2966 Saturday Muse

Saturday, May 15, 2010

It is hard to believe that a man is telling the truth when you know that
you would lie if you were in his place.
--H.L. Mencken--

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Not much happening. I've been joy riding on back roads. Funny how I become an "attractive blond" in the right car. And the right hat. I can't wait to get on the Thruway.

It's been perhaps 18 to 20 years since I'd driven a car with a manual transmission, and in the four and a half days I've been driving Hal, it's all come back. I clutch and shift automatically already, without even thinking about it. I guess it had become body-knowledge.

Prior to the 1990 Ford Taurus, my first automatic, all my cars had been manual, and I must have been pretty good, because I drove a car an average of 6 to 8 years, and never had to have the clutch adjusted, let alone replaced. Same for the transmission. I also got a higher mpg than expected. Hal might be a little harder to squeeze out mpg, because I can't hear the motor. (According to Hal, I'm getting 25.9 mpg now. I might actually be getting more, but I've been spending a lot of time idling while I read the book and play with all the buttons. This evening I found out how to turn the headlights on! Go me!)

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Piper is a big Frank Sinatra fan (when he gets drunk, he sings Sinatra at me), so to thank him for going to NJ and looking at the house with me and advising me on the purchase, I bought him the complete set of Sinatra movie DVDs, and gave them to him yesterday.

We were talking about the van's woes, and he told me about an excellent mechanic just around the corner from me. Says he's used him for years and has been very satisfied. Weird. It's not an auto shop, it's a painting company, but they have a large fleet of trucks, and a mechanic on staff. So I went there and asked, and they are willing to take a look at the van. They'll tow it away on Wednesday.

All else seems to be holding its breath.
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