Yup, here's a gen-u-wine news update:
I have found a 2003 Mazda Protege5, a four-door hatchback, with less than 35,000 miles on it for under $13,000.
It's silver, it's got a sunroof and a 6-CD changer in it .... yep, that's six, count 'em, SIX CDs!
The car dealer is holding it for me. He's putting a "SOLD" sign on it. It's down in a little town near the Indiana border. I'll be driving there probably Saturday.
I'm still getting used to the idea. Hmm, whaddaya think about that new car there, Mary?
Wednesday, June 29, 2005
Sunday, June 26, 2005
Sunday morning
Dragon Mood? -- sluggish
It feels like it's been ages since I last posted. Life has been too busy the past month or so.
I got bad news this past week. My old Volvo appears to be terminal. It has achieved some critical mass in terms of parts not working, new parts needed and sheer old age in terms of its working (or more appropriately, not working) properly. It has become the proverbial "money drain." I don't want to put more money into a vehicle with 200K+ miles on it, much as I had hoped to drive it until 300K. I'm actually rather sad about it and already mourning its passing.
So, for the past several days I have been thinking about and researching other vehicles. I'm about 90% sure that I'm going to buy a used vehicle. While I would love to buy a Honda Civic Si hatchback, the pretzel-like gymnastics one has to employ to access the backseat will probably take that one out of the running. The Mini Cooper is just too cool, too in demand with a $20,000+ price tag to go with it for my pinched pocketbook. The most likely candidate at this time looks to be the Pontiac Vibe, with four doors, a hatchback for the dog, and a conscientious EPA rating of 28/33 mpg.
I will keep you posted!
It feels like it's been ages since I last posted. Life has been too busy the past month or so.
I got bad news this past week. My old Volvo appears to be terminal. It has achieved some critical mass in terms of parts not working, new parts needed and sheer old age in terms of its working (or more appropriately, not working) properly. It has become the proverbial "money drain." I don't want to put more money into a vehicle with 200K+ miles on it, much as I had hoped to drive it until 300K. I'm actually rather sad about it and already mourning its passing.
So, for the past several days I have been thinking about and researching other vehicles. I'm about 90% sure that I'm going to buy a used vehicle. While I would love to buy a Honda Civic Si hatchback, the pretzel-like gymnastics one has to employ to access the backseat will probably take that one out of the running. The Mini Cooper is just too cool, too in demand with a $20,000+ price tag to go with it for my pinched pocketbook. The most likely candidate at this time looks to be the Pontiac Vibe, with four doors, a hatchback for the dog, and a conscientious EPA rating of 28/33 mpg.
I will keep you posted!
Wednesday, June 22, 2005
Tuesday, June 21, 2005
Happy Summer Solstice!
Today is the longest day of the year and the point in the Sun's comings and goings when it is farthest north.
It is also a day for celebration, when we join with peoples past and present celebrating the Sun's role in our sustenace and lives.
Reuters reports that up to 21,000 druids, spiritualist and revellers gathered at Stonehenge this morning to watch the sun rise at 4:58 a.m. across Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire.
I am right there with them, cheering, revelling and enjoying the day!
It is also a day for celebration, when we join with peoples past and present celebrating the Sun's role in our sustenace and lives.
Reuters reports that up to 21,000 druids, spiritualist and revellers gathered at Stonehenge this morning to watch the sun rise at 4:58 a.m. across Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire.
I am right there with them, cheering, revelling and enjoying the day!
Thursday, June 16, 2005
Such a busy week!
Dragon Mood? -- winded and snorty
It has been way too busy this week. Here's what I've been doing:
It has been way too busy this week. Here's what I've been doing:
- working, working, working at work! Who would've imagined I could have so much work at work?
- getting my hormonal ring prescription filled. S bought us a Sam's Club membership a couple of weeks ago, because we heard that their prescription drug prices are lower. My time was rapidly running out (watch out! there's a bitch on the loose!), so I needed to get that 'scrip transferred and filled. Thankfully, S was willing to drive over bad potholes and across half of Motown to help me get this DRUG I need!
- on the phone with my dad, my sister and my son, trying to figure out what to say in a document for a class-action suit with which we're involved. 'Nough said! ArrrrghhHHH!
- my coworker, Trice, suckered me into playing two choral pieces that she's trying to learn, and then, casually, oh-by-the-way mentioned, "would you mind taping them for me, too, please?" That has been another "AAAaarrrghhHH" situation! If I wanted to be playing church pieces, I'd go to a damn church and volunteer!
- paying our house insurance which was due about two weeks ago, and now they're going to cancel our mortgage because the house is uninsured, and of course, I always skip right over any correspondence from the insurance company because I HATE insurance companies just on principle!!!!
- AAaaarrrghghHHH!!
What I haven't had time to do:
- knit
- read one of the five books I ordered from QPB which are sitting on the leather ottoman, staring innocently at me
- get on the laptop and play, play, play with Photoshop which is want I really want to be doing
- walk the dog -- I have been a totally derelict mom and two-legged as far as Cisco is concerned; she's filing a grievance with the ACLU.
- chase dust bunnies; Cisco keeps blowing out her winter coat and the bunnies are definitely going to stage a coup d'etat any day now and tie S and me up. You'll know that it truly happened when there are no more blog posts!
- just sit on the front porch, drink a beer and watch the world go by. Besides being too damn busy, I'm haven't even had or taken time to go buy myself a six-pack of Mich Ultra. Now that's just completely pathetic!
- send anybody, including my father, a Happy Father's Day card. A phone call is going to have to suffice!
- get ready for Game 4 of the NBA Finals; the Pistons are counting on me! S and I are definitely going to have to visit the local pub near our pied-a-terre, say "Hi" to Shannon and drink with complete seriousness.
I'll get back with you after those six Mich Ultras.
Tuesday, June 14, 2005
Sunday, June 12, 2005
It didn't even say goodbye
Dragon Mood? -- *sniff, sniff* "buh-bye, computer"
[I'm writing this on Thursday, but back-dating it for last Sunday.]
Saturday morning, when I had gotten up, I tried to get on the computer. I hit the ON button and nothing happened. I mean nothing happened. Just the night before, eight or nine hours earlier, I had been on the computer and everything was fine. Now, it was completely dead. I checked all the electrical connections, the surge protection was in place and other peripherals seemed to have power. Just not the CPU box.
Saturday afternoon, Mark, Lindsey and baby Preston were visiting. Mark is something of a geek so we asked him to have a look at it. He concluded that maybe our power supply something or other was burned out (not the geekiest of technical jargon), because the CPU couldn't even be turned on.
I called a place he recommended. They were open until six and I told them I was bringing the box in. I didn't tell S this, but I wanted our computer functional -- I had a bunch of pictures I wanted to upload to flickr!!!!
Suddenly, Mark was asking if we wanted to take the baby with us to the computer place while he and Lindsey made a grocery run to Meijers. Methinks he saw an opportunity to be alone with his honey. We both said, "Sure!," so Mark hustled our CPU out to the Volvo, we loaded S and Preston in the back seat of the Volvo, they took off for Meijers and we headed to this geek shop.
S and I got totally bad news about our computer: a blown capacitor, a hanging ventilation fan (it was attached to the box only by the electrical wires connection) and a fried motherboard! Yikes -- no wonder the damn thing wouldn't turn on.
So, we made a two-minute decision to buy a rebuilt CPU for about $400. We set the baby's carseat on the floor and wandered around while they cannibalized our CPU, pulled out our hard drive and our video card, and started rebuilding this "new" machine. LIterally within 20 or 30 minutes, it was ready to go.
We loaded the new CPU, the baby and his carseat back into the Volvo and went and got a soft-serve ice cream to celebrate our new computer! We were waiting to get a call from Mark and Lindsey that they were home from their shopping trip so we just drove around, talking, passing the time. Preston fell asleep.
It was an unexpected and interesting afternoon to be sure!
[I'm writing this on Thursday, but back-dating it for last Sunday.]
Saturday morning, when I had gotten up, I tried to get on the computer. I hit the ON button and nothing happened. I mean nothing happened. Just the night before, eight or nine hours earlier, I had been on the computer and everything was fine. Now, it was completely dead. I checked all the electrical connections, the surge protection was in place and other peripherals seemed to have power. Just not the CPU box.
Saturday afternoon, Mark, Lindsey and baby Preston were visiting. Mark is something of a geek so we asked him to have a look at it. He concluded that maybe our power supply something or other was burned out (not the geekiest of technical jargon), because the CPU couldn't even be turned on.
I called a place he recommended. They were open until six and I told them I was bringing the box in. I didn't tell S this, but I wanted our computer functional -- I had a bunch of pictures I wanted to upload to flickr!!!!
Suddenly, Mark was asking if we wanted to take the baby with us to the computer place while he and Lindsey made a grocery run to Meijers. Methinks he saw an opportunity to be alone with his honey. We both said, "Sure!," so Mark hustled our CPU out to the Volvo, we loaded S and Preston in the back seat of the Volvo, they took off for Meijers and we headed to this geek shop.
S and I got totally bad news about our computer: a blown capacitor, a hanging ventilation fan (it was attached to the box only by the electrical wires connection) and a fried motherboard! Yikes -- no wonder the damn thing wouldn't turn on.
So, we made a two-minute decision to buy a rebuilt CPU for about $400. We set the baby's carseat on the floor and wandered around while they cannibalized our CPU, pulled out our hard drive and our video card, and started rebuilding this "new" machine. LIterally within 20 or 30 minutes, it was ready to go.
We loaded the new CPU, the baby and his carseat back into the Volvo and went and got a soft-serve ice cream to celebrate our new computer! We were waiting to get a call from Mark and Lindsey that they were home from their shopping trip so we just drove around, talking, passing the time. Preston fell asleep.
It was an unexpected and interesting afternoon to be sure!
Sunday, June 05, 2005
A 30-year time frame
Dragon Mood? -- sentimental
Last night, S and I went to see George Lucas's Revenge of the Sith. It was Episode III of his six-part Star Wars movie. I thought it was better than Episodes I and II, but also more violent than I remember Episodes IV, V and VI being.
As we left the theater, I realized that Star Wars is far more a part of my history than I had ever realized. It brackets a 30-year time frame that begins with ...
My then-husband and I going to a drive-in movie theater (the Starlight?) near old Lansing Road and Waverly. It was August and we were excited about seeing this new movie about space adventures. And we were taking our four-month-old daughter, Caroline, to her first movie. We came to rue that decision as Caroline was teething and halfway into the movie, she began to cry loudly and determinedly. Nothing I did could quiet her. Our drive-in neighbors gave us dirty looks. Our crying baby was definitely disturbing the Force for them. We finally gave up, started the 350 horses of our Chevy Malibu, gravel crunching loudly as we dejectedly slunk out, the outdoor screen filled with now silent images. My personal definition of frustration!
Fast forward to 1982. Our son, Josh, is turning four and we're having a birthday party. We rent a VCR from the public library (yes, we didn't own one at the time), invite four or five other little boys to the house and as birthday entertainment, they watch The Empire Strikes Back. If my maternal memory serves me correctly, the party was a great success! Josh was thrilled! (In retrospect, what a deadly dull way to have a party: here kids, sit in front of the TV for the next two hours!)
Now it's 1984? (That's a guess and I'm basing it on the kids' ages.) Josh would have been six and Caroline eight. Someone(?) sponsored an audio reading of the then three Star Wars movies for National Public Radio that was played every Saturday night (again, a guess?) for eight or ten weeks. As regular listeners to WKAR, we heard about the audio series and decided to tape the broadcast of each episode. We had a new stereo system and were pretty proud of ourselves for our technological sophistication! I remember sitting in the then dining room, listening to the adventures of Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia. The kids' dad carefully and lovingly taped each and every episode. And those tapes; my goodness, they floated around with the other detritus of our household for years and years!
Fast forward through middle school, piano lessons, divorce, kids shuttled back and forth, high school, band, graduations, college, more graduations. They're grown, they're gone and Star Wars lives on.
And last night, I saw the last of this remarkable body of work. I'm glad I went to see it on the BIG SCREEN! Here's to you, George Lucas, and all the other countless people who contributed to such a cultural icon of the late 20th century! Bravo! Star Wars is definitely a visible and recurring thread in the tapesty of my life.
Last night, S and I went to see George Lucas's Revenge of the Sith. It was Episode III of his six-part Star Wars movie. I thought it was better than Episodes I and II, but also more violent than I remember Episodes IV, V and VI being.
As we left the theater, I realized that Star Wars is far more a part of my history than I had ever realized. It brackets a 30-year time frame that begins with ...
My then-husband and I going to a drive-in movie theater (the Starlight?) near old Lansing Road and Waverly. It was August and we were excited about seeing this new movie about space adventures. And we were taking our four-month-old daughter, Caroline, to her first movie. We came to rue that decision as Caroline was teething and halfway into the movie, she began to cry loudly and determinedly. Nothing I did could quiet her. Our drive-in neighbors gave us dirty looks. Our crying baby was definitely disturbing the Force for them. We finally gave up, started the 350 horses of our Chevy Malibu, gravel crunching loudly as we dejectedly slunk out, the outdoor screen filled with now silent images. My personal definition of frustration!
Fast forward to 1982. Our son, Josh, is turning four and we're having a birthday party. We rent a VCR from the public library (yes, we didn't own one at the time), invite four or five other little boys to the house and as birthday entertainment, they watch The Empire Strikes Back. If my maternal memory serves me correctly, the party was a great success! Josh was thrilled! (In retrospect, what a deadly dull way to have a party: here kids, sit in front of the TV for the next two hours!)
Now it's 1984? (That's a guess and I'm basing it on the kids' ages.) Josh would have been six and Caroline eight. Someone(?) sponsored an audio reading of the then three Star Wars movies for National Public Radio that was played every Saturday night (again, a guess?) for eight or ten weeks. As regular listeners to WKAR, we heard about the audio series and decided to tape the broadcast of each episode. We had a new stereo system and were pretty proud of ourselves for our technological sophistication! I remember sitting in the then dining room, listening to the adventures of Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia. The kids' dad carefully and lovingly taped each and every episode. And those tapes; my goodness, they floated around with the other detritus of our household for years and years!
Fast forward through middle school, piano lessons, divorce, kids shuttled back and forth, high school, band, graduations, college, more graduations. They're grown, they're gone and Star Wars lives on.
And last night, I saw the last of this remarkable body of work. I'm glad I went to see it on the BIG SCREEN! Here's to you, George Lucas, and all the other countless people who contributed to such a cultural icon of the late 20th century! Bravo! Star Wars is definitely a visible and recurring thread in the tapesty of my life.
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