Like The Queen
Whatever happens to strike my fancy, but surely some sort of fiber content.

4 Comments:

Love the Garrison Keillor quote. Reminds me that I need to see that movie (is it out yet?).

You know, Click-and-Clack, the car guys, say that the cheapest car you'll ever have is the one you already own, so I'm with you on clinging to it for as long as they can. HOWEVER, when it becomes continually unreliable, then that's when in my book it's time to consider something new(er).

With computers, on the other hand, I think if you go beyond 5 years old you're doing yourself a disservice. Old = slow, and time is money, so I'll always recommend that folks upgrade to something that's as fast as one can possibly afford, with an internet connection that's as fast as one can possibly afford. But that's just my humble opinion.

By Blogger Mary, at 8:51 AM  

Love the Garrison Keillor quote, too. I'm amazed at how patient the librarians at our library are with some questions. When I'm a librarian, I'll probably be the same way. :)

My parents hold on to cars until they are practically falling apart, too. My first car we were happy to sell for a whopping $100 to the mechanic who could fix it.

And the computer. Maybe it's time for an upgrade in the next year or so. If you just buy the unit itself and not all of the fancy stuff like a new monitor, it can be pretty inexpensive.

Btw, posted a comment in a previous post several, hope you see it. I love your posts, even if I'm three weeks behind on reading, I can just hear you reading them to me. :)

By Blogger erica, at 11:51 AM  

xoxoxox

By Blogger Amie, at 12:03 PM  

I tend to keep cars a long time but once they've started costing me upwards of $500 every time I have a mechanic look at them, I get rid of them. I've found I can get a reasonably priced car if I buy one that is a year old, usually a rental car that a dealer is selling. Since I know little about cars, I feel that is a "safe" way to buy a used car since I know the rental company has maintained it. Right now, dealers in my area are having sales on 2006 models because of getting in the 2007 ones. If they still have a 2005 sitting on the lot, you can probably get a real deal. Of course, I also pray about the car buying before I head to the nearest dealer. Just something to think about ...

By Anonymous Anonymous, at 12:40 PM  

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]



Thursday, June 29, 2006  




What’s that up in the sky? That yellowish thing peeping through the fleecy clouds? Is that the sun? How ... how unusual!

Don’t get me wrong - we got 2 showers yesterday and a nice big rain in the night - but there were whole hours when no rain fell! You didn’t have to have a raincoat or umbrella with you when you stepped outside. No hair fell flat or frizzed up. It was a lovely day that, in comparison to the past week, felt dry even if the humidity was up around 88%. When I got home last night I couldn’t resist checking in with Bella, but she’s still groaning. I’d like to take her to town tomorrow to dry out but everything will depend upon Mr.Mechanic and how well he can bond with our 20 year old truck.

Sometimes I wonder if we are flawed, BD and I, the way we cling to the items we have as if they had some talisman like power, instead of just replacing worn out old junk. Other times I just blame it on that Southern belief that things last forever if you just take care of them. That's an old reconstruction maxim that was offered to TheYoung when they complained that they never got anything new. Our computer was a rebuilt IBM clone when we bought it in 1995. It got an upgrade in ‘99 and has been untouched by geekish hands since then. BD uses the word processor function and we both use it for the Internet - fully aware that with dial-up access, there’s not much point in worrying about speed. Video clips? Forget it. Sound? nada. It’s a giant e-mail/blog/horoscope reader - and it’s even beginning to fail at these simple tasks. It needs to be replaced but trying to pry an ancient, rusted, creaky, but faintly gasping its last breath tool out of BD’s hands is ... well ... it won’t be a pretty sight. As for me? I don’t usually develop permanent bonds with things, but I am inordinately lazy. At least, I am when it comes to machinery. Efforts at buying big ticket items always vie with each other for top space on my list of Most Tedious.

Same with cars. We drive them till every mechanic in a 50 mile radius refuses to work on them any more. Even then, when the last one kicks us out of his shop with the epithet "geeeut up offitt, Eeeud", BD is as likely to explain that we were rejected because the mechanic only liked to work on Buicks driven by octogenarians as he is to think, "hmmmm. Maybe we ought to get a new car."

That truck died on me at the local dump last Friday. BD’s advice was "just let it cool off. It always refuses to start when the engine is hot." It also needs new brakes and may even need to have the drums turned ($$$$$$$$$$$$$) and he knew this last August. Of course, it mostly only goes from our house down the road to the local boat landing and back. But when it has to, it goes further and sometimes I am the one driving it. A car only has to let me down once to move from BD’s problem to TheQueen's and last Friday that happened.

It’s in the shop now and I’m thinking hard about the major upgrades needed all around this place. A new computer. A real second vehicle. I want my rocking chair mended. We ought to be thinking about a new refrigerator. And I’d like my bathroom redone. It’s okay for us - I know it’s clean - but it never looks clean and when we have guests I cringe in embarrassment. The tub needs to be re-enameled and I’m just about ready to give up our 50’s looking tile job. I may balk at the last minute over the re-tiling - because there really is a personal funny happy memory attached to that - but the tub! Ugh!

Nothing like lots and lots of mildew growing tropical heated moisture to make a gal think about sprucing up a place. Now it’s just a matter of $$$.

I know you’re all glad I’ve shared this valuable information.

This week has certainly turned out to be an easier week than last. It’s actually pretty much the same week, but it feels so much better. Last week I couldn’t tell if I had ever been effective at anything and what was I doing anyway? This week I had proof that my plans were good and I’d actually accomplished things. Yesterday was one of those rewarding days that reflected my best side back at me. Everything worked. Everyone was energized. Particularly satisfying was training staff to do a job I wouldn’t be there to do. It was the sort of thing I would have done on the fly because it draws on my particular gifts. But I haven’t hired anybody who thinks like me. I realize I have hired only people with different talents - things I don’t have but that would add so much to the library. And they’re mostly all able to learn some of the things I do if I’d just write them down as steps to follow. Of course, since these are all things I feel, not things I think about, the job for me is to translate feelings into instructions and yesterday it worked again and again. It was a splendid day.

I got only a wee bit of knitting done on BD’s sock heel flap. I’ll turn it this morning and start on the gusset. I also dug out something to spin on HeyBaby. I have PLANS for most every bag of fiber I own - and most of them involve either KittyBoy or Bella. But I did find a bag of cormo/mohair - 4 oz. And I suddenly thought "Sock Yarn!" "Hand Painted Self Striping Sock Yarn!" I’m going to have a dyeing day at B’s house in about 10 days and there is a wonderful article in the summer SpinOff about making a warping board and dyeing your own self striping yarn and I’m going to be having BD do some project carpentry for me anyway......

I am off to King George at noon to do a spinning story time at my friend R’s library. Then it’s the long drive back to my own library so I can run the film night. Let us hope there will be more viewers this week than last. Tomorrow I get off a little early because I must get fitted for new glasses. That will come out of my months of accumulated sick leave, so I shan’t be wasting precious comp time but it still gives me a short day followed by a weekend. Sounds like life is about as good as it can get. Hope it is so for you all, too.

And I leave you with this precious quote - a gift from A - and the author, too, of course.

Librarians, Dusty, possess a vast store of politeness. These are peoplewho get asked regularly the dumbest questions on God's green earth.These people tolerate every kind of crank and eccentric and mouth-breather there is. --Garrison Keillor, Lives of the Cowboys

posted by Bess | 7:48 AM
links
archives