As a cat owner I will confess that I too put Stuff On My Cat.
Archive for July, 2005
If there is one thing that I love most about summer it is driving barefoot. There is nothing comparable to coursing through undulating country lanes feeling the purr of the engine through the gas pedal with your toes curled over the top of the clutch all while the stereo propelling the moment forward in decibels of joy. It is my guiltiest of pleasures.
Steve Vaught is a man walking from San Diego to New York City to reclaim his life and hopefully shake loose the demons that have ridden him for the past twenty-five years. The New York Times article, as told to Candice Reed, is raw; Vaught’s feelings of his place in this world and the life he has lead are palatable yet yielding. The two months he has spent on the road have softened his beliefs and assumptions and helping him come to terms with who he is.
Interestingly, many of the articles out there cover the journey as a sort of extreme weight loss program, including his website. Whatever the explicit and implicit reasons maybe it seems that the journey is transforming him and hopefully will bring his family closer together. If anything it will demonstrate to Vaught that people do believe in him and wish him the greatest success.
Our financial footing is shaky at best, we pay all of our bills on time and usually have a little left over to tuck in the bank or to treat ourselves to something nice but we do not have vast stacks of cash lining our dresser. So the bills are mounting, riding closely on the haggard heels of our last round of major expenses, namely the car repairs, student loans, and mortgage. I have yet to talk to the claims adjuster yet but the word deductible is being bandied about by the oil and tree crews. As if there is anything at the moment to deduct.
The tree removal will cost $506.50, of which I had to put down $203.50 and I’m shuddering to think what the oil service will cost. At the moment they are installing a temporary tank, moving the existing oil over, removing the old tank, and then they will be pouring a concrete pad and installing the new tank. Cash money.
My wallet feels much like this poor little oil tank, tired and dented.
So, we originally put off visiting my sister because of temporary crushing poverty arising from a flurry of unplanned automotive repairs. Now, I am thinking that it was so we could be home when our home came under an arboreal assault.
There you have it, one large branch twisted itself around the trunk like a swing dancer, bouncing off the oil tank, finally coming to rest much like it was when it was attached to the tree only much lower.
My thoughts are with you.
