Skip to main content

148, 473 miles

Our 2006 Subaru Outback is aging, most days well, some days expensively, but all days...it's getting older.

Old isn't bad. But old can mean...being careful instead of fearlessly forging ahead.

Careful about driving too hard, too far, on a hot day. The Subie, it turns out, has a lightweight cooling system, and our climate is far from lightweight. It's heavyweight. 95-103 degrees for weeks on end. Lots of hills and stop and go traffic and opportunities to go "Sonova..is this going to be the day the steam will pour from beneath the hood, the temperature gauge will redline and I will grab my water bottle and medical bag and hoof it to the nearest...exit, or cool place?"

I stress a lot while driving Subie during the summer, I'm not gonna lie.

I worry that the car I lusted after for decades, finally appropriated during my final year of med school because it snows a lot in Santa Fe and I had to drive between there and Albuquerque several times a week..will require more investment to sustain than the value can justify.

It's a fine balance, this push pull of no car payment but investing in repairs/stress filled later life of a car and the prospect of getting a newer, better, hopefully cooler version of this four wheeled beast that costs hundreds of dollars a month.

Right now, in the eleven months leading up to the Wedding, I don't want to actually increase my overhead. We're managing while I get my practice off the ground..but there's no cash leftover for, oh, a shinier, newer version of the elderly duchess that is our Subie.

The money is earmarked for the Dress. And for general support of the Wedding. Prep. Travel. You name it, if it has the word 'wedding' associated with it, there's a premium to pay.

For now, Duchess Subie remains a member of our family.

But her daily protesting (hot flashes, squeaky belts, gradually declining compression) continues to intensify. At some point, we may be forced to acquiesce, to upgrade in the face of great financial expectations.

Which makes us like most Americans, most days, yes?

 Huge hugs, and happy commuting!

 Stevie


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

It might have been the moon

 The second Super Moon, also a Harvest Moon, just happened. On the same night I had my mini-meltdown. (see prior post). I've talked with several friends who reported intense emotions, mostly around stuff that needs to be released, resolved. When I think about my angst, and how intense it felt, I realize it was all about that kind of stuff. Old stuff, patterns, thinking, habits. So maybe the moon precipitated things. The bubbling up of angst and anger and icky stuff lasted all that night, but had calmed by yesterday morning. Thank gawd, because that was a morass of darkness, the likes of which I haven't experienced in at least a decade. The rest of the weekend has been pleasant. Uneventful. Full of errands, chores, a really nice walk this morning, yummy food, naps, etc. The one thing about energy that feels constant is that no mood lasts forever. Energy continually shifts and morphs, like the Universe knows too much, too long, of any one sentiment just isn't a good idea for ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Experiencing system issues

Last night we booked my return flight from Rhode Island. The one I'll be taking once I've situated Daughter in her dorm digs. We used rapid rewards, which tends to take a little longer than other transactions. But still. We were on the phone for almost an hour. An hour! Really? And we had to give them the credit card number 5 times. For one flight and one rental car. I'm just sayin' you guys may be the best bet out there in terms of airline choices, but come on! At least provide fun Hold music if you're going to make people engage for that long. Seriously.
Post a Comment
Read more

Running Shoes...with Waves

Remember when you had one pair of tennies and they were for everything? Everything. Those days ended for me in high school when I started to run in earnest. In Nike Pegasus, their original running shoe, in white leather with a red swoosh. They were cushiony and durable and made me feel like less of a poser and more like a real runner. After that the style options exploded. I can't remember when Nike came out with their patented Air technology, but I had one of the original pairs..paid a ton of money for them, but it was money well spent. I ran all over the place in those things. All over. The foothills, the valley, sidewalks, parks, around the Academy, wherever...many miles in the originals. Generations of shoes later, I find myself not so happy with the Nike anymore. I've spent thousands of dollars on them in my life, but a few years back began to notice what I deemed to be a general decline in quality, though they've never stopped increasing their prices with ea...
2 comments
Read more