yesterday

I've had a busy day what with getting new tires on the trusty old Camry because even I, a silly little girl, am smart enough to know when it's dangerous. I told the sales guy I was lucky I hadn't had a big blowout, which is totally due to the fact that Big Ernie watches over his faithful even when they don't repay the favor except by being witness to diversity and peace. That's how I choose to see myself even though I was only a young teen when all hell broke loose over Vietnam. One of my parents friends was a decorated veteran of that war and they were kind of miffed that I wasn't all like "wow what a great cause...flame throwing and agent oranging in the jungle. With a draft, no less. Our most recent wars were much the same with uptight political agendas being tossed around ten years after you know what. No wait, make that 12. It is a day that I will never forget and the first chapter of the book that isn't going to write itself is titled Agent Orange and features not only the sawmill and Miss Anita's gold teeth, but a candlelight vigil at the Kudzu Bar.

I also got an oil change today which was kind of pricey because of a small leak but we all know how Toyota has that oil gel problem. I argued for two years with shop foremen who accused me of not keeping records for maintenance when the oil pan got filled up with goo. Two years in, mind you. I should have known something was up. Two years later like THE DAY before warranty ran out, it threw a rod and I got a new block. About a year later I got a notice for a class action suit against the company for this very issue giving others who had paid out for the fix an opportunity to get money back. I was just lucky, and a lot of them weren't. She has only 106ish K actual and 50K real miles. Yeah..guess who only goes to work and home. I leased the car for four years and bought it from the company after that. It's been collateral for several loans and still gets me where I'm going. With new tires, new oil and soon to be silent exhaust, all I need is a damn door handle for driver's side front. Talk about a pain in the winter!

It's finally spring for a day or two and I suppose that made my errands today a little more bearable to where I actually smiled at folks instead of scowling like the old half frozen woman I've been for two months. If the UN is right and I suspect they are because I mean ,it's like the biggest think tank in the world and they are already prepping for coastal flooding in many areas and the infrastructure hassles it causes. Maybe that's why the hurricanes hit from New Orleans to New York. After Katrina when it became painfully clear that the corp had failed to do their job in a place where poverty is every day's business and a whole lot of people got hurt, I felt guilty for being where I was. And then the got hurt some more during relocation to one of many states to the north. As I watched our country's response to that disaster and simultaneously kept up with the wars, I became more and more worried. Obama was elected because the country was ready for a change from Dubya and Cheney. Young people cared about voting for the first time in years because seeing a black man become president is what the current generation's idea of normal dreamed of. That's a long way from being some southern slave master's boy.

The tide is turning ya'll, and if we don't all hold hands and play nice it's gonna be one clusterfuck of a world. I don't do well with anarchy so please keep your violence and strict rules away from Pecan Lane. Looks like rain is moving in and I was surprised to find that BG had a change of plans, but delighted all the same. I now have a yard guy for the first time in a long time because I'm just too old for that shit, ya' know? I just want to enjoy my time outdoors and not have it be all work. Life is way too short for that. I bought flowers, gas and groceries all at one spot today and that tickled me to death.

And then, the spirit worked ^j^