1947 Water, Car Shopping, Angst

Sunday, August 10, 2008

I turned the A/C off about two weeks ago. I got tired of turning on the faucet or shower, or flushing a toilet, and getting only an intermittent dribble. I finally threw in the towel after two days of no water at all. I suspect that after two months of water running through the heat pump constantly, the filter was full of silt from the well, so the heat pump was taking all the water that could get through.

There followed a few days of 80+ degrees in the house, but since then, it's been fine. I opened windows at either end of the house, popped the attic hatch so the attic exhaust fan could draw through the house, and set up fans in the den and the kitchen. Sometimes now at night it actually gets cold.

The water has yet not fully recovered. I'm getting about half of the expected volume from the faucets. I'm going to have to clean the filter, I guess, and perhaps recharge the cold water tank pressure. If that doesn't fix it, I'll have to have the pipes flushed. Oh, joy. Real A/C installed this fall, I swear.

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Well, I've received the first dispersement from Jay's father's estate. Time to go car shopping. I want a small fast sports car, two seats, or two with a small bench in the back for groceries and stuff. Convertible, a soft top so I still have a full trunk. Preferably manual shift. Not over-decorated, not boxy looking, but not too rounded, either. Low, wide, and fast looking. Reliable, of course. Availability of a local dealership/service is preferred. Price isn't a factor in the purchase, but it IS for the ongoing insurance and maintenance costs, so preferably mid-range

I always look twice at Corvettes. I like their looks, but the word I'm getting is that people who know cars aren't too impressed with what's under the hood. One that always stops me on the street is the Porsche Boxter. It's not as expensive as the name would suggest. Piper wants me to go BMW (Bleck!). He also thinks I should lease instead of buy. Piper's buddies recommend Saturn. The Man drives a Mitsubishi Eclipse Spyder. I have been in love with the idea of a Lotus since 1969, but the current design is the epitome of over-decorated, which is lucky for me, because if I liked it, I'd be tempted to spend WAY over budget. So far, the cars I'm considering cost about the same as what I paid in 2001 for the handicap-equipped van out there in the driveway now.

Here's the selection so far. Comments? Advice? Further suggestions?

Corvette - what I like best is that it's wide and low:


Porsche Boxter - low nose, pure sport:


BMW - looks too much like a coupe:


Saturn - somehow I think bee-stung nose:


Mitsubishi - like, but may be swayed by associated good memories:


Lotus - see what I mean by over-decorated? Just too much glop:
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Today marks the first full week in a long time that The Man and I haven't gotten together. We'd managed to get together at least once a week lately, which is nice. When I see him, my feelings are renewed. But when I haven't seen him in about 10 days, it starts to wear off, and I start wondering again. I don't know what that means. The longer the separation, the more I start thinking that there's no way this is going anywhere, and I'm wasting time, and I really should move on. And then I see him again, and fall in love all over again, and I think well, I'll enjoy this as much as I can, for as long as I can, and maybe that might be a long time. I go through that cycle a lot.

I feel really good when I'm with him. I don't get that same feeling when I look at his picture. The face in photographs is almost a stranger - photos of him actually don't look like him. His face is a different shape from that in photos. Maybe it's that his eyes in photos don't have the same pull. His face in photos doesn't have the same vulnerability it shows in person. So looking at photos brings nothing back to me, feeling-wise. Then I hear his voice on the phone and it starts all over again. I have a strong response to his voice. He has a very masculine voice.

Piper would say The Man's towing a trailerload of baggage, as if that's a bad thing. Maybe in the end it will be. But right now, when I see him, I want to help pull the load. When I haven't seen him for too long, I think about that trailer breaking loose and running over us, and I realize that I do have a choice whether to stand in its path or not. (What I really want to do is unload the damn trailer and leave it all on the side of the road, but that isn't going to happen without a mallet big enough to cause amnesia. And I suspect that might mess him up a bit.)

Fate has been throwing men at me lately, as if to say, "Look, you have viable choices, closer to your interests, closer to your age, closer to your temperament, Hell, just closer!" She keeps tempting me. That's another thing I haven't been talking or writing about. Seems like it's feast or famine, and hey, Fate, I'm on a diet right now. I cannot and will not juggle men. One at a time. Cut it out!

I don't understand me. There's no logic in any of it. Maybe it's hypnosis. Maybe it's sex. I'm pretty sure that if the sex weren't so good, I'd have wandered off by now. On the other hand, I'm pretty sure that if he lost the ability while I was still with him, I'd stick by him.

No logic.
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