The Manic Mechanic

What am I happy about today? That the meme is over. What are you happy about? Probably that you wont have this cluttering up your friends list view any more.

But it was sorta fun.

I have another reason to be happy, that tomorrow is my last day in the grind until Jan The Fifth. I really, really need this break, and I hope to put it to good use.

More from the Garage of Happy: Picking Kodi up from the groomer. He looks awesome and smells nice and clean. He's really missing Jeff though, barking and mumbling while looking outside at the empty spot on the driveway. He wants Jeff to see how utterly fierce he looks.

I can now go back down to the garage and continue my tinkering there. The alarm system gets a new battery, the old battery was shot, and just recently totally came apart at one of the terminals. No more looking at the flashing battery warning. I also am going to work my tech-fu on the new door opener to try and allow other controls aside from the multifunction wall controller to interface with it and not throw the wall control into kernel panic every time the other control activates the opener.

No earth shattering happy episodes today, just some minor successes at work, a dinner of soup and sandwiches tonight and an unintentional nap. But it's happiness in it's own form.

New of the loss of Majel Barrett Roddenberry did temper any of today's happiness though. Her presence through the Star Trek universe was solid, fun and important. More than just Gene Roddenberry's wife, I think her voice as the Enterprise computers through the years defined her role in the series and in real life. Her role as the doting, meddlesome and flirty Lwaxana Troi was more than just comic relief, it had some powerful moments as well. My best memory was in the TNG "Half a Life", where Lwaxana falls in love with a scientist (played by David Ogden Stiers) working to revive their planet's dying sun. The twist here is that the scientist is soon approaching an age where those on his planet practice a form of ritual suicide they term the "Resolution". As with many Trek episodes, stories of the human condition take place, this time about aging, taking care of the infirm, and right-to-life issues taking center stage. Majel's acting abilities shine here as the fate of an entire planet stands uncertain. She will be missed. Yet, somehow fitting, she managed to complete her role once again as the voice of the Enterprise computer, and as such, the heart of the ship, in the upcoming movie. Mrs. Roddenberry died of leukemia.

Thank you, Majel, for all those moments, both happy and sad.