Sunday, July 26, 2009

A new car! (and other ramblings)

So much for my great plan to write a post every day. Definitely not realistic, and probably for the better. Nobody needs to read about every mundane thing I've done every single day.

Taking a few moments to jot some things down. The wind is swirling threateningly outside my window as I write this, it feels as if a thunderstorm may be brewing. This is not good because I am planning to go outside and grill steaks.

It has been a rather eventful week. On Wednesday, I met up with my old college friend Tom F., whom I lived with in Capitol Villa Apartments (near the Michigan State campus) during the summer of '89. I had not seen Tom since about 1990, but we reconnected through the wonders of Facebook (probably THE best aspect of Facebook). Tom was on vacation (he lives in San Francisco) and came to Ohio and Michigan to visit friends and family. The two of us got together at the Peanut Barrel, a popular watering hold across the street from the MSU campus. The Barrel was much busier than I expected for a mid-week day in the middle of summer, so the only open table we found was in back, about two feet from the billiards table, so for much of the evening we had pool players practically poking us in the face with pool cues--plus we were sitting directly underneath a stereo speaker, making conversation difficult. Still, despite the non-ideal setting, we had a good time reconnecting. I was a little nervous because I hadn't seen Tom in so long, but the conversation (when we could hear each other over the din) was great.

On Saturday the 25th, we decided to take advantage of the "Cash for Clunkers" program and get rid of our (poor excuse for an automobile) 1997 Plymouth Voyager. Luckily, it has the largest engine of the '97 Voyagers, so it qualifies for the program. I'm thanking my lucky stars because the Voyager has a whole litany of problems that I don't want to address (because it would be a complete waste of money to do so): the transmission is shot, the brakes are metal-to-metal and barely operational, the air conditioning doesn't work, the right rear turn signal has scarcely worked since we bought if back in March 2008. (In fairness, we bought the thing for $3000 cash from Sundance, the local gi-normous used car emporium in the Lansing area--it's amazing the darned thing has lasted THIS long). We will be trading this lemon in for a 2010 Kia Soul, and I couldn't be more excited.

Well, that's all for now. I'll try and not be a stranger to this blog--but you know how that goes.

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