Monday, April 28, 2003
Last weekend was one of the greatest weekends of my life. I learned to fly a kite. A *real* kite. One of those two stringed, tricky, stunt kites. And I'm hooked.
It is hard for me to describe the feeling I had as I worked not against, but *with* the wind. A certain joy soared through my blood as I used the great, invisible force for my own folly. After only a few attempts (and lots of help from Chris) I was able to launch the kite and hold it aloft for several minutes. Not just hold it there, mind you, but drive the concoction of plastic sticks and parachute fabric from one side of the sky to the other. I, a mere mortal, was able to cause this primitively designed yet modernly developed device to do flips in the air. I would send it in circles to the left, twisting the two lines together, then send it into a tight, fast spiral to the right to untwist the cords. I took it up and down, slowly and quickly. And, yes, I crashed it plenty, but for every time that kite hit the ground, there were moments of sheer ecstasy when I was the only being in the world, and that being was a true goddess.
It is hard for me to describe the feeling I had as I worked not against, but *with* the wind. A certain joy soared through my blood as I used the great, invisible force for my own folly. After only a few attempts (and lots of help from Chris) I was able to launch the kite and hold it aloft for several minutes. Not just hold it there, mind you, but drive the concoction of plastic sticks and parachute fabric from one side of the sky to the other. I, a mere mortal, was able to cause this primitively designed yet modernly developed device to do flips in the air. I would send it in circles to the left, twisting the two lines together, then send it into a tight, fast spiral to the right to untwist the cords. I took it up and down, slowly and quickly. And, yes, I crashed it plenty, but for every time that kite hit the ground, there were moments of sheer ecstasy when I was the only being in the world, and that being was a true goddess.
Wednesday, April 09, 2003
Last weekend was one of the greatest weekends of my life.
On Saturday morning Chris made a wonderful breakfast of scrambled egg sammiches and home fries. We hopped in his car and started our drive to St. Augustine via Windsor, but the car started overheating. A strange but nice man at Tim's Fast Nickel helped Chris get the thermostat unstuck, and we ran back home to switch cars. But I got to see the thistles in full bloom, which was why we were driving through Windsor in the first place, so I was happy.
Anyhoo, we picked up Sheena, who had a full tank of gas, and whose clutch did not completely burn out on the trip, and headed back towards St. Aug. Quickly found a decent parking space and went to Trade Winds to see dblWiDE play a kick-ass show. What a wonderfully fun band! Total rawkabilly. See http://www.dblwide.com/ and http://www.homestead.com/ricksaunders/index.html. Had a couple of drinks (while the Colonel was spilling his own) and some nachos.
When the band was all done (They played for three hours without a single break!) we headed to Summer Haven (just south of Crescent Beach) and walked on the beach for a while. I saw a wild (ok, stranded) live starfish for the fist time in my life, and found a neat ancient mariner's artifact. Then we had a great dinner at... damn if I can't remember the name of the place, but Chris used to go there all time as a kid when his grandfather had a condo on Crescent Beach. Great shrimp, though! And much better margaritas than Trade Winds.
Went home and slept really well, then got up bright and early on Sunday to meet J&L for breakfast. Actually, it wasn't bright and early at all, it was *dark* and early because of the time change. I'm glad Laura called us to remind us. Had a decent breakfast and then tried to find Willie Nelson tickets. Turns out the G'ville show has been cancelled, and that was the low point of the weekend.
We went home and I finally got to work in the garden some! I got all of the container plants taken care of and happy, and put some fresh herbs into a cool little copper-ish tub that I had. And I got a *little* bit of the flower garden cleared out for annuals. It's the worst bit, though, so it's all down hill from here.
*Then* Chris and I went to my friend Steve's house in Micanopy to shoot .22s and .38s and 9mms (Winnona) and .410s (Lucius). That was *so* much fun! Steve made a fantastic dinner of grilled chicken and mashed potatoes. Yummy! Then we went to see _About Schmidt_. When we got home from that I was just exhausted, but was able to stay away long enough to watch _King of the Hill_ which was about Hank and Peggy going to Sturgis! Neat-o!
See, don't you wish *you* had weekends like that?!
On Saturday morning Chris made a wonderful breakfast of scrambled egg sammiches and home fries. We hopped in his car and started our drive to St. Augustine via Windsor, but the car started overheating. A strange but nice man at Tim's Fast Nickel helped Chris get the thermostat unstuck, and we ran back home to switch cars. But I got to see the thistles in full bloom, which was why we were driving through Windsor in the first place, so I was happy.
Anyhoo, we picked up Sheena, who had a full tank of gas, and whose clutch did not completely burn out on the trip, and headed back towards St. Aug. Quickly found a decent parking space and went to Trade Winds to see dblWiDE play a kick-ass show. What a wonderfully fun band! Total rawkabilly. See http://www.dblwide.com/ and http://www.homestead.com/ricksaunders/index.html. Had a couple of drinks (while the Colonel was spilling his own) and some nachos.
When the band was all done (They played for three hours without a single break!) we headed to Summer Haven (just south of Crescent Beach) and walked on the beach for a while. I saw a wild (ok, stranded) live starfish for the fist time in my life, and found a neat ancient mariner's artifact. Then we had a great dinner at... damn if I can't remember the name of the place, but Chris used to go there all time as a kid when his grandfather had a condo on Crescent Beach. Great shrimp, though! And much better margaritas than Trade Winds.
Went home and slept really well, then got up bright and early on Sunday to meet J&L for breakfast. Actually, it wasn't bright and early at all, it was *dark* and early because of the time change. I'm glad Laura called us to remind us. Had a decent breakfast and then tried to find Willie Nelson tickets. Turns out the G'ville show has been cancelled, and that was the low point of the weekend.
We went home and I finally got to work in the garden some! I got all of the container plants taken care of and happy, and put some fresh herbs into a cool little copper-ish tub that I had. And I got a *little* bit of the flower garden cleared out for annuals. It's the worst bit, though, so it's all down hill from here.
*Then* Chris and I went to my friend Steve's house in Micanopy to shoot .22s and .38s and 9mms (Winnona) and .410s (Lucius). That was *so* much fun! Steve made a fantastic dinner of grilled chicken and mashed potatoes. Yummy! Then we went to see _About Schmidt_. When we got home from that I was just exhausted, but was able to stay away long enough to watch _King of the Hill_ which was about Hank and Peggy going to Sturgis! Neat-o!
See, don't you wish *you* had weekends like that?!
Thursday, April 03, 2003
The clutch is going out in my car. The last time I spoke to my mechanic about the clutch, he said it would cost me a couple of grand to replace it. This being because she is a mid-engine vehicle. Now, if you know me at all, you know how much I love this car. If you don’t know me at all, then know that her name is Sheena, and she’s this cute little 1988 MR2, and she makes me feel *so* very happy and spunky whenever I climb inside of her and start her zippy little engine. It therefore saddens me so to feel the amount of play in her clutch getting longer and longer each day.
My quandary is that I didn’t pay very much for my sweet little girl. I have to decide whether she is worth putting more money into her than I paid for her. Of course, the practical answer to this is, ‘No way, it’s not worth it.’ But if you’ve ever truly fallen in love with a car, you’ll understand how hard it is for me to accept that answer.
One idea I’ve had is to take the couple of grand that I would use to put a new clutch into Sheena and buy another 1988 MR2 in good shape (preferably with a newish clutch) with less miles on it. I could park Sheena and salvage her for parts. She would kind of be like an organ donar, living on in another similar car, and I’m sure I would enjoy this new MR2 just as much as I do Sheena.
Second idea: Use the clutch money to buy a motorcycle. I won’t bore you with the details on how much my previous bike meant to me, but it was much more than a bike. It was a symbol of freedom and independence. And it was cool as hell. I looked at used bikes last weekend and found that a decent sized rice burner built within the past five years runs in the neighborhood of 5-6 grand. So I figure for that amount, I could add a couple of grand to the figure and look at Harleys. The local shop advertises several in that price range on their website and I started getting pretty excited about the whole prospect. I mean, just *think* of me on a Harley! Wow! Makes me shiver.
Then I calmed down a bit. And realized that for the amount of money that I was thinking of putting into a fair weather vehicle I could buy a pretty damn nice used car. Damn. Foiled again.
Luckily, I called my brother the other night. Even more lucky for me, he’s a mechanic. He said that I really shouldn’t have to pay more than a couple of hundred dollars to replace Sheena’s clutch. Cool. But there go my Harley dreams. Again.
My quandary is that I didn’t pay very much for my sweet little girl. I have to decide whether she is worth putting more money into her than I paid for her. Of course, the practical answer to this is, ‘No way, it’s not worth it.’ But if you’ve ever truly fallen in love with a car, you’ll understand how hard it is for me to accept that answer.
One idea I’ve had is to take the couple of grand that I would use to put a new clutch into Sheena and buy another 1988 MR2 in good shape (preferably with a newish clutch) with less miles on it. I could park Sheena and salvage her for parts. She would kind of be like an organ donar, living on in another similar car, and I’m sure I would enjoy this new MR2 just as much as I do Sheena.
Second idea: Use the clutch money to buy a motorcycle. I won’t bore you with the details on how much my previous bike meant to me, but it was much more than a bike. It was a symbol of freedom and independence. And it was cool as hell. I looked at used bikes last weekend and found that a decent sized rice burner built within the past five years runs in the neighborhood of 5-6 grand. So I figure for that amount, I could add a couple of grand to the figure and look at Harleys. The local shop advertises several in that price range on their website and I started getting pretty excited about the whole prospect. I mean, just *think* of me on a Harley! Wow! Makes me shiver.
Then I calmed down a bit. And realized that for the amount of money that I was thinking of putting into a fair weather vehicle I could buy a pretty damn nice used car. Damn. Foiled again.
Luckily, I called my brother the other night. Even more lucky for me, he’s a mechanic. He said that I really shouldn’t have to pay more than a couple of hundred dollars to replace Sheena’s clutch. Cool. But there go my Harley dreams. Again.
