Yesterday's weather had been getting rough and throughout the day my internet speed deteriorated from already-slow, to 1/3rd slower than that, and then a 1/3rd slower again by the evening; barely useable. I ended up staying up late while I waited for Nvidia drivers to download for a graphics card I'd received that day... kind of stupid really, I should have just gone to bed and done that when my internet was back up to speed, well I was in bed already, but you know what I mean... The graphics card, a GTX 780 that I'd simply swapped from a 770 so I could put that in a computer that was lacking a graphics card, would run Einstein@home just fine, but the system crashed when I opened up Firestorm and it auto-adjusted the graphics settings to better suit the new hardware. The Unigine Valley tester thing also froze so I knew something was up; but maybe reinstalling the drivers would help, but for some reason I didn't have a copy of the right one on file and the ones presently installed weren't in the NVIDIA directory (and I think technically for the 1070 I'd previously had in the system and worked fine for the 770... weird.

The next day (today), after a rough night with slates being rattled on the roof above me by the forecasted 80mph winds, I discovered I had a message from my neighbour who had gone away for the weekend. Somehow, as he could see on his security camera, the wind had managed to blow his door open. By the time I got round there our other neighbour was already on the scene. We locked the door and hustled back home. The wind managed to get it back open a short while later so a few other attempts were made. The neighbour suggested putting something heavy against the inside of the door and letting myself out the other; he had a two stone garden ornaments, one a TARDIS, and the other R2D2; I chose the former and messaged him to say what I had done, and that the TARDIS had been chosen to keep the door closed because it was a more suitable shape, although R2 had more force... I saw myself out, literally, by the other door.

Anyway, back home proper and I discovered my internet was completely out of action (hence the reason this Day was uploaded late).

My adventures had actually begun yesterday; I'd popped out in my car to visit my mum and just as I was almost home my car cut out. It has had a hiccup a couple of times before but I'd always managed to keep/get it running whilst still moving, this time however I was too lost in my thoughts with music blaring to manage to do that and we rolled to a stop on the quiet road.

As I'd just gone round a bend (and had started to climb a hill) I was immediately concerned someone might come round the bend behind and not see my car in time. I'd immediately put the hazard lights on [see, I'm thankful I did actually replace that switch], but, being able to see the road was clear behind for the moment I let the car roll back round the bend to a safer spot.

From here I ventured under the bonnet and checked leads etc. Nothing was obvious but I tried the car again; it would turn over fine, it just wasn't firing. It was one of these moments where your day/life, that was seemingly plodding along nicely, suddenly takes an unforeseen turn, like slipping off a mountain path [been there, done that] and your head starts racing with ideas about how best to proceed. Anyway, I tried the car again, sometimes pumping the gas, and after just turning it over and over it did a little cough; that seemed like good news so I turned it over some more, and eventually it fired up, although it still wasn't happy and I needed to pull the choke out, even though the engine was up to temperature.

I managed to limp the car home; it was down on power initially but seemed to have cleared itself by the time I parked up outside my house, now with the choke back in again. Phew. It seems like it was fuel related, perhaps a blockage, or even the opposite; the carburettor was flooding when it cut out. All I can hope now is that things will be okay again for my next drive to college... I should perhaps have another short drive before then lest I risk getting stranded in the dark somewhere.

Anyway, thank to the internet dying my Memrise 100-day streak came to an end [see Day 2]. You see, if I'd done the sim card swap [See Day 4] already I could have gotten internet access over the mobile/cell-phone network. Oh well.