Song Madness

Far away
In a land caught between time and space
Where the books of life lay
Within this castle of stone
The mountain king roams
All alone in here
But he's not the only one
Lost inside
Forever hidden from the sun

Madness reigns
In the hall of the mountain king
Oh yeah

His deep
Dark eyes keep watch on his kingdom
And mysteries that sleep safe inside
His hall
His towers of stone
Shall not be overthrown
For eternity
They are guarded by the king
Insanity and the power that it brings

Madness reigns
In the hall of the mountain king
Oh yeah

Come with me
Stay close by my side
As the darkness of night closes in
Don't fear
In the thunder, it roars
When the mountain king calls all his children home
To where I hid him we must run
Refuge here
But I was forever on the run

Madness reigns, my friends...
In the hall of the mountain king
Oh yeah
In the hall of the mountain king
- Savatage, Hall of the Mountain King
... and if you've not heard it, try and find 'Prelude to Madness' (a metal rendition of Grieg's original HotMK), and 'Hall of the Mountain King'... you won't be disappointed...

*hugs and cuddles*
~Ellie-chan, servant 'bot in the Hall

Madness reigns...

Seems to be the theme today. I just got back from Ritchie Automotive; I had some time and wanted to talk to the tech about the car, rather than the guesswork I'd done on the phone with the shop owners. And now I'm very confused...

Pep Boys had said there was no oil in the engine. The tech assured me he drained roughly 4.5 quarts from the block before pulling it from the car. The residue on the back of the car has been verified to be what looks to be SODA, spilled across the trunk deck. There's no oil OR transmission fluid residue on the undercarriage.

The engine is locked up. There's no question there. But the head gasket, it turns out, is completely intact. I stood and watched as they unbolted the old one and pulled the head off. All the pistons are intact, there was oil, and the engine is locked up.

The heat issues are apparent, though, from the melted and slagged components that were piled beside it. Water pump, fuel filter and housing, thermostat and housing, oil dipstick tube... and the spark plugs look like someone shot the tips off with shotgun.

*scratches her head* So what I'm now looking at is an engine that completely and suddenly terminally overheated, fragging the entire assembly in catastrophic failure. The radiator was full of coolant; I verified this as well.

I simply do not understand why this happened, but it's quite clear that SOMETHING went wrong.

And Crystal, as a footnote to this, I've been unable to get onto AIM for several days now... I need to touch base with you, sweetie.

*sigh*
I'm going to go to therapy now. This is going to bug me; I spent a number of years working as a 'shade tree' mechanic, and actually made a living at one point doing air-cooled Volkswagen engine repairs and rebuilds. I've never seen anything like this; everything I've learned says that it simply shouldn't happen. And while philosophical mysteries are wonderful to explore, -this- kind of puzzle just whomps me upside the head with categoric wrrongness.

The tech had one possible answer; one that I don't like at -all-. If the car had been tampered with deliberately, this could happen. There are compounds that could be added to the oil and coolant to do just exactly what happened. But the car always was locked, and the hood release is inside the passenger compartment... which means if this -is- the way it happened, someone did an awful lot of work to kill my Saturn.

I'm less than happy with that notion.

~Ellie-chan