Weekend!
As I said earlier, my car got totaled by a hailstorm and I was given a choice between giving up my car and getting a large check and keeping my car and getting a check half the size.
Upsides for both, of course. If I took the big check, I’d be able to get a much newer car with much lower mileage/wear&tear on it but go back to having a payment for the next X years versus keeping the car with which I had bonded but also which has 75,000 miles on it and looks like a golfball (and will continue to look like a golfball).
There’s an old folk saying that goes something like this: Someday you’ll be walking down a muddy road and you’ll come to a fork and not know which to take. Know this: it doesn’t matter. You’ll soon be wishing you took the other one.
While it’s true that Maribou had a slight preference for one of the two forks and, indeed, her slight preference was for the same slight preference that I happened to have, I kinda knew that, no matter which decision I made, I’d soon be wishing I had made the other. As such, I wanted insights from the best and brightest the internet had to offer to make me feel good about whatever decision I made and help prevent the “you know what? I should have taken the other fork!” feelings I imagine I’d run into around February.
The comment that pushed me into “yeah, I probably won’t regret this…” territory was Michael Cain’s:
If this year is indicative of the future for Colorado Springs, option B. When you have to make a slightly different version of the same decision again in a couple of years, at least it won’t have been a newer car that got hammered.
Over the past couple of years, I’ve dodged 3, maybe 4, hail storms that would have done this to my car. My luck was bound to run out and if it wasn’t this hail storm that did it, it’d be the next one.
So I’m keeping the car (which was not only Maribou’s slight preference, but my own as well). Now I’ve just gotta get it into the dealer for its next oil change and repairs on all of the cracked and broken stuff.
So I get to schedule that this weekend.
I also get to run in my first, sigh, “color run”. It’s a 5k, apparently. I get a t-shirt. Luckily, they have them in 3X.
The rest of the weekend will be spent recuperating from the 5k.
So… what’s on your docket?
(Image is “Play” by Clare Briggs. Used with permission of the Briggs estate.)
FWIW, I’m really glad we’re keeping the car, mostly because I’m tired and there’s so much going on and this just seems like a lot less work, even putting the infinitely debatable money questions to one side.
(How you know you are from the internet – when your husband informs you of his decision about something like this online in a public blog post and that’s actually how you would prefer to learn of it…)
Things are looking up for my friend who is still in critical condition in the ICU but, y’know, she’s still in critical condition in the ICU. Just she can talk now (sometimes) and stuff :).
I intend to spend most of the weekend helping out where I can, again, but also we have gaming on Saturday and the host has very kindly agreed to make his spaghetti and cheesy garlic bread for us all.
There’s a home varsity soccer game that one of my students is playing in on Sunday afternoon, slim chance if it’s not too hot and I”m not busy helping, I’ll go, but more likely I’ll wait till October to show up for games.Report
This weekend, playing bridge. We have switched from Friday evenings to Saturday afternoons because, and I know this is surprising, everyone plays better when they’re not exhausted from a full day of work.
Last weekend, we saw a production of The Pirates of Penzance. It was a lot of fun. Compared to The Mikado or Pinafore, it’s short on funny songs, though it does of course have the best song in all of G&S, one that’s infinitely parodyable.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9aYrURLHh0Report
Dammit, wrong video. Take 2:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGM-wSKFBpoReport
Someone watches Better Call Saul, cxu ne? So happy Gale has come back.Report
Here’s a great, barely safe for work interview about how hard it was to master that song.
https://tv.avclub.com/david-costabile-on-singing-and-memorizing-his-way-throu-1828478066Report
the best song in all of G&S
Do you know the patter song in Iolanthe? (I’d link to it if I knew how.)Report
This one?
https://youtu.be/qA93YkOq7sk
And no, I didn’t.Report
@mike-schilling
Not only is it a great song but it’s absolutely savage.Report
It was one of the great cartoons.Report
Disappointed there’s no photo.
You should’ve gone for new, or certified pre-owned vehicle.Report
(With Jaybird’s permission, I’ll try to get you a photo next time I’m near the Birdmobile.)
I think he’s made the best choice here, really. The damage that isn’t cosmetic (lights, windshield) is easily repairable and costs Jb only time, and it’s an otherwise mechanically sound vehicle which is paid off. A little money in his pocket, a little story to tell, a car with “character”…what’s not to love?Report
My ONE federal holiday until Thanksgiving is Monday. (We get Labor Day off but none of the other “public schools and bankers” holidays).
This afternoon I go out with my research student to start the fieldwork. She is actually a pre-med type so this will be a new experience for her (and I will be doing a lot of the plant ID, I suspect). Not exactly looking forward to it because it’s still eleventy-hundred degrees out here. I think I’m going to take one of the camp stools just in case I wind up needing to sit down for a bit. (Being on a beta blocker has adversely affected my “work out in the heat” tolerance).
Other than that, my plans are to write the first exam (sigh) for one of my classes and to read over again The Tragedy of the Commons which another of my classes is to discuss on Tuesday.
And to relax some. It’s been a tough couple of weeks. I have a couple sewing projects ahead that I fear if I don’t tackle them this weekend, they’ll sit in limbo forever.
Today is my parents’ 59th anniversary. While it sucks that my dad is stuck in a rehab center (still doing PT and also lung-therapy), it could have been worse based on how things looked a couple of weeks ago. Still, I wish they were both in good enough physical shape to go out to a nice dinner together.Report
Over the past couple of years, I’ve dodged 3, maybe 4, hail storms that would have done this to my car. My luck was bound to run out and if it wasn’t this hail storm that did it, it’d be the next one.
It’s always seemed to me that automotive body shops are much more common in Front Range Colorado than any of the other places I’ve lived. Back in the 90s we had two cars that were new enough the insurance covered the repairs that had to be “re-skinned” entirely — all of the exterior sheet metal replaced.Report
Well, this weekend is the Apaloosa Festival and our anniversary… so, obviously an Apaloosiversary.
Apaloosa is a multi-generational event with vaguely folk, hipster, catholic undertones. Pretty much the entire community of all ages turns out… its pretty cute to see 4-yr olds mingling with the college crowd, teens, and oldsters. But that’s just how our youth culture rolls.
The brothers in the Host band, Scythian, are friends of the family and we’ve known them since they were kids… now they’re marrying and throwing festivals n’stuff. They grow up so fast.
Gaelic Storm is headlining on Saturday and tickets are still available… so come on down, I’ll buy you a glass of wine from one of our local wineries.Report
That looks like a lot of fun! Have a great time.
Week 2 of the H.S. football season will find me on the field, hopefully not being too judgy. I like to keep the flag in my belt.
Then it’s out to the in-laws farm to play handyman, read, and get in some golf.Report
It is funny enough to be a LOL Apaloosa?Report
I think I exceeded the link limit with this weekend’s events?…Report
Aaaaaand the 5k has been cancelled.
I would have been more enthusiastic about it if I knew it was going to be cancelled.Report
I’m glad you reminded me about the 5k, because I would have hated not having the chance to enjoy not running it, but now you’ve told me that it’s been canceled so now I won’t can’t not enjoy not running it.Report
Lotta weddings are like that.Report
My stepdaughter moved into the dorms at her college yesterday. It’s only 20 minutes away, but it was decided that some distance would be good for all of us. We also are hoping that having people she is not related to also telling her that she should clean up after herself in the kitchen and it’s gross to never put the cap back on the toothpaste will give her some perspective on life.
My oldest daughter is also getting married next week. They are essentially doing a stay-elopement, meaning no one is invited to the ceremony but it will be in-town. She is very much her own person, but a good kid and we like her future husband well-enough, so that’s that.
What all of this means is that at the ripe old age of 43 my wife and I are now empty-nesters (having your kids young has its perks). We are realizing our house may be too large for the longterm and I have small fears that we don’t like each other as much as we think, but I cannot begin to describe how excited I am for the next few months of peace.Report
“We also are hoping that having people she is not related to also telling her that she should clean up after herself in the kitchen…”
I’d be interested in knowing if this actually works.Report
First college football game for my school–it’s division II, so it’s not the zoo of the big schools–Nice atmosphere and fun. And school work on Sunday.Report
Lucky you. My school plays Alabama. No downside I guess, other than a potentially embarrassing final score. If we lose we were supposed to. If we win, holy cow what an upset.Report
Your team’s the Card’s, right? I’ll be silently rooting for them. My Clarksville friend (lives in Jeff now) is a big fan. My school has won five or six RMAC championships and one national championship (since 2008), so we’re usually pretty competitive.Report
Yep – they asked for a big team and got it. It’s one of the rare times most UK fans will be pulling for us, SEC rivalries being what they are.Report
I decided to finally replace my aged Accord. Another driver, who failed to stop at a red light, made it an easy decision. (I’m fine, but the car is not.)Report