Uncle

"...with each broken shoelace / out of one hundred broken shoelaces, / one man, one woman, one / thing / enters a / madhouse." Charles Bukowski

Our three and-a-half year experiment in air-cooled VW-only ownership came to an end this week when we drove our generous neighbors' Eurovan to Helena to pick up our new-to-us car*, the yet-to-be officially named 2003 Subaru Baja pictured below.

it has a flat-four; that counts for something, right?

Continuing problems (some my fault, some not my fault) with Gertie and Ludwig and the absence of time, a heated garage, and, yes, motivation were the primary reasons for making this move; I should emphasize quite clearly for the record that spousal intimidation had nothing to do with it.

This homely graph lays out our experience in depending on two early-1970s cars for transportation over the last 42 months. 
I hope the more hardcore element of this blog's readership--the element, if there is one, who drive all and only ACVWs--forgives us this offense. For my part, to feel like somewhat less of a failure** I remind myself that trapeze without a net was an act thrust upon us to some extent and that, in the end, lessons have been learned. Older and wiser, I guess.

And don't worry, we're keeping G & L.

*or truck, or whatever you call this kind of hermaphrodite
**not fishing for pity, just stating the facts

In Rainbows

We saw an inordinate number of rainbows on a drive (in Ludwig) to Helena recently.

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5, 6

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There were actually more than this, I just wasn't able to get photos of them all. It was kinda crazy and awesome seeing rainbows over and over.

See the "A" on the hill? We live over that way.

Boots

Does footwear count as tools? Sure, why not.

My father-in-law got me these Matterhorn boots for Christmas in 2003. Apparently I have a step that wears out footwear in a weird way--the rear outside of the heel gets worn first and the stresses concentrate on certain seams of the boots, which wear out ever more quickly. At least, that's what the guy who resoled and stitched these up once a few years ago told me. They need, badly, to be resoled and stitched up again but I don't think it'll happen. 

I have a pair of Danners that I wear most days but as anyone who's spent time them can tell you, boots're most comfortable when they're about to fall apart. Since my Matterhorns are like a pair of slippers at this point--that is to say, very very comfortable--they're my boot of choice when I'm working on the cars. Which wrecks them even more quickly, I'm sure. Which makes them more comfortable, which means I wear them more, and so on.

Incredulousness

During a recent trip to JCPenny for a new pair of sneaks, Tater Tot showed off her keen sense (and distaste) for marketing-via-contrived-sentimentality.