Where is July these days? It barely scraped 70 degrees today, and then only when the sun was out, and it wasn’t out much. I was in the office in no sleeves, and practically froze to death.
It’s shaping up to be an insane week — deadlines, deadlines and…houseguests! Plus we have a failing car; the Passat now requires a repair that will cost more than its value, and it’s just sitting in its parking spot, being disappointing. I really hoped it would go well past 165K, but it doesn’t look to be in the cards. So we spent the weekend trying to find a used wagon (has to hold an acoustic bass, or bass/amp/drum set, the standard rhythm-section quandary). We think we found one in an eight-year-old Volvo wagon, but it won’t be paid for for a few days, which means…complications.
So, some links:
These anti-vax people. I have no words.
Those of you who remember the towering documentary “Streetwise” from 1993 might be interested in how it turned out for the filmmakers, and Tiny, the central character of the film about Seattle street kids. A nice column.
A fascinating explanation of how the FDA approves, or fails to approve, sunscreen. Yes, sunscreen.
Happy Monday, all.
Sherri said on July 29, 2014 at 1:23 am
I’m in Ashland, OR, for my annual trip to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and it was roasting hot here – triple digits. On the other hand, in addition to seeing a bunch of great plays, the last couple of days I got to see Impro Theatre do a improvised ~45 minute Shakespeare style comedy and a ~90 minute Sondheim style musical. The musical was especially impressive. They took a name (“It Could Have Been Worse”) for the musical from the crowd, and 4 musical notes (A flat, G sharp, C, and D) and took off.
I’m early in my trip, so I’ve only seen two plays so far: Family Album, a rock musical, and Two Gentlemen of Verona. Next up is Richard III.
707 chars
Dexter said on July 29, 2014 at 4:02 am
I dearly loved my Volvo 240 Wagon, but the repairs were so costly just to maintain that vehicle I threw in the towel. Massachusetts,now that’s Volvo country. Those people love their Volvos. I’d like to get a Subaru Forester; it might be big enough for your needs, too, nance.
Time is dragging tonight…I fell asleep in my chair with the TV on but woke up to another round of extreme tooth pain. Still scheduled for an extraction at 10:00, and I seriously wish it was 10:00 right now. I want this damn tooth out.
520 chars
alex said on July 29, 2014 at 7:36 am
Sorry to hear about the Passat going kaput. It seems like there are fewer and fewer options if you want a manual transmission anymore. One you might consider if you want something unique is the Hyundai Elantra Touring which was a European wagon brought to the U.S. for a short time before Hyundai came up with a much less commodious American hatchback to replace it. I think they’re cute and I’d like to snap one up to replace our ’89 Accord, which is so unreliable and unsightly at this point that we should probably unload it on a teen-aged tinkerer.
629 chars
brian stouder said on July 29, 2014 at 7:51 am
Well, I’m not usually one to say “Thank God”, and literally mean to communicate thanks specifically to The Almighty, but a day ago I did just that. Last week we returned from a very pleasant 3,300 (plus or minus) family vacation/roadtrip*. Our ’03 Dodge Caravan performed flawlessly through all of it, despite running over a snake skittering across the highway in Colorada, and a bird in the grill from somewhere in Nebraska. And then, two days after our return to Fort Wayne, the old girl lost all her oil onto the garage floor. Apparently a small fitting let go, and the van is now in the shop for repairs.
Even despite the somewhat irksome repair bill, all I could say – with great sincerity – was ‘Thank you God’ that this was in Fort Wayne, and not Greeley, Colorado – or some other place two time zones away.
*set foot in four states I had never been in before: South Dakota, Wyoming, Colorado, and Kansas (in addition to Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska and Missouri – all of which I had been in before)
1027 chars
Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on July 29, 2014 at 8:19 am
Thankfulness is always a blessing to someone!
45 chars
Julie Robinson said on July 29, 2014 at 8:38 am
Ugh–we took a trip to DC, when our car broke down not once but twice, and we spent two days and $$$$ getting it fixed. It didn’t wreck the trip but it sure put a damper on it. We had taken it to the dealership ahead of time and they had assured us it was in great shape. And that was the last GM car we ever bought, and the last time we trusted a dealership.
360 chars
Jeff Borden said on July 29, 2014 at 9:15 am
You’re wise to ditch the Passat. I tried to keep my 1999 Acura TL rolling, convinced it would get me to 200,000, but when it went bad, it all went bad fast. Starter. Tie rods. Headlights. (Those fking Xenon headlights cost more than $200 to replace.) And finally, of course, the transmission. So, we had to settle for 156,000. . .and my wallet was very much lighter even as we traded it to CarMax.
397 chars
Basset said on July 29, 2014 at 9:15 am
175k on a Subaru Outback here, my brother in law has over 300 on his Caravan. Maybe the Passat replacement could be a… dare I say it… minivan?
147 chars
Jolene said on July 29, 2014 at 9:29 am
Is the need to transport instruments long-term? Won’t Kate be moving out in a year?
83 chars
coozledad said on July 29, 2014 at 10:16 am
The Republicans and their fellow travelers- our very own criminal caste:
http://gawker.com/the-nras-top-attorney-was-convicted-of-murder-in-1964-1612596516
No wonder everything they say or do stinks of treason.
214 chars
coozledad said on July 29, 2014 at 10:32 am
And before the website scrubbings begin, here’s an interesting one. Robber/ murderer Bob Dowlut is listed as an “expert” with The Federalist Society, funded by the Kochs, and counting among its members the white trash of the Roberts court. Filth.
http://www.fed-soc.org/experts/detail/bob-dowlut
298 chars
brian stouder said on July 29, 2014 at 10:37 am
Cooz, that first link is absolutely amazing.
And indeed – I hadn’t noticed before that the Koch’s were founding members of the John Birch society, back at about the same time the NRA was murdering his girlfriend’s mother.
You just can’t even make up stuff that’s crazier than this
286 chars
brian stouder said on July 29, 2014 at 10:38 am
“the NRA guy“…etc –
28 chars
Connie said on July 29, 2014 at 10:38 am
Sherri, many years ago at Michigan State I saw a sort of 50’s rock and roll version of Two Gentlemen of Verona.
Brian, you know I have the exact same vehicle, and a few weeks ago we had to replace the radiator. It is our second trashy vehicle but we do use it for vacations and such. We haven’t even tried to cram our stuff into the Chevy Cruze.
349 chars
Sue said on July 29, 2014 at 10:39 am
200,000+ miles on our wonderful Ford Escape.
Dexter, can’t remember what time zone you are in, but I’m sending good thoughts your way right now, it’s quarter to 10 here.
172 chars
Minnie said on July 29, 2014 at 11:00 am
Shopping for a new vehicle is way down my list of pleasant diversions. Good luck finding a suitable bass-section hauler. Our inherited ’97 Plymouth Voyager and ’01 Chrysler Town and Country are hanging in there but won’t outlast our need for transportation. The Voyager carries kayaks to local water holes and runs errands but isn’t road-trip reliable.
Thanks Heather, David in Cincinnati, Jill, and Kim Ellis for suggestions yesterday on worthy immersion blenders. I’ll include those you mentioned in the search for a replacement.
Anti-vaccination and now anti-vitamin . . . . What ever happened to reading critically and applying the scientific method?
Dexter, hope by now you are minus that painful molar.
And, just one more thing: Thank you 4th U.S. Circuit Court for rejecting Virginia’s same-sex marriage ban. A bit of good news amidst the horror of front page stories.
891 chars
coozledad said on July 29, 2014 at 11:14 am
Boehner’s been drinking sterno again:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/boehner-no-plans-impeach-obama-scam
It’s been Impeach the n—-! 24/7 since Obama was elected. Own it, you gutter cowards.
209 chars
Dexter said on July 29, 2014 at 11:43 am
Thanks, Sue and Minnie…been home 20 minutes now; the surgery for removing the tooth surprised me, the dentist, and the assistant, as it went perfectly, in just 35 minutes I was outta dere. Now I deal with the unpleasantries of certain pain onset, but I don’t care, that goddam tooth was killin’ me.
Coozledad…and, he’s a liar; they put that out there the first SOTU, wasn’t it?
I was driving home from the dental group and I noticed a pal was in the convenience store and I needed to ask him something so when I was in there I bought a lottery scratcher and won $4. Things are looking up.
After owning VW microbuses a good portion of my adulthood, I grew tired of tow trucks and I no longer take any car over three years old on vacations. If it’s me and Carol only, we rent the tiny cars, like the Ford Fiesta from Enterprise and the gas savings more than pays for the rental cost. Enterprise is weird, though, as they have restrictions on what states you may visit, so we also used the other companies from the airports, Hertz, Budget, Dollar, etc.
There used to be an outfit in Harlan, Indiana called Walt’s. They rented full sized conversion vans. We got one for a week back in ’98, and this Ford was tricked out beautifully…kids could watch videos, adults in the back could sit and play cards, and I could listen to my CDs in the driver’s seat. It was a brutally hot summer in ’98 on the North Carolina coast; what a great A/C that van had.
brian, I ran over a snake near the Ohio / Indiana line. It was so long I ran over the head and the tail, smashing it with all four tires. I had though Blue Racers had been eradicated, but I think that is what I hit that day.I stopped to measure it on the way home but the vultures had devoured it I reckon.
1788 chars
Connie said on July 29, 2014 at 12:15 pm
Dexter, I’ve had two extractions in the last couple of years and my dentist gave me a prescription for vicodan. Which I considered overkill for the pain, and never took. Stick with the salt water rinse and the gauze pack in the hold and take ibuprofen and you’ll be fine in a day or so. I described the pain as having been hit in the face with a rubber mallot. For what that is worth.
388 chars
Julie Robinson said on July 29, 2014 at 1:33 pm
Dexter, best wishes for a speedy recovery. Hope you can take it easy for a few days. Hate, hate, hate dental work.
114 chars
Judybusy said on July 29, 2014 at 1:37 pm
Dexter, here’s to a quick hela time–glad the surgery itself went quickly.
I do remember Streetwise–thanks for the update. Kind of like 7 Up, 14 Up etc, but not so planful, and probably much sadder. Here’s a link for the Up series: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Up_Series.
275 chars
brian stouder said on July 29, 2014 at 1:41 pm
Connie – you got me laughing; although I suspect a guffaw from Dexter would be painful!
And indeed – it has been a cool summer thus far…but Nancy threw me off stride with the “Happy Monday” conclusion to today’s post. I made it past 11:00 am thinking it was Monday again(!)
278 chars
Dexter said on July 29, 2014 at 1:45 pm
Connie,
Thanks for the advise.. I am going out now to fill the ‘scrip for the pain medicine…it’s got a long name which is not familiar to me, but it’s not as strong as Vicodin. I know Vicodin is what the junkies love, along with the Oxys, neither of which I have ever needed to have, and don’t crave any pain meds, but believe me, the pre-extraction pain I had from Friday morning to today was intense.
Everybody’s so different, for example, when I drank alcohol, one drink made me crave another drink, three made me want six, six made me want 12, and on and on . Many cross-addicted people say alcoholics should never take pain pills, but for me, I simply never craved any pills or powders or tabs or capsules or any drug, and I am grateful that when a tooth erupts, some damn-strong narcotics are there for me until the area heals. I learned years ago that “a drug is a drug is a drug and alcohol is a drug…”is all just so much bullshit for many of us who just cannot ever have any alcohol at all. I learned not to argue about marijuana “being the same as alcohol, addictive -wise” because that just seemed ridiculous, and now medical marijuana is the darling of today, and I am all for it, even as I have not smoked any for years, probably 30 years by now, just because I got tired of the cost and the chase…I felt I had outgrown it, and I forgot about it.
1374 chars
MichaelG said on July 29, 2014 at 2:16 pm
Feel better, Dexter. Better living through chemistry!
Brian, I once had an ’81 Toyota. It suddenly started puking oil. I was adding a quart or two per day depending on how much I drove. Scared the crap out of my wallet. Finally I investigated and discovered the oil was coming from what turned out to be the oil pressure sending unit. The replacement was in a blister pack on a rack at the dealer’s. It cost me like $6 and took ten minutes to replace. I wasted a lot more money on oil.
Good luck with the car, Nance. For some reason I was thinking your Passat was relatively new.
594 chars
beb said on July 29, 2014 at 4:23 pm
So we’re talking about car repairs… How appropriate since our car needs repairs. We were driving home from a family reunion in southern Indiana, topped a rise on the interstate just outside Indianapolis and found debris in the road. It came up too fast to dodge or stop. We could only hope it would slid under the car…. The debris was a trailer hitch from a pick-up truck, and not it did not slid under the car. It jammed into the bumber but not before taking out both the radiator and the transmission (and maybe more, we’re waiting for the adjuster’s appraisal). My sister was able to pick us up take us to my dad’s were we stayed over night and got a rental car to take us back to Detroit. We’re all safe, no one got hurt but we’re up here waiting for our car in mid-Indiana to be fixed.
794 chars
Dexter said on July 29, 2014 at 6:12 pm
beb, my work buddy Dan from Indiana had someone pick up an Ohio lotto ticket for him , and the ticket won ten grand, so Dan drove his brand new conversion van to Defiance to pick up the ticket at his buddy’s house. Out on Rt. 24, by the car dealership there, chains broke on a flat-bed hauling big axles, and Dan plowed into them hard. A tow truck hauled it in to the dealership there where they did the work to restore it. Dan drove a rental car for weeks…all because he had won the lottery. So I wish you good luck in getting your car home.
Also, my friend Larry had relatives in Columbia, SC, and he took his family there to vacation. He was driving a sedan, about seven years old. Out in the middle of nowhere his radiator blew out, and after much finagling, finally he got it back on the road. The day he was to leave to come back home , his engine blew up. Adamant about wanting to keep the car, he had a junk-yard motor installed down there. He had to call work pleading for emergency vacation days. He made it home and miraculously, the engine ran perfectly for years after.
Similar to brian’s story, I drove my Ford Ranger to a ball game in Chicago the Sunday before 9-11, 2001…my motor began disintegrating on the Skyway Bridge but I made it home. The very next day I started the engine and the oil instantly ran out onto the street…that truck likewise got a junkyard engine replacement.
And that is my detailed report as to why I rent cars! ( and laugh all you want, I’m a big man and I fit into that little Ford Fiesta with room to spare)
1573 chars
Suzanne said on July 29, 2014 at 6:38 pm
Must be car repair time of year (but, hey! Think of what we are saving on air conditioning costs!) we just put $600 into my van today for a sensor gone bad.
156 chars
Dexter said on July 29, 2014 at 8:45 pm
Our daughter Sandi’s best friend teaches algebra in an Indianapolis-area high school. They started school this past week! They get two weeks off for each Christmas, Spring break, and Fall break, and 8 weeks off in summer. Still…JULY? For one thing, summer jobs mean nothing, with hardly any time at all to earn some cash for the school year. If I were a kid or a parent, I would hate that system.
403 chars
Kirk said on July 29, 2014 at 9:34 pm
What is this “fall break” of which you speak?
45 chars
alex said on July 29, 2014 at 10:24 pm
I was blown away to hear the kids of some friends in DeKalb County are starting school this week. They’ve essentially done away with summer break and have year-round school.
173 chars
Dexter said on July 29, 2014 at 11:03 pm
Kirk, that’s how she phrased it…what the hell?…maybe a Halloween break?
And here’s one to make you gag…imagine flying into Metro from Beijing, and a kid squats on his airplane seat and takes a dump! The cabin filled with the stench but no charges were filed against the parents, WHO SPREAD NEWSPAPERS DOWN TO CATCH THE POOP! http://blog.sfgate.com/sfmoms/2014/07/28/child-poops-on-airplane-seat/
406 chars
Deborah said on July 29, 2014 at 11:28 pm
Geez, you are away from the internet for a day and then you find out a Chinese kid pooped on his airplane seat. Gross. Writing this in a motel room in Vermillion, SD. My husband and I are driving the Jeep back to Santa Fe. Little Bird flew back. We are taking blue highways on this leg of the trip, I really hate driving interstates. We got a late start out of Chicago because we were trying to avoid rush hour. Lots of construction on 90/94 so it was delayed even longer. I’m just glad to be at a place that seems to have plenty of hot water.
543 chars
Kirk said on July 29, 2014 at 11:45 pm
When I walked barefoot 5 miles to school uphill both ways, fall was when you went to school.
92 chars
Kaye said on July 30, 2014 at 1:15 am
Kirk, you made me laugh.
24 chars
Dexter said on July 30, 2014 at 3:59 am
Our school year in our rural 2-room schoolhouse was from the day after Labor Day until the middle of April. It killed us wen we moved and had to go until the end of May.
170 chars