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Goodbye Sirius; hello Red
Apr. 15th, 2018 10:49 pmWhen Doris died, I upgraded to a 2003 Toyota Camry that I named Sirius. I put Sirius through a lot, with roadtrips and dents and scratches and knocking the passenger mirror off three times, but he served me well (give or take that starter that crapped out on me).
One fine Sunday morning, I was driving to the 'rents for Sunday breakfast and Mass. I abruptly found myself in the wrong lane with a car coming at me. I made a hard jerk to the right and slammed into a barrier made of thick pipes, designed to keep wayward cars from tumbling into the creek. My passenger side window was smashed, and my passenger side doors crushed. The car, however, was still drivable, so I made my way the rest of the distance to the house and explained what had happened.
Mom said that my eyes were at "half-mast" when I arrived, and I'd had those little nod-off moments that I sometimes have when I'm driving. Our best guess is that I had a serious nod-off just before I veered into the wrong lane. Still, I don't see myself as completely innocent in this--I'm quite positive that I was driving faster than the posted 25 MPH speed limit, and maybe if I had stuck to 25, I wouldn't have lost control of the car.
But what's done is done. One wrangle with the insurance company and one visit to a dealership later, I picked up a 2009 Nissan Versa, with financing provided by The Bank of Mom and Dad.
I named her Red. Isn't she cute? She also has this odd feature that I'm pretty sure nobody asked for, but I'm not exactly complaining about. There is a string of lights over the pedals and over the well of the front passenger seat that can be set to change colors every six seconds. There are even lights in the cupholders. Put some SomaFM or Groovelectric on the speakers and you have yourself a moving disco.
Meanwhile, in the rest of my life, I'm holding down two different jobs right now, one at The Big Green Grocery Store and the other with Standardized Test People. (Both companies have social media policies which means I could conceivably be disciplined for what I write about them online, and I'd rather sidestep the issue by not mentioning them by name.) The Standardized Test People gig consists of reading answers to essay questions and assigning numeric scores to them. It's a work-from-home gig, so yay pajamas, and this particular test is a relatively easy one to score, but it still gets to be a grind when you're scoring hundreds of answers to the exact same question. I have to clock in at least 20 hours a week, and when I hit that 20, I'm out of there.
The Big Green Grocery Store job is The Big Green Grocery Store job. I changed my schedule so I wouldn't be working any more closing shifts because the shifts started to run later and later with the responsibilities they were stacking on my back. I haz bipolar; I needz sleep. So I told them I couldn't work any later than 9:00 that was that. Now I'm home at a reliable hour and have time to wind down and write and draw flowers and things.
Today I took pleasure in raspberry lemonade.
Today I learnedMezzanine by Massive Attack is 20 years old.
One fine Sunday morning, I was driving to the 'rents for Sunday breakfast and Mass. I abruptly found myself in the wrong lane with a car coming at me. I made a hard jerk to the right and slammed into a barrier made of thick pipes, designed to keep wayward cars from tumbling into the creek. My passenger side window was smashed, and my passenger side doors crushed. The car, however, was still drivable, so I made my way the rest of the distance to the house and explained what had happened.
Mom said that my eyes were at "half-mast" when I arrived, and I'd had those little nod-off moments that I sometimes have when I'm driving. Our best guess is that I had a serious nod-off just before I veered into the wrong lane. Still, I don't see myself as completely innocent in this--I'm quite positive that I was driving faster than the posted 25 MPH speed limit, and maybe if I had stuck to 25, I wouldn't have lost control of the car.
But what's done is done. One wrangle with the insurance company and one visit to a dealership later, I picked up a 2009 Nissan Versa, with financing provided by The Bank of Mom and Dad.
I named her Red. Isn't she cute? She also has this odd feature that I'm pretty sure nobody asked for, but I'm not exactly complaining about. There is a string of lights over the pedals and over the well of the front passenger seat that can be set to change colors every six seconds. There are even lights in the cupholders. Put some SomaFM or Groovelectric on the speakers and you have yourself a moving disco.
Meanwhile, in the rest of my life, I'm holding down two different jobs right now, one at The Big Green Grocery Store and the other with Standardized Test People. (Both companies have social media policies which means I could conceivably be disciplined for what I write about them online, and I'd rather sidestep the issue by not mentioning them by name.) The Standardized Test People gig consists of reading answers to essay questions and assigning numeric scores to them. It's a work-from-home gig, so yay pajamas, and this particular test is a relatively easy one to score, but it still gets to be a grind when you're scoring hundreds of answers to the exact same question. I have to clock in at least 20 hours a week, and when I hit that 20, I'm out of there.
The Big Green Grocery Store job is The Big Green Grocery Store job. I changed my schedule so I wouldn't be working any more closing shifts because the shifts started to run later and later with the responsibilities they were stacking on my back. I haz bipolar; I needz sleep. So I told them I couldn't work any later than 9:00 that was that. Now I'm home at a reliable hour and have time to wind down and write and draw flowers and things.
Today I took pleasure in raspberry lemonade.
Today I learnedMezzanine by Massive Attack is 20 years old.
