Greetings, friends. It's been a busy couple of weeks, which, I suppose, a
real blogger would have been writing about, would have been mining for nuggets to share with his friends. I wish I could be that way, but the good news is that I tend to live in the moment. I'm the same way with cameras and videocams: it seems pointless to waste all your time documenting the event when you could be living it.
Which is why I plan to take a hiatus from the blog here, an action which, after all, is simply formalizing what's been apparent for the past several weeks. I'd like to be like Longwing and Tucker: firing off quick stimulus vignettes and doing away with all the blather, but that's not me either. However trivial, this blog has carried me through the winter as a form of self-expression, and sending out a couple of tasteful pics and
divine links a few times a week, a la Bunny Tomerlin, is simply not my style (though I wish it were).
To catch you up, I did get a new job, and I begin Monday. It's not the job I would have chosen if I'd had my pick of more than one, but, as you know, in this economy any job is a good job. No, that makes it sound worse than it is; the job will certainly have its points of interest, and will enable me to do some things that will be helpful when I make my next, more permanent move, which I hope will be during the next year when the economy turns brighter. The good news is that during the past several months I've made some terrific connections that will pay off when companies are hiring again.
I also bought a car, which has taken up a bit of my time. When I lost my job I turned in the Audi and it's amazing what we managed to do with that extra $500-600 every month. I got to fantasizing about just buying an old used car for a grand
or two, but running around in a junker is not my style. Then one day I was driving my father's lady friend's Saab and was reminded how much I've always loved this car. I always wanted a 9000 but couldn't afford it, and when I could afford one they'd changed the model over to the 9-5 (which I did indeed buy, though I never cared much for the design and did not buy another). I thought perhaps there were some well-cared-for 9000s out there somewhere that I could get for a few thousand, and was lucky enough to find one. Single owner, mint condition, loaded, only 80,000 miles. The car cost $40k in 1997; I paid $4,000, plus will have to put in $400-500 in small repairs. I did have to come to terms with the used-ness of it (it is after all an old car), but it meets all my maddeningly superficial criteria as an upscale item that expresses my unimpeachable taste (though I may have to cultivate some new eccentricities, a la Toad).
Kids' athletics have kicked into full Spring gear, and I've been attending a couple of Little League games a week. Sitting in a lawn chair watching baseball is not a bad way to spend a sunny 70-degree Saturday afte
rnoon. My son is also finishing out the indoor soccer season, my daughter is running track, and both kids are in the middle of the annual tryout process for fall travel soccer. Over Easter weekend I spent an entire Saturday watching three kids' soccer games at a tournament played in 45 degrees and driving rain (it's characteristic of the Northeast that this was just one week removed from that sunny 70-degree Saturday) while my wife watched my daughter compete in a horse show. I never got around to writing a post about the horse-show circuit, which is a disservice to my daughter, who is an adept and passionate horsewoman. She won three firsts, three seconds, three thirds, and was overall champ in one class and reserve champ in another.
Major league baseball is into full swing now too, and I confess to being a bit obsessive here. Tintin, Maxminimus, Tessa, M. Lane, Giuseppe, I confess I have lately forsaken your blogs for the likes of MLB.com. With a favorite team, the Red Sox, who have won two World Series in the last five years, and a hometown team, the Phillies, who won last year, there's been plenty to pay attention to.
We went to Washington D.C. for spring break, and fought the crowds in the museums. Couple of dinner parties, Easter, Palm Sunday, and I'm trying to make my way through all of the Rabbit novels. Seeding new grass in the back and side lawns, slapping a coat of wax on the car, trying to get the iPod playlist into shape.
Keep checking in. Bye for now.
on, our pug, swallowed a fruit stone of one sort or another. It lodged in his intestine and he died on the operating table.
d acquaintances, so we decided to try it this year, being in the market for a lower cost alternative to two weeks in Maine. A week at the OBX was about a quarter of what we spent for two weeks in KPT. Some observations:
ld lemon. The problem is so bad the townships have trucks crawling up and down the main drag spraying each side of the road with something from a hose. Ick.
or two, but running around in a junker is not my style. Then one day I was driving my father's lady friend's Saab and was reminded how much I've always loved this car. I always wanted a 9000 but couldn't afford it, and when I could afford one they'd changed the model over to the 9-5 (which I did indeed buy, though I never cared much for the design and did not buy another). I thought perhaps there were some well-cared-for 9000s out there somewhere that I could get for a few thousand, and was lucky enough to find one. Single owner, mint condition, loaded, only 80,000 miles. The car cost $40k in 1997; I paid $4,000, plus will have to put in $400-500 in small repairs. I did have to come to terms with the used-ness of it (it is after all an old car), but it meets all my maddeningly superficial criteria as an upscale item that expresses my unimpeachable taste (though I may have to cultivate some new eccentricities, a la Toad).
rnoon. My son is also finishing out the indoor soccer season, my daughter is running track, and both kids are in the middle of the annual tryout process for fall travel soccer. Over Easter weekend I spent an entire Saturday watching three kids' soccer games at a tournament played in 45 degrees and driving rain (it's characteristic of the Northeast that this was just one week removed from that sunny 70-degree Saturday) while my wife watched my daughter compete in a horse show. I never got around to writing a post about the horse-show circuit, which is a disservice to my daughter, who is an adept and passionate horsewoman. She won three firsts, three seconds, three thirds, and was overall champ in one class and reserve champ in another.
