i did go out again

 

I did go out looking for parking meters Sunday. On the south side, at least in my neighborhood we are orange and three hours. At a quarter for ten minutes. On the northside there are burgundy ones, and black ones. I think the burgundy is two hours and the black one hour. It literally changes from block to block.

When I got back I called my sister and she told me to stop being a sissy and drive the damn rental so I did take it out.  I had a death grip on the wheel. Monday I drove to school at at 7:15 I didn't have to worry about parking. I also didn't have to worry about driving in the dark because it's still almost light at 6:30 when I leave.

It's taken the whole week to get used to the rental. The death grip is gone, and I am trying to park closer to other cars. I however am still jumpy about people pulling into traffic and making left turns. Time heals all, I guess.

Thursday I went to the Restore Outdoors thing and it was more touchy feely nonsense. But as promised we went outside. I was chosen to lead the way so I took them on the walking path at the College that goes around the athletic fields. But we had to walk in silence. That near killed me. I can walk in silence alone. It was only 15 minutes, but still.

It is beautiful today. Already 65. I will be car shopping. The price of cars is ridiculous. I will be buying used. The Enterprise clerk suggested going to their car lot. All the cars are low milage, impeccably maintained and most are newer than 2021. They are only in service for a year.  I checked prices at a couple of dealers, Car Max, and Enterprise and she was right. I got 5K for my 2014. Blue book value was 8K. Car Max was selling a 2011 with nearly a 100K miles for 10K. On enterprise I found a 2022 with about 40K for 12 or 13. Hybrids are probably out of my price range. I think about a SUV, they are higher.  We'll see. Lydia's husband is a motor-head. They are coming along. No one should pull the wool over my eyes. And they can't talk me into spending more. I'm paying cash. Go over my budget and I don't get the car.

Hopefully the chaos is over and I have more walking news next week. But I did do two posts in one week. So it's a start. 

the march devil strikes again

Spring sprang this week but these are not my daffys. There’s a dead opossum in my yard so there will be not gathering flowers for me. He’s been frozen all winter. Now he has thawed and nature is taking it’s course. Nature really smells bad. The forsythia from Angel are also starting to open. 

I feel like I’m at a Catholic confessional. Forgive me readers because it’s been 72 days since my last post. One single post so far in 2025! Horrible. Probably the longest time ever away from this blog. I looked at the archives and my numbers are staggeringly … awful. 2024, followed closely by 2023 was my worst month since 2009. Though the downward slide began in 2021 and 2022.

I know why last year’s was so bad. Heart surgery, a knee that wouldn’t work, and cleaning out a house full of crap all contributed. But I no longer have any of those excuses so now I need to find new ones.

March seems to raise havoc in my family. Three siblings died within 18 days of each other in March. My mom died in March. As a family we collectively hate March. And March knows.

Let’s begin with the positive news of this week. Today I walked to CVS. Yes, that same CVS I’ve mentioned a zillion times in these pages. And it felt good to be out there. I now have to do it again tomorrow. And the next day. And the day after that. That, my readers is the hard part. I should have taken pictures of the new parking signs and the kiosks. But I was already halfway across the street when I thought of it. Parking went from hell on earth to the whole universe in the city. And you need to score card to keep track of the rates.  Okay. That’s tomorrow’s assignment. Take pictures of parking on the southside. Won’t do the northside because that would involve driving. More on that in a bit

Thursday I went to something called “Reset Outdoors” at the College. It’s 6 weeks. It’s touch-feely-psycho babble with an outdoor component. The outdoors part is the reason I signed up. It will force me to walk one day a week for a half-hour. Maybe some of the BS might rub off too. I doubt it. As Angel says, this stuff only works if you believe in it. And I believe in nothing. 

More good news. I am back to parking far away from my classroom and running around like a crazy person. That feels good. I have no idea how many steps because my FitBit is dead, and I never carry my phone around campus. Half the time I have to search for it to log in to something. So Apple’s tracker does me no good.

I did walk with the Volkssporters March 1st but didn’t write about it. I did make the whole 5K but I really held everyone up.

My porch roof still isn’t fixed. I still get the stream of water coming down the middle. It was too “cold”. They claim they will come next week. I’ll believe it when I see it.

The gas company came in January and said they would be putting a new meter in on Wednesday. Put new signs up and everything. Five weeks later they returned. Again, they blamed the delay on “weather”. I sat there a whole day and waited for them. Now this hideous thing sits in front of my house, and they put stones in the trench. The leak from the roof hits the stones and washes them away. So after every storm I have to fix the stones. On a happy note, they also replaced the gas line from my house to the street. So my house is … theoretically … safer.

Yesterday I took my SIL’s mom to physical therapy, and returned her safely home. Barb was there when I got back. My plan for the day was to go home and deal with the two dozen emails about book projects. Suddenly the printer doesn’t like any of our files. We’ve been sending them the same way since 2001. The one that got me was the “download the template and save as xxx.” It was on the template.

Anywho, I left. Causually gathering my thoughts about what comes next. I went the two blocks to the traffic light and waited. Hanover Ave was unusually quiet. No cars coming either direction. (No turn on red.) The light changes I turn the corner and there is suddenly someone coming towards me.  I thought nothing of it until they didn’t slow down and started to turn left into the shopping center. I slammed on my brakes but it was too late. I might have been going 10 mph. She was coming fast.

I hit the front passenger side of her car.  They kept driving and turned like they were going to park. I’m sitting there dialing 911. A young teen on an electric bike or scooter-like thing stops and tells me that I have fluids draining out of my car, and I better move or I’d be trapped in the in ramp of the shopping center till the tow truck comes. Meanwhile I’m talking to 911. Initially I told them the person had left. Then I see someone trying to knock on my window. They did indeed park. I pulled into a handicapped space. It was the only one available.

The cops came. I sent out a group text, called the insurance company, and the rest of my day was shot to hell. My SIL came down to take me home. I got in the house and the phone starts ringing. It’s Enterprise. The insurance contacted them, did I want a rental. Yes. How else will I get to work? (Well I guess I could have done online.) What did I want? Something the same size as my Ford Focus. They will pick me up in an hour. In the meantime another dozen emails arrive. A this point I am overwhelmed and just want to tell the whole world to duck off. 

The Enterprise driver got lost, but he finally found me. He was driving a 2024 electric blue Nissan Sentra. That ended up being my car. It has push button ignition. And a ducking computer for a dashboard. Like someone mounted a huge iPad. I think it does everything but launch into outer space. It took me 5 minutes to find out how to turn the radio on. Looks like I’ll be listening to 99.9 the Hawk for the duration. It also has a backup camera, and mirrors the size of a Mack truck. Okay.  I exaggerate, but they are huge. I did not park in the garage. I parked on the street, in the first spot by the corner. I didn’t have to back up. I’m as protected as I can be but I’m positive they will tell me there are scrapes and dings. They ALWAYS do. After I rented the car I remembered after the last fiasco I would never do that again. It will stay parked till Monday then I’ll have to drive it to school. I am terrified of driving that car.

But picking up the car allowed me to pick up this month’s cheese from my cheese CSA. I probably made the best mac and cheese ever from the remains of last month's share.