anniemiz

Shnow Day!

Yes, the area is currently being incapacitated by a staggering 1"-2" - we're talking inches! - of snow. 

And I can totally dig it.

A snow day.

Just like way back in the day...when I was just a wee lass...and it was snowing...and I'd look out the window as it snowed...wondering, 'Will there be enough snow by morning to cancel school?  Will they have time to plow the roads and school won't be cancelled?  Should I do my homework or take the chance that school will be cancelled and not do it?'...and I had to listen to a radio to find out if school was closed...listening through some music, commercials, DJs yapping away, weather updates, blah blah blah, just get to the school closings already.  A radio, for dog's sake.

For a while today the snow was pretty, chunky flakes.  Now it's morphed into rain.  Yuck.  I do like the way the sound of precipitation of any kind seems to insulate the house sound-wise.  It's like a cocoon of sound that keeps out other sounds.

A big shout out to our young neighbor and power tool enthusiast, Danny: Thanks for snowblowing our walk!  You da man!

We may have to invest in a snowblower.  We never parked in the old garage bc it was on the verge - the verge, I tell ya - of falling down for about nine years.  Nine long years of tension.  Will it fall down today?  Today?  How about today?  Hoping the neighbor's big, listing oak tree will accumulate too much ice on its weary limbs, tumble down and take out our garage, thereby paving the way for insurance to cover the cost of building a new garage.  Alas, we eventually called in a contractor to do what Mother Nature would not do - take down the garage - and then build a new one.  Don't know if I ever got around to posting a picture of the garage, so here's a picture from when it was officially declared finished:

A big shout out to neighbor (and mom of aforementioned Danny) Sandy: Thanks for picking out the paint colors!  As I'm sure I've noted somewhere along the line, I no longer trust myself to choose things like paint colors, decorations, patterns, etc.  Basically, anything that requires a sense of style.  Bc I haven't any.  The house and garage look a bit white trashy (can something ever only look 'a bit' white trashy?  I.e., is white-trashiness something like being pregnant, further i.e., you either are or you aren't pregnant?) bc they don't match, but we'll eventually get the house painted to match the garage.

So now we have a garage that we actually use.  It's in almost the same place as the prior garage (almost bc current code calls for the new garage to be in 5' from the property line; the old garage was closer to the property line).

When we didn't use the old garage, we parked in the driveway closer to the street and/or the street.  At most, we - okay, Kevin - had to shovel two car lengths of the driveway.  Now, if there's shovelling to be done, we - okay, Kevin - need to shovel all the way to the garage.  I suppose we could just park in the driveway closer to the street again, thereby only requiring two car lengths of shoveling, but that kind of defeats the purpose of having had the garage built.  That might be okay for Kevin's vehicle, now that he's got himself a big burly truck.  But my car is too pretty to sit out in the snow.

Shovel.  Just now noticing how, like, medieval that word sounds.  Shovel.  Go ahead, say it out loud to yourself and wonder at its agrarianistic fortitude.

I was supposed to work tonight, but the library is closed bco the weather.  Found time.  I love it.

Cat Linkage

Carnival of the Cats #147 is here.

Friday Ark #121 is here.

This And That

Ah, been feeling kind of iffy there for a while.  Didn't feel much like blogging, either.  Then I segued into just feeling plain old ornery.  Definitely didn't feel much like blogging then.  Now I'm feeling a bit more upbeat and ready to resume regular programming.

I picked up my mid-life crisis the other day.  It's a red Mini Cooper S convertible.  My very first brand spanking new car.  Can't believe I don't have a picture of it yet to post.  I'm enjoying driving my new car, although I haven't had all that much occasion to drive it.  I drive to work, but that only takes about 5-10 minutes and doesn't require that I go above third gear.  I'm hoping that there might be another beautiful autumn weekend so we can go for a nice long drive with the top down.

The dealer guy did stress the reduced visibility (i.e., increased blind spot area) of a convertible and that is taking some getting used to.  I find I go a lot slower when backing up and that I avoid backing up whenever possible.  When I park at home, I pull in and turn in the drive so I'm facing out.  When I next leave, I don't have to back out.  I used to do this before bc I'm not all that keen on driving backwards if I don't have to.  I'm just doing it more now.

I've been working a little bit more lately bco people leaving.  One guy retired.  The director left to become director up the road at Rockaway Township.  And another person is ill.  This is a good fit for a part-time job for me.  I come in, I do my thing, I leave.  It's close to home; sometimes I squeeze in a very little exercise by walking home.  I don't often walk to work bc it's uphill and I often bring something or other in to work, e.g., supplies for Socrates Cafe, in addition to my own stuff, e.g., books in case it's quiet and I have a chance to study.  It's not so bad walking home downhill with just my stuff.  The vast majority of patrons are lovely.  A small minority are less than lovely; I try not to let them bother me, although I don't always succeed.  I have met some interesting people here.  Seems like most people have a story to tell and I generally like to hear their stories.  A chance remark about someone's funky tote bag or the books they're taking out or their handmade shawl often leads to some interesting peek into their life.

I often enjoy hearing people tell their story or a part of it, especially when you can tell they enjoy sharing it with someone who's really listening.  I also like asking them questions about what they're sharing, especially the parts that seem so foreign to me.  Even though the answers will probably never be of practical use to me, it's interesting to hear them.  I always enjoyed listening to Minnie talk about her life, things like how her girlfriend's father received the telegrams for the area and Minnie and the girlfriend would deliver them, sometimes on foot, sometimes on horseback.  Or when cars first came to town.

I once made the aquaintance of a couple of sisters.  They live out of state, but, at the time, their elderly parents still lived in NJ, in the next town.  They knew I volunteered at the cat shelter and they asked me to help their parents adopt a cat.  Their mother was at the earlier stages of Alzheimer's and they thought she might find a quiet, sweet lapcat comforting.  So Dr. and Mrs. W and I went and found them a lovely, beautiful cat.  Mrs. W eventually went to live in a nursing home and the cat stayed home with Dr. W.  I had told him the shelter loves to get updates from adopters.  He was kind enough to call once in a while with an update; sometimes he had a cat question.  I went over a couple of times to help him with the cat.

The point of all this is that I didn't know Dr. W very well, I only knew him from this business with the cat, but he was one of those people with whom I always enjoyed talking.  It was always a pleasure to answer the phone and find that it was Dr. W calling.  It was always a lovely conversation, even if it sometimes turned to unpleasant topics, e.g., the progression of Mrs. W's Alzheimer's.  I guess what I mean is that it was always a quality conversation.  Now, I'll guess that many, perhaps most, of a person's conversations are light and fluffy or short and to the point; those conversations are important in their own way and serve important ends.  But there was just something so delightful about conversing with Dr. W; I think it was that he was interesting and interested.  I don't think I talked with Dr. W more than 10 times before he died of a heart attack at age 83.  That was over a year ago.  And yet, to this day, I still miss him and feel sad that I'll never have a lovely chat with him again.  Odd how I could feel that way about someone I didn't know all that well.  But maybe I knew him better than I think.  Obviously, he gave off very good, positive vibes.  He was an openly loving husband, father and grandfather.  He and his wife had many longtime friends.  They enjoyed many activities.  I think they enjoyed each other and people in general.    So maybe it's more that he was a quality person as well as a quality conversationalist.  Gawd, I'm tearing up just thinking about Minnie and Dr. W and typing all of this.

On a happier note: fun times this past weekend.  Saturday was The First Annual Reinkenfest (sp?).  Kevin's right hand guy at work, Dave, threw a party named after himself...his name is Reinknecht.  Or something.  Anyway, last time we went to one of his shindigs...yummy!  Dave was a chef before he couldn't hack the physicality of the job.  He's only in his thirties, but the poor guy's a wreck.  Anyway, he's still all into cooking and puts on a delish spread.  We missed much of it bc I had to work and Kevin was at a wedding rehearsal thingie, but it was still fun to hang out w/Dave, his wife Cindy, their cat Buddy, and their friends.

Sunday was the wedding of Kevin's sister, Karen, and her longtime beau, Andrew.  It was at the chapel at Drew, where Karen went to undergrad.  Karen and Andrew met at Yale as chemistry graduate students.  Coupla dorks.  Nice dorks, though.  They've been together since then, through his advisor moving here, her postdoc there, his postdoc here,...some twelve or so years in all.  They live in CO now.  Nieces Mary and Samantha (daughters of Kevin's sister, Joyce, and her husband, Stephen) were flower girls and were, as usual, adorable.  It was a beautiful fall day and the wedding colors were autumnal and everything came together really nicely.  I have a bunch of pictures from that, too, which I'll eventually post.

My friend Eileen is getting married later this month.  This mini-rash of weddings necessitated the purchase of a new outfit.  I had rifled through the few remaining suits I have (most of them went to the Salvation Army) only to learn that: (a) I have suits that are now too big for me and suits that are still too small for me, but no suits that are just right; and (b) I wore some nice duds to work back in the day.  So off to the store I did go.  I focused on getting the suit first and then I'd find a blouse/shell/whatever second.  I settled on a purple jacket and black pants (duh; of course black pants), then I start trying on shirts.  I'm checking myself out in the 3-way mirror with this black (again with the black) lacy/shiny-over-solid-black thing when another customer saunters over and says, 'I love that blouse.  I tried it on the other day, but it didn't fit right.  That looks nice on you.  Hope you don't mind me saying so, but you'll need to wear a push-up bra with that.'  Thank you, Dear Stranger, for that unsolicited opinion about my rack.

I did, in the end, get a new bra but not a push-up and not bco what that lady said.  Honest!  I had done a major clothing purge earlier this year, including a bunch of bras, further including all black bras.  Obviously, I couldn't wear a white bra under this thing, so off to the lingerie store I did go.  I've often heard that the majority of women wear the wrong bra size and I did not disappoint.  Actually, I had the right size, but the wrong cup size.  I'm still trying to figure that one out.  How is it...?  But if I...?  Anyway, Lisa there set me up with some effective gear for that outfit, as well as suggesting some less structured hardware (picture linked is technically SFW) for everyday wear.  I was considering describing the fit process, but I'm finding that the only way I could describe how she got me into a bra was by likening it to when you're filling up a plastic grocery bag with your shopping and you're not sure if you can fit any more stuff in the bag so you grab it by the sides at the top and give it a little shake and a jostle to see how the stuff in there settles and is there now room in there for more stuff or is there just about the right amount of stuff in there?  Is that a helpful visual?  I don't know.  She noted that the bra I was wearing 'did nothing' for me...it 'flattened' me out and didn't 'help me' at all.  It was a front closure bra which I liked bc it's easier to put on than trying to close those stupid hooks and eyes on yer basic back closure bra behind my back with my arms twisted almost upside down.  But no more front closures for me!  Oh, and underwire!  I must wear underwire!  It will help push things front and center where, so I'm told, things belong.  Again, I don't know.  All I know is that things are going to change around here, starting with my bras.

Well, that was a nice break from studying.  Actually, I have to go to work for a few hours.  Tonight is Socrates Cafe night at the library.  It's been going on for a few months now, with very uneven attendance.  Sometimes no one shows up, sometimes five people show up, sometimes one person shows up.  I'm not sure how it's going to work out in the long run.  From what I understand, different libraries have had varying success with adult programming.  At some libraries, it seems you could advertise a staring contest and people would come.  I've only been here a year and a half, but I understand that it's always been difficult getting adult participation in programs here.  Don't know why that is.  I'm tempted to say that it's got something to do with the demographic, but...hmmm, I don't know.

Well, like I said, break's over.

Little Red Cooper

I went with the red convertible.  I can follow my car's production on the Mini website.  Right now, it's still 'on order', i.e., they haven't started it yet.  ETA is mid- to late October, just in time for a few trips w/the top down before it gets too cold.

This anti-vanity plate post notwithstanding, I'm considering getting one.  I'll at least get the animal friendly plate; 80% of proceeds go to a state spay-neuter program.  I don't know what to get on the plate, though.  I can do any combo of 3-7 letters and numbers.  I don't see any online way to see if what you want has already been taken.  I'd imagine 'Annie' has already been taken.  Maybe 'Archie'.  So many possibilities!  But I have a feeling that in the end I'm not gonna bother to get the vanity plate after all.

So Charged

At long last, I've finally decided to take the plunge and buy a new car.  Not a used car that's new to me...an actual new car.  I originally thought I'd buy a youngish used car, but then the salespeople showed me some new cars and I thought, yeah, how about a new car.  I've never had a brand new car.  I've only had two cars and they were both youngish, low mileage used cars when I bought them: a 1984 Nissan Sentra (linked picture is for illustrative purposes; I have no idea who those people are) and then a 1993 Ford Escort (again, photo is not of my car), the latter of which I'm currently driving.

I'm sure I've blogged before about my love of my Escort and how bummed I was that Ford stopped making Escorts.  I thought the Ford Focus, which I think was supposed to fill the Escort niche, was kinda cute and figured I'd probably buy that.  I test drove a coupla Focuses (Foci?) and didn't like them at all.  They felt rickety.  And they had one problem in common with my Escort: the seats weren't supportive; I've long had a lower back cushion in the driver's seat.  I end up hunching forward without the cushion.  I'd prefer to just have a decent seat.  I'm sure I've also mentioned my admiration of the Mustang.  And I do like the new design.  I just don't feel comfortable buying a car that will use so much gas.  It's also just a tad too big for what I want at this time.  And, quite frankly, I just don't feel worthy.

So, if not the Focus, then what to get?  I want to get a car that's:

• small
• fun to drive, IMHO
• visually appealing, IMHO
• fuel efficient

I first looked at the Toyota Prius, mostly out of a sense of duty, since it's a hybrid car and very fuel efficient.  When it comes to looks, I tend to favor American cars.  Most Toyotas do nothing for me, visually speaking, but, like I said, I figured I should at least try the Prius.  It was kinda cool trying it out.  There's a 'Power' button  to turn it on and off.  You just press it like a doorbell and it just starts and stops.  Neat.  It drove fine.  It's a little bigger than I'd like.  I liked the fuel efficiency, of course.  They're selling like crazy now, so I'd have to order one and it would take a while.  They only had two on the lot: one silver and one grey.  Eh.  Notable: the salesman was normal.  I went by myself and he didn't make any stupid comments about woman drivers or anything like that.  Shame that that's notable.

Next, I tried the Mini Cooper.  Kevin and I went one night and I test drove the hardtop and the convertible.  Totally dug that car.  It's fun to drive and it's adorable.  Brian, the salesman at the Morristown dealership, was also normal.  Zero stupidity bc a woman was buying the car.  So I left liking that car and wondering only whether I'd prefer a hardtop or convertible.

Then I moved on to Volkswagens.  There were three VWs that interested me, based on looks:  Those little Beetles are cute as a button!  The Rabbit is pretty cute, too.  And the GTI looks a lot like the Rabbit.

Kevin came with me to the VW dealer.  As we were driving in, he noted that I didn't seem too enthused about going to look at cars.  I replied that I'd just been thinking that I'd had two very positive experiences with salesmen and was wondering how much longer my luck could hold out.  Maybe those two salesmen didn't have to be squicky bc those cars are selling themselves.   Perhaps it was a self-fulfilling prophecy, but the salesman at the VW dealership did not disappoint.

I'd made an appointment w/one salesman over their website.  He was out bco a family emergency, so this other guy helped us.  Where the salesmen at Mini and Toyota asked me what I was looking for, this guy asked me few questions and I could barely get a word in edgewise anyway.  I'd noodled around the VW website and also around this dealership's lot when they were closed.  There were three cars I wanted to test drive:

• the Beetle
• the Rabbit
• the GTI

in hardtop and, where available, in convertible.  This seemed to throw him for a loop.  The GTI was 'in a whole other price range'.  Yeah?  So?  We drive the Beetle.  Then I wanted to try the Beetle convertible.  He seemed to balk, saying it was the same as the hardstop...just with a convertible top.  He finally takes us out.  I wanted to drive it with the top down; he said he'd show me how it goes up and down, but we didn't do that until we were back at the dealership.  I specifically wanted to know if it was manual, semi-automatic or fully automatic.  When I saw that it mechanically closes, but you do have to clip it, I said, 'Oh, okay, so it's semi-automatic'.   He seemed to think I was an idiot for considering it at all noteworthy whether it was fully or semi-automatic.  Well, he's not the one buying the car, I am, so if I'm interested in how the top works, then that's what's important to me.

Then we tried the Rabbit.  Another quick test drive around a slightly enlarged block.  The Rabbit and the Beetle are basically the same car; just the frame is different.  I think this guy would've liked me to just sit in the Rabbit, having just told me it's the same as the Beetle.  But I squoze a test drive out of him.

Isn't this the cutest logo?

When we get back to the dealership, he goes inside and leaves us alone for a while.  Kevin and I aren't sure where's he's gone, why he's gone, should we leave?  He finally comes out and asks us what we decided.  I told him we hadn't decided anything; I was still waiting to test drive the GTI.  Why he found this surprising, I have no idea.  It's as if he can't fathom that a person considering the Beetle and the Rabbit might also consider the GTI.  I ask him if it's a problem to test drive it.  He says no, no, of course not and we go out.

After driving it, I pretty much rule out the Rabbit.  I like the power of the GTI (200 hp) and how it feels.  I like the look of the Beetle and that it's available in convertible (the GTI isn't, although it's available with a sunroof).  We all go inside and he leaves us alone again to talk among ourselves.  He comes back with some numbers his manager was 'able to work out for' us.  Yeah, yeah, sure, sure.  So what did we decide, he asks?  I said we hadn't.  Why not?  Bc I can't decide which car I want, the Beetle or GTI; I'll think about it for a day or two.  Well, now he couldn't get rid of us fast enough and he showed us the door.

I was leaning toward the GTI, although it wasn't as fun as the Cooper.  We eventually went back to the Mini dealership and tried the Cooper S, which has more hp.  I'm pretty much settled on a Cooper S; just have to decide between hardtop w/sunroof or convertible.  I'm so glad I really prefer the Mini to the GTI bc I really didn't want to give that VW guy any business.  Although if he had been normal I might have settled on a GTI right then and there.  I almost went to another dealership for a longer test drive in the GTI, but then I tried the Cooper S and that was that.

This week I'm getting car insurance and car loan quotes.  We'll order it by the end of the week.  It should come in mid- to late October...just in time for my birthday!  Now the only questions that remain are...

...what color?  And...

...hardtop w/sunroof...

...or convertible?

Right now, I'm thinking red.  Although the blues are kinda neat, too.  No stripes, though.  That's a little too goofy for me. Undecided about the top.  The convertible has decreased visibility to the sides and back and I'm concerned about that.  I imagine it's just something you get used to and compensate somehow.  I'm also wondering if I'm ready for a convertible.  That probably sounds odd, like I should be more than ready for a convertible bc it's typically hot, young, fresh people who drive convertibles and I'm way past hot, young and fresh.  I'm overripe.  And I don't really know what I mean by 'ready for a convertible'.  Maybe that I won't feel comfy in it. I dunno...maybe I'll get a convertible for my next next car.  Perhaps I'll be ready by then.

Decisions, decisions.  In the meantime, I'm off to work.

Unnngggghhhh

Apparently, two alarm clocks were not enough today.  Overslept BIGTIME this morning.  Then I was moving kinda slow and running kinda late once I did roust myself out of bed.  The inexplicable lack of hot water in the shower did get me in and out of there pretty fast, though.  As an added attraction, Dolly's been eating the plants we brought in for the winter...and yakking it all back up for me this morning...here, there and everywhere.   Not the best start to the day.  Well, there was nothing to do for it but to blast the car stereo out of my one remaining, overburdened speaker and blaze a trail down here.  I'm always nervous about going over 70 - 75 mph bc my little car starts trembling, like I'm going as fast over the bedrock as my feet will take me.  I know my car's not going to fall apart, but it feels like any minute I'll find myself holding a steering wheel that's no longer connected to the rest of the car.

Although I made it down here in record time and got an intercampus bus right away, I barely made it to por today, as in getting there just as everyone was leaving.  The first paper, a short one, was due today, so I sheepishly handed that in as class broke up.  If a paper wasn't due, I probably woulda not gone in at that point.  I ended up writing about C.S. Lewis and animal pain.  Lewis devotes a chapter to animal pain in The Problem of Pain.  He maintains that the Christian answer about human pain cannot be extended to the problem of animal pain bc animals are non-moral creatures for whom pain would be neither just nor helpful.  He also cautions against making animal pain a focal point of the general problem of pain bc we don't know enough about animals to understand and explain their pain.  He does address three questions concerning animal pain: (1) What do animals suffer, if they suffer at all?  (2) If animals do suffer, how did they come to suffer?  (3) How to reconcile what appears to be animal pain with God's goodness?  Most of the chapter is dedicated to answering these questions, and Lewis does so rather speculatively.

So.  I thought that there were ways in which the Christian response to human pain might be extended to animal pain and that's what I wrote about.  Basically, I invoked much of what Lewis himself said, mainly from the chapters on the fall of man and on animal pain, and came up with some scenarios under which the Christian response to human pain, or a response very similar to it, might account for animal pain.

I posted before about my envy of Lewis's seemingly complete and total faith in God and Christianity, which simply oozed from the text.  I sometimes thought that his ideas and conjectures, what he was willing to entertain - found throughout the book, not just in the speculative chapter on animal pain - seemed a bit fantastic.  But then when I was working on this paper, I decided to follow his lead and entertained quite a few possibilities, if only for a short while before dumping them.  Seeing as I'm entirely on the fence wrt God and very much out of practice as a religious (RC) person, I think it was helpful to follow his lead,  to pretend to believe and to be on his side.  In the end, I wrote about three scenarios, all of which could possibly match Lewis ito fantasy.  That might be a good thing, but it might also be a bad thing.  Well, I guess we'll find out.  I can say it was at least a fun thing to do!  I can also say that I often found myself thinking, 'This reads like I was high when I wrote it.'  Again, maybe a good thing, maybe not.  Again, I guess we'll see.

Loss of Limb

This is a picture of where three backyards meet: ours, the next door neighbors', and the neighbor's around the corner.  About a year or so ago, we had a large maple tree cut down.  It stood to the left of the lopsided tree in the picture (as you're looking at the picture).  The cut tree had a v-shaped trunk and cracks were forming in the v part.  We figured we'd have it taken down in case the cracks were problematic for the tree's stability.

That left the funny looking tree in the picture.  I guess the cut tree really hindered this tree's growth because this one's underdeveloped on one side.  AFAWK, though, this tree is healthy; just funny looking.  We decided to see if this tree would fill out on the one side now that the other tree was gone.

Anyway, all this to say that, a coupla weeks ago, a limb from this tree fell on the garage of the neighbor, Joanne, around the corner.  She was away on vacation; we didn't even notice it.  I guess it fell off during a storm.  This tree appears to straddle the property line between our and the next door neighbors' (Rich and Susan) property.  She went to the next door neighbors' house (I don't know if she thought it was their tree or if we weren't home or what) and, from what I understand, told them about the limb falling on her garage and what were they going to do about it.  Well, we all called our insurance peeps and they all said her insurance should cover it.

Our next door neighbors called yesterday to see if we'd received a letter from the other neighbor to the effect that the tree should come down.  I missed the mailman, but he did leave a thingy to go to the p.o. and pick up a certified letter.  I'm guessing that's our copy of the letter.  I imagine her insurance person or lawyer told her that if she communicated her concern about the tree to us, that we would be considered 'on notice' that the tree might still be a hazard.  By this time, we had pretty much decided we would take this tree down, anyway, even if it's not a hazard.  I am miffed, however, that this chick couldn't have just walked around the corner or into our backyard to talk to us about this.  I mean, would it have killed her to do so?  And if, for some odd reason, we balked at taking down the tree, she could have sent her letter.

I feel a rant coming on.

Ya know, some people just don't know how to be neighbors.  When this chick moved in a coupla years ago, we went over to introduce ourselves, welcome her to the neighborhood, leave our names and phone number if we could ever help her, etc.  I even brought over fresh baked, homemade cookies!  What a waste of perfectly delicious cookies.  Since then, she's been invited to neighborhood things, our parties, etc.  She's never attended, which isn't a big deal, but she's never even bothered to rsvp, which I find very annoying.  How hard is it to phone in an rsvp?  I don't care if she never came to anything; several declinations on her part would have politely stopped the invites.  The invites have certainly stopped by now, but I would think better of her if she'd just rsvp'd like a normal person.

There's another Joanne that lives across the street.  She's more of a character.  She once left/mailed (I forget which) a note for the old next door neighbors.  Those guys were travelling Easter Sunday, leaving in the early afternoon, and would be gone for a coupla days.  Now, Monday is garbage day.  You can put your stuff out by the curb 6 pm or later on Sunday night.  Well, these guys were leaving before 6 pm and would be gone for a night or two, so they put their garbage out a few hours early.  So this Joanne lives right across from us and diagonally across from these neighbors.  She leaves/mails them a note about how they shouldn't put their garbage out before 6 pm, especially on Easter Sunday.  WTF?  These neighbors happen to celebrate Easter, but what's Easter got to do with putting out the garbage?  I'm unsure whether or not she signed the note; I think the neighbors wondered for a long time who wrote it.

Another time, the old neighbors on the other side were selling their house.  It was winter.  They plowed and shoveled their property.  Wanting to maintain curb appeal, they pushed the snow across the street...right in front of Joanne's house!  Again, she rarely uses this space.  And she has a double lot, so there's a fair amount of open street space in front of her property.  Well, she called up these neighbors and told them to move their snow back to their side of the street.

Oy.  Ya know, if I even noticed that the old neighbors put their snow in front of our house, i.e., lumped in with our snow, I would've guessed there was a reason for it and thought no more about it.  Annnnnd, Joanne has since been getting her drive plowed during the winter and where do you think the plow guy puts the snow?  In front of our house.  Do I care?  No.  Should I care?  No.

I once got a note.  I usually park in the driveway or on the street in front of the house.  Joanne never parks in front of her house.  Rarely - as in a few times per year - a relative or friend of hers parks in front of her house.  Occasionally, I'd park in front of her house, especially if I was facing that way when I came home, if I were going out again soon, etc.  She left a note on my windshield about how she doesn't know how to say this, but would I please not park in front of her house because she's hesitant about mowing the grass by the curb when my car is there, the street cleaner will miss that spot if my car is there, etc.  She did sign this note, though.  I thought that was a pretty stupid request...I mean, it's freakin' public property.  But I pretty much went along with her request, only occasionally parking there and for very short periods of time.

One time, I parked there on a Thursday afternoon, fulling intending to go back out shortly.  I had been feeling like I was coming down with something and it worsened while I was home at this time.  I ended up with the flu and home until Sunday.  So my car was in the verboten spot all that time!  When I went to go somewhere in my car on Sunday, my driver's side mirror was smashed!  Now, I'm not making any accusations here, but I will say the situation was rather uncanny.

Edited to add: I feel I should mention that the majority of our neighbors have been and are very good neighbors.

I Want a Pony

Ya know, I'm really not big into cars.  I drive a 1993 (!) Ford Escort with ~107,000 (!) miles on it and I'm okay with that...almost.

I like my car just fine bc:

• It's small and easy to maneuver.
• It gets decent gas mileage.
• It's got a hatchback, which I like, though I don't know why bc I don't use it all that much.  I just like knowing that if I did need to tote a whole buncha stuff around on a regular basis, I could.
• It's green.  I like green.
• It's standard.
• It has a nice CD player in it, although I think I blasted out most of the speakers.

When I think about buying a car, I go two ways.  Well, I go one way first: I like Fords.  I'm not 100% committed to buying a Ford the next time I buy a car, but >90% (I do like those Mini Coopers).  So, within Fords, I go two ways.

First, I like the Ford Focus.  It reminds me a lot of my current car, which I like a lot.  Plus, it's cute, especially the hatchback, especially in blue and especially in Sonic Blue, although the French Blue (or is that Freedom Blue?) is nice, too.  My Escort is a 5-door; I'm thinking if I got a Focus or something similar, I might get a 3-door.  I don't often tote people around in my car.  I usually just put stuff in the backseat, the stuff that can't fit in the passenger seat, so I end up not using the backseat much at all.  But I remember being a backseat passenger in 2- and 3-door cars and I really, really, really disliked getting in and out of those cars.  So awkward and ungainly.

There's no middle ground between my two choices, because, second, I like the Ford Mustang, again, especially in Sonic Blue and Windveil Blue, although you cannot go wrong with the Fire Red.  Screaming Yellow, however, is just plain tacky.  (Actually, I love the Ford GT most of all - pardon me, that thing's fucking smokin' - but let's be realistic.)  I love the 2005's retro design.  And I have a sentimental reason for liking the Mustang, but I won't go into that here (and no, it has nothing to do with backseats or anything like that, you creepy people).  I also like the engine although, again, I don't know why except to say that I like just knowing that all that power is there.  Sometimes I wonder what that says about me, that I like a powerful engine even though I don't drive in such a way as to make good use of it; but I usually don't follow that train of thought bc I kinda don't want to know what it says about me.  The tough choice about the Mustang is whether or not to get a convertible.

Well, off to dinner, so enough about my dream cars for now - and both the Focus and the Mustang are dream cars for me.  Perchance to dream about Fords tonight!