Clear and chilly this way-early Monday on California’s north coast as we start another work week as springtime seems have arrived unannounced.

This past weekend was gorgeous — the skies clear and sunny with really-warm temperatures. I spent Headthe weekend grubbing around in my tiny “back yard,” which is no more than a thin strip of ground between my patio and back fence, clearing out weeds and collecting bits of trash.

(Illustration: Cloud formation Mendocino County 2010).

Working in the dirt in warm sunshine does wonders for the mental facilities. The back patio area a tinny-tiny plot of work-space, but a huge cog in the thought processes, and there’s a lot of thinking going on via my cranium. I’ve always had a so-called “green thumb,” and pulling weeds is sort-of in that category, somewhat.

Senseless labor clears the mind — last week a major discovery, or a dire crisis, no matter the circumstance. In a quirk, I discovered my wonderful, old Jeep Comanche might be on its last legs, at least in my awkward hands.
The truck has either a cracked head gasket, or even-worse still, a cracked head. Either way, it’s the shit.
From cars.com and the Top 10 Worst Things Your Mechanic Can Tell You:

#5: Cracked Head, Blown Head Gasket or Cracked Block
There are a few places you should never see antifreeze: falling from the sky, in your cereal bowl or coming out your tailpipe.
The engine’s cooling system is a closed system, meaning that the coolant circulates from the engine’s cooling passages to the radiator, the heater core and back again.
It should never leave that loop.
If it’s somehow getting into the oil passages or the cylinders (and, from there, out the tailpipe) something has gone terribly wrong.
Your head gasket has cracked, your head itself has cracked or, worst of all, your block has cracked.
These problems are often the result of overheating.

My thermostat is fine, thank-you!
Yet, indeed, ‘something has gone terrible wrong!’

I discovered the problem almost by chance. Not anywhere near a mechanic, or in any way mechanically inclined, and during a normal phone conversation with a good friend down in Mendocino County last week (one of his kids took the awesome photo above), I off-handed asked about some creamy, milky, foam-like substance drooling up out of my oil spout.
After a moment of silence, my friend (who does know machinery) said there’s moisture in your engine — maybe condensation, or maybe not…
He said to check the oil dipstick, if the same shit is there, “you’ve got a problem.”

Hence the head job to come. Later this morning, I’m going to call my mechanic who’s done just all the work on the Jeep the last five years and see if he can take a look at the situation.
It’s going to take a lot of weed-pulling to mentally tend to this crisis. And it’s only Monday!