It was a quiet weekend here at Lake .... um, at Chez Dichroic. I did get to find
out what the insurance company
will do about Zippy the Honda, who should probably be renamed Thudworthy the
Honda now. I still haven't figured out what to do about replacing it (I perceived
Zippy as neuter gender), though I did have a useful conversation on the subject
with SWooP last night. My dilemmas are: even though the Honda Civic is probably
the car best suited to my needs, it feels odd to replace one car with another
almost identical -- it isn't as though it's been long enough for Honda to
introduce many changes. I might be able to counter that if I bought a hybrid
model, I suppose -- the question on that one is whether I'd save enough in gas
money and convenience to cover the extra $4K up front. Also, it must be
admitted the Civics are a trifle vanilla. I had been considering the VW Beetle
diesel, which has almost as good fuel economy as the hybrid cars, but I'm a bit
concerned about acceleration and (thanks to SWooP) pollution on that. Normal
Beetles have an MPG similar to that of small sports cars so that's out.
I might be willing to buy a small sports car, like a Toyota MR2
Spyder or Honda S2000, sacrificing gallons for glamour but I have a small ethical
problem there. Getting a cooler car feels like rewarding myself when I've done
something bad. Yet I'm still self-indulgent enough not to want to get something
that will be painful (boring, slow to accelerate, uncomfortable) to drive, since I
spend so much time in the car. This morning I stopped on the way in to drop off a
sample at the doctor's (followup check for possible though unlikely kidney damage)
and to take the rest of my stuff out of Zippy and release it to the insurance
company.
Another high point of the weekend was the chance to spend
lots of quality 'zontal time with Rudder. I didn't mention it to him, but this
might possibly have been propelled somewhat by my reading several of
href="http://www.livejournal.com/users/lissinthecity/">Lissanne's HP
"shaglets" this weekend. (Thereby improving my vocabulary at the same time, since
I hadn't previously run across shaglets, snoglets, or drabbles before. Or rather,
I hadn't come across the words, though I had seen the things.) They are nicely
steamy and mostly sweet as well, a combination that pleases me. One odd thing that
may possibly be a side effect of the youth of some of the Potterverse's fanbase
though, is the physical unlikeliness of some of the scenes. It doesn't spoil the
effect, fortunately .... but I will just mention a complete disregard of some of
Dr. Kinsey's primary findings, and the fact that, at least for two people of
disparate heights (the only situation I know anything about, given the unlamented
dearth of 5'2" men) against-the-wall is really a terribly uncomfortable position.
I know, because I got curious. ;-)