A year ago I acquired a shirt from Zack… he had either tired if it, or perhaps felt that it was inappropriate for wear on the West side of the Hudson. I have fully adopted the shirt into my sparse wardrobe. I love getting stuff from my kids. <\/p>\n
And now I am on the cusp of taking ownership of an artifact of even greater significance. <\/p>\n
Shaina is a week away from heading back to Keene, NH to take her career pursuit to its next level. <\/p>\n
Earlier this spring she bought her first car. A brand spanking new Red Jeep. I had thought that her first car was going to be a VW Beetle (Yellow, if I recall). But the day she drove her Jeep onto Grapes’ Lido, I could see the pride in her eyes. Pride at being able to buy any car in the first place; but more… owning a car that is emblematic of her persona.<\/em> <\/p>\n And the car fit <\/em>her. Shaina is big of heart & soul; but small of stature. And the Jeep sits up fairly high, a real plus for Shaina. Sorta like the automotive equivalent of wearing high heels. <\/p>\n I got the loan of the Jeep on Saturday. What a gas. Six speed, open to the air and more stable than I expected on country turns. <\/p>\n This morning’s ride down from Woodbury was a particularly good ride. I was on the road a few minutes before 5:00AM. The sky was dark enough to still see the stars. When I got to Toddy Hill in Newtown I had a sliver of the moon on my left to the East, and Venus, the Morning Star<\/em>, clearly below the moon. I had already picked out the “Kap Key”, otherwise known as Orion’s Belt, from among the remaining stars… If I had seen the North Star that would have completed my knowledge of the Heavens. What a morning. <\/p>\n I had forgotten how much fun it is to drive with the “top down” in the dark. As I made my way thru the s-curves on Toddy Hill I remembered driving the MG on Racebrook Rd heading towards Woodmont or in the other direction over to Gary’s. <\/p>\n Yeah, this is good car for Shaina… plenty of character and pluck to match Shaina’s. As I say, it is a good fit. <\/p>\n And now that she is heading back North she had a surplus of cars in inventory. When she was an undergraduate she had acquired a Subaru Outback from Grandpa Bill. In many ways that car also suited her (but not like the Jeep does). But the Subaru has remained in her backyard collecting leaves. <\/p>\n Lucky for me. My porsche lasted barely a year. It’s dead on the Lido as we speak. Vinnie, my mechanic on retainer, gave me the bad news… there was some belt that needed replacing… the part itself was totally insignificant in cost; but the labor to get to it was frightful. It was $400 (maybe more) to basically “change a light bulb”. <\/p>\n The hell with that. I feel like complaining to Maheesh that he sold me a lemon. Folks have already said that they didn’t like the porsche as well as my mercedes. Well, neither did I. But I don’t appreciate the negative comments about my selection of cheap cars. <\/p>\n So the porsche (nee Honda Civic) with a mere 200,000 miles on her is being sent to the glue factory. <\/p>\n And now I have the good luck of obtaining Shaina’s handsome Navy Blue Subaru Outback… which looks to me like a beefy hummer to me. <\/p>\n This is a definite upgrade. I have a radio again. Five speed and <\/em>fancy 4 wheel drive to handle the hills of Litchfield County in nasty weather. I can even drive other citizens around in this car without asking them if their inoculations are up to date. <\/p>\n Oh yes, this is a positive hand-me-up. But I’ll confess… that Jeep is pretty sweet (very much a Jimbo type of vehicle)… maybe in Keene Shaina will remember how much she wanted a yellow Beetle. <\/p>\n I can see it now… Jimbo tooling around the countryside in a Red kick ass Jeep… mounted with a .50 caliber Browning M2 machine gun<\/em>. Yeah, that’s the ticket! And that should take care of the negative comments about the cars I drive! ‘Til then… this hummer will do just fine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A year ago I acquired a shirt from Zack… he had either tired if it, or perhaps felt that it was inappropriate for wear on the West side of the Hudson. I have fully adopted the shirt into my sparse … Continue reading