at my parents’ suggestion; it was a long drive, I had to work, and they reasoned that I had seen him just before he died. My brother was a pall bearer. Apparently there were a ton of people at the funeral; he was loved by many. He was the first of my mother’s siblings to die, and he was the oldest.

In less depressing news that’s still bad, my car is acting up again. It was driving fine, but when I went to start it the other day, I turned the key and… nothing. No engine noises, it doesn’t turn over at all. I tried rolling around all my fuses and replacing the fuel injection ones with others that I robbed from less vital features, like my radio and seat heaters. That didn’t fix it, and I didn’t see any obviously messed-up things under the hood. My dad suggested the battery, so Jon and I removed it and took it inside to let it warm up overnight because it has been ridiculously cold here of late. When we replaced it, the car still wouldn’t start, so we hauled the battery in to AutoZone today to have it tested; it tested good. The next guess is my starter, which for the part alone was around $200 at AutoZone, so I’m prepared to spend bank again on parts and service getting my car drivable. I’m still paying off the last $1,054.36 expense on my credit cards.