Book of Jamez

55 y/o malcontent, something of a writer

Category: travel

  • Fourtwome – My Little Car

    I recently paid off my little car so she’s all mine now.

    She’s a 2013 Smart Passion For Two, gray in color and a little squirrel on the road. She winds in and out of traffic with ease and can slip into the tiniest spots. I named her Fourtwome as 42 is the answer to life, the universe and everything and it’s in the name – “for two” so it seemed to fit. I think she likes the name, she’s never complained. She’s an automatic, but you can also use her as a manual, with paddle controls…had to do it once, see below. She’s surprisingly roomy, enough for me to fit in comfortably and any passengers I’ve had have said they thought they’d be cramped, but they’re not.

    I, with the aid of my friend Jim, drove her out to Virginia Beach from Phoenix about 4 years ago now. She handled the road fine, didn’t give us any problems. She was packed with my stuff, what I didn’t ship I stuffed into her back cargo area, I had a lot back there and we still had room for Jim and I to have suitcases.

    My first year in Virginia Beach she had a few issues, nothing serious, just hard on the pocketbook. My second year out here she got stuck like she wanted to get out of gear, but she wouldn’t I had to use the paddle shifters to get her to go. The folks at Christian Brothers Automotive fixed her up for a few hundred dollars and she hasn’t given me a hard time since.

    People wave to me at stop lights, car washes or what have you and ask me questions about her:

    “How fast can she go?”
    I’ve had her up to 85 but then she starts to shake, so no faster

    “How many miles per gallon do you get?”
    I think it’s about 38 – 41

    “Hey, how much is it to fill that thing up?”
    depending on gas prices, it’s about $23. She only holds 8 gallons

    She gets me to work and back and that’s mostly what I use her for. I have taken her for long trips, 3 – 4 hours away and she does fine. She handles fine next to big semi trucks. I do have problems when people can’t seem to see her though, almost been run off the road a few times and they complain at work about my small car not letting them see the spots been taken.

    I’ve done some maintenance on her myself, changed out the headlights and the taillights a couple of times. Some of it is hard to get to, being so small it’s kind of cramped in there, but I hear normal sized cars are the same. There are YouTube shows on everything it seems and that’s how I figured out how to do it.

    She’s only got about 82,000 miles on her and I hope she lives to be past 100,000. She’s a good little car and I’m glad she’s mine.

  • Towel Day – Hoopy Frood #towelday

    Towel Day – Hoopy Frood #towelday

    Today is Towel Day across the globe, mayhap the universe.

    What is towel day you ask?

    Towel Day is the celebration of the life and works of author Douglas Adams. He’s the guy that wrote my favorite book The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.

    “Any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is is clearly a man to be reckoned with.” Douglas Adams

    The story begins on Earth – Arthur Dent’s house is about to be demolished, he had just found out this news the day before, seems the plans for this particular bypass had been stored in a deep, dank, dark basement with no electricity. He had been up all night drinking and was quite upset that he wasn’t able to get this nonsense stopped. (more…)

  • Vacation

    I need a vacation.

    Many people will chime in here and say “You’re going to Washington DC Saturday for five days” or “you just spent the weekend in Casa Grande at a retreat”

    Those people have a very different interpretation of vacation than I do.

    In a recent post I talked about when my Ma found my diary and how sometimes I have to be careful what I write so I don’t offend people… but today, I don’t care.

    I”m about to travel the span of the country and spend the weekend with my best friend catching up, shopping, whining and being best friends (she’s not one of the sensitive types that I’m referring to) and then going to Washington DC to help my ex roommate and see my ex boss and his wife and some AA folks (who I love like family) for the rest of the trip… but that is NOT a vacation. Nor is flying to a winter climate to celebrate a holiday you don’t care about. participating in a retreat when you’re the registration chair and the people around you can best be described as self-centered, self-seeking kindergartener … Yes, I’m one of them.

    A vacation is about relaxation, about not worrying about how to act or behave or treat people based on their sensitive. A vacation renews and refreshes a person so they can keep doing the mundane tasks they do most days. For me a vacation is about lying by a pool for days, with a book and my own musics… and naked men are helpful too. Swimming and sunning and sleeping… I need a vacation.

    in 2005 I decided not to travel to WI for a whole year – I’d been going 2 – 3 times a year to see family/friends and not many reciprocated. So Ma, Pa and Rhonda came to visit me. That was a nice change. Many folks have already been out here to visit me in Phoenix, that’s nice too.

    I once had a job that let me take off whenever I wanted, we didn’t accumulate days or run out – if you need off you take off. I managed to take a laptop with me most times and do anything that came up that needed to be done… but I got to relax. Thanks Jim.

    But in most jobs when you have to accumulate vacation days … those days when you feel obligated to spend with family or friends is more aggravating. There was a recent day when the only thing that kept me from walking out the door at work was the realization that at a new job I’d have to start vacation days from scratch again… and I just can’t have that happen. Days for Xmas, days for working, days for funerals and weddings… how dare people die or fall in love, don’t they know I need to relax?

    I’m just out of energy, out of caring, out of give a shits.

    I whined about this today to my sponsor and he laughed at me… no really, he did. He’s driving me to the airport early Saturday morning – he volunteered… he’s crazy. Truth is he’s a better person than me (that’s true of most people). Some day maybe i’ll look back on this post and laugh at myself – I hope when I do I’ll be lying naked at a pool next to some handsome men.