Car Day

I really like my car, but it must have known I was having disloyal thoughts. I have been suffering Mini Cooper Lust. There is something about a Mini that just calls to me. Of course, it doesn't hurt that the ferry system is talking about giving discounts to small cars. Can't you just see a little chocolate brown mini cooper with caramel colored stripes? Yeah - I can too! But it is not meant to be.

Today I took my car to the dealership. It is a Lexus ES300 that is a little over 8 years old. We've been together that whole time and had some pretty wild rides. I had a few things I thought the dealer could fix more cheaply and easily and it had been a year since my last visit. So I made the appointment and my husband dropped the car off. At about 9ish, the phone rang at work.

"Hi, this is John, the service person at your Lexus dealer. Turns out your air conditioner is not working because there is a hole in the condenser. That will run you about $800. Oh and your brakes are getting pretty worn - we recommend they be replaced." I think he quoted me another $500 - the room had started spinning.

"Ouch," I said. "I wasn't really planning on spending that money, but oh well. It is summer." Not that you would know it - see previous blog post :-( - and not that it will be hot ANY TIME SOON.

"One other thing," he mentioned. "Your car is up to 85K miles and we recommend changing the timing belt/chain at 90K. It is actually over due by age, since we recommend changing it at 7 years and yours is 8 years old. That will run about $1200 with all of the other belts and changes."

Any visions of trading the car in on a mini were now dashed. Of course, one has to change one's timing chain/belt when it is time. And, having invested (altogether) about $3000 in this latest service appointment, none of which will ever be recouped, well, I can't even think about a new car. This is obviously a clever ruse by Lady Lexus to stay living with me. While I am honored by the loyalty, could we have come to this spot by some other route? One that did not include crushing my joy of life and pinching my budget? One that left open the possibility of sharing the parking pad with another? One that perhaps allowed me to buy a skein of yarn rather than a belt/chain that I will never see?

Sigh. Just remember: don't think the words "timing chain" or "trade-in" just prior to a service appointment. It will doom you.

The ultimate in heavy weather

I actually know that what I am about to write about is NOT really the ultimate in heavy weather. Actually, our weather here is quite mild. BUT IT IS SO BLOODY GREY! "What," you say, "someone is complaining about Seattle being grey? How simply over done!" But it has been a dreadful spring and now summer is here and it is STILL GREY! I am really not a fussy person, and, while I don't like rain anywhere near as much as my mother-in-law (who counts every day without rain as a drought), I really handle the weather pretty well most of the time. My main tool to cope is remembering my 10 years in Minnesota. Generally, anywhere where the range of temperatures is modestly less than -40 F/C to 100 F seems like temperate to me. And Seattle isn't even close - we swing probably from 22 F to 85 F. Mild, right?

But I grew up in the Midwest. In the Midwest, we have WEATHER. And summer means hot nights, violent thunderstorms, and the sweet smell of the air after the storm is over. Okay, I know it also means oppressive heat and high humidity, but it is summer after all. And the sun shines a lot. Here - well, it is the last day but one of June and the sun comes out for minutes now and then. In fact, it seems to shine the most at about 8 pm. Not exactly when you can enjoy it. And June 20th was the darkest day of the year. I mean that we got less solar energy than any other day. What part of the civilized world even knows that it has had the darkest day and darkest month?????

Sigh. Ready for summer.

The grass likes it though.