Restraint: Fiddling with the Archive

I spent an hour this morning fiddling around at the AO3, because Restraint, in all its 185,000-word glory, presents some challenges to the AO3 posting interface (and my own tracking capabilities). Three or four chapters were somehow duplicates, and the chapter numbering was off.

I've now corrected these defects, but not without casualties: several lovely comments got deleted along with the duplicate chapters they were attached to. At least two of them, from yesterday, I hadn't yet answered.

Comments really are love, and the comment conversations that have grown up around Restraint are wonderful. I go back and re-read them for inspiration sometimes, and several people have told me that they read them, too.

I'm sorry that I deleted any of them; if I'd know it would happen, I'd have at least saved screenshots before starting on the cleanup. If a comment that you wrote is among the fallen, I apologize, and if you commented on Chapter 36: In Which Tristan Casts The First Stone, and haven't had a reply from me, this is why.

Driving

Until today, I hadn't started my car since February. It's been sitting out on the street in front of my house, gathering cherry-tree detritus and looking sad, while I ride my bike everywhere and test non-car-ownership as a way of life.

Poor car. If my sis hadn't stepped in, it would have sat there till all its value was gone. To me, the deadness of it seemed like an insurmountable obstacle, but she called AAA (on her membership), and they came and poured two gallons of gas into the tank and forced enough juice into the battery to turn the engine over.

Then she went with me for an otherwise-pointless 45-minute freeway drive to solidify the battery's charge and ream out whatever pipelines might have become gummed up.

To my amazement, it was fun. Driving fast on a summer afternoon, going nowhere, enjoying the freedom--it's part of the foundation of my youth. Suddenly, just getting rid of a car that I couldn't easily replace seemed kind of extreme. It's a nice car, it's a pleasure to drive, it runs well, and it's paid for. Part of me really does like driving.

On the other hand, the car needs cleaning, an oil change, some air in the tires, and, sometime in the next year or so, new brakes. And driving somewhere once a week just to keep an unneeded car viable seems silly and wrong.

I don't know. I haven't decided yet, I guess.