a truly successful kidnapping
begins with a willing victim (me) and an experienced perpetrator (my favorite cousin). she will occassionally warn me that i'm going to be wisked away and subjected to all kinds of fun and frivolity, even when my eeyore core says i don't want to get up early on a saturday and spend hours in the car with a four year old. she ignores my petty complaints and takes me anyway.
yesterday, our destination was the beach. she drives, because she really doesn't find it a chore the way i do. of course, in my car - which is barely insulated from the world - the rattling of the loose part of the exhaust manifold makes conversation nigh-impossible, the faint and pervasive smell of exhaust in the cab threatens life and health, and the worn-out springs in the seats render a person a chiropractic cripple following any ride over thirty minutes. her car is just a nice, new-ish boring little sedan that works fine and drives nicely. so obviously, she drives. as the kidnapper, this is her job.
unfortunately, there was a funeral to attend (the dad of a friend of hers) and we had the strange combination of 'being on time' and 'going to the beach' driving our departure time. even so, we managed to get the bikes, child, snackies, and appropriate road tunes (lots of weird al) in hand before we left. anything else, really, is gravy.
* * *
i'm actually really kind of digging the rain lately. for one thing, it keeps some of the riffraff indoors. for another, it makes my garden REALLY happy - and a happy garden produces nice, fat, red shiny strawberries with NO watering effort on my part! also, it's keeping me from having to abandon the upstairs bedroom, which i surely would if it were clear skies. even when the sun occasionally breaks through, it's easy to tell it would be in the high 80's, and this isn't very pleasant weather to be biking in. i've temporarily taken posession of my brother's bike for commuting - on account of, mine sucks, and his is way better - and i can tell you that if it were miserably hot, it would be way more unpleasant. i might wind up not doing it at all, which would be tragic for my goal of fitting back into my one favorite pair of carpenter pants.
on my dear cousin's suggestion, though, i did finally throw out the non-favorites in the drawer o' pants that didn't fit. i was saving them, naturally, for 'when i'd fit into them again'. she assured me i'd feel better getting rid of them instead. she, as usual, was perfectly correct about this.
the rest of my afternoon will be occupied doing some minor chores like laundry (for next week, now that i'm down to about twenty total garments that fit at all) and trimming the overgrown (but very happy) lawn around the edges. then i'll take the goodwill pile to the dropoff site and reward my hard work with thai food. hey - i think i've earned it.
yesterday, our destination was the beach. she drives, because she really doesn't find it a chore the way i do. of course, in my car - which is barely insulated from the world - the rattling of the loose part of the exhaust manifold makes conversation nigh-impossible, the faint and pervasive smell of exhaust in the cab threatens life and health, and the worn-out springs in the seats render a person a chiropractic cripple following any ride over thirty minutes. her car is just a nice, new-ish boring little sedan that works fine and drives nicely. so obviously, she drives. as the kidnapper, this is her job.
unfortunately, there was a funeral to attend (the dad of a friend of hers) and we had the strange combination of 'being on time' and 'going to the beach' driving our departure time. even so, we managed to get the bikes, child, snackies, and appropriate road tunes (lots of weird al) in hand before we left. anything else, really, is gravy.
* * *
i'm actually really kind of digging the rain lately. for one thing, it keeps some of the riffraff indoors. for another, it makes my garden REALLY happy - and a happy garden produces nice, fat, red shiny strawberries with NO watering effort on my part! also, it's keeping me from having to abandon the upstairs bedroom, which i surely would if it were clear skies. even when the sun occasionally breaks through, it's easy to tell it would be in the high 80's, and this isn't very pleasant weather to be biking in. i've temporarily taken posession of my brother's bike for commuting - on account of, mine sucks, and his is way better - and i can tell you that if it were miserably hot, it would be way more unpleasant. i might wind up not doing it at all, which would be tragic for my goal of fitting back into my one favorite pair of carpenter pants.
on my dear cousin's suggestion, though, i did finally throw out the non-favorites in the drawer o' pants that didn't fit. i was saving them, naturally, for 'when i'd fit into them again'. she assured me i'd feel better getting rid of them instead. she, as usual, was perfectly correct about this.
the rest of my afternoon will be occupied doing some minor chores like laundry (for next week, now that i'm down to about twenty total garments that fit at all) and trimming the overgrown (but very happy) lawn around the edges. then i'll take the goodwill pile to the dropoff site and reward my hard work with thai food. hey - i think i've earned it.