Harry's Ruminations

Read This thread and you'll get it. Guy streeted his girl for a GTO.

...you look down at work two days in a row and notice that your pants aren't zipped. * * * Drove the MINI to work today; I'm rather tired of having only one car, and certain expediencies require separate vehicles. So, what did I notice about my garage queen (king?) when I got out to put the floormats in it? Two burned-out bulbs in the front lights: one lowbeam headlight (driver's side), and one driving light on the passenger side. My baby misses me. :-)

Is the car dying? Is the automobile, the symbol of American freedom and excess ceasing to be an object of status & lust for the populace? I'm not writing to persuade you of this fact, but rather to pose the question that occurs to me. Are cars just necessary appliances that no longer inspire their owners? After 4 generations of automobilers (Great Generation, Boomers, Gen X, and the latest unnamed gaggle), is the automobile so taken for granted?

May Zep forgive me for a pun... * * * The Pup's still glorying as our garage queen of January, awaiting his next playful buyer with more money, affection, and less debt. We've lowered the price from our original $18,500 to $17,500 and we've yet to have one serious interested buyer. We've advertised on autotrader, cars.com, roadfly.org, NorthAmericanMotoring.com (MINI club site), and in the Lexington Herald-Leader (regular classified ad), but no bites yet. To keep the fluids and seals fresh, we drove him around Saturday down to Sam's and recalled how harsh the ride is, but how sweet the handling, steering, and shifter are. So, this puts us at a crossroads...wait it out, lower the price, or forget it altogether. I don't really see the latter as an option--we need out of debt, and we're doing all we can to achieve that. Hopefully, with selling the mini and our forthcoming tax return (no whammies, no whammies, STOP!!), we'll be much closer than we are ri...

I had an out-of-body experience at church last night, right in the middle of "Shout to the Lord". I was happy, sad, sweaty, crying and not-quite-there all at the same time. I lost all consciousness of my surroundings and the other people singing, as though the sound enveloped me with waves of tactile velvet. My senses lost all meaning, much like that passage in "A Wrinkle in Time" where they land on the planet whose inhabitants have no eyes: "No, don't describe what it looks like, dear. Describe what it *is*." It was joy, and peace, like my soul existed on its own in that moment, no longer contained within my body, and that it resisted getting shoved back in my body. Didn't see any lights or tunnels or hear voices or see dead people or anything like that. I was just "in thrall". :-) Very cool stuff.

...men who wear ballcaps indoors... I agree hathead sucks, but it's just...disrespectful.

Quality must be considered as embracing all factors which contribute to reliable and safe operation. What is needed is an atmosphere, a subtle attitude, an uncompromising insistence on excellence, as well as a healthy pessimism in technical matters, a pessimism which offsets the normal human tendency to expect that everything will come out right and that no accident can be foreseen -- and forestalled -- before it happens. -- Hyman Rickover, founder of the US Navy Nuclear fleet. * * * Thank the LORD that guy was in charge.