Well, I guess it was that time of year. Now with bonus political rant!
Just before Halloween, I came to the determination that I required a new car. I got myself a pretty little Corolla with 82,000 miles (his name is Boco.) Yesterday, I sold Perdhro. Today, I overnighted the tags, registration, bank draft, and bill of sale to my mother. I feel oddly regretful. Perdhro was behaving very nicely yesterday when I drove him to Carmax, and I had forgotten how damn armoured I felt in him. Perhaps I only noticed it because I was used to Boco. (If Boco is my chocobo, Perdhro is a shoopuf.)
Anyway, the thing is done. My mom and I have agreed that, whenever she acquires new employment, she will be considered repaid for paying for Perdhro's new transmission in February. She kept saying she wished she could have just done it for me, but I pointed out that the important thing was that she was able to charge it for me when I needed it and that was good.
But my new car gets twice the gas mileage and will hopefully be very reliable and well-behaved, so I'm looking forward to that :)
Today I also have a moderate political rant. I was listening to the radio on my way home yesterday and I heard a song I've liked since I was a little girl - Lee Greenwood's "God Bless The USA." I was caught by something in the first verse that I had always taken for granted - "I'd thank my lucky stars/To be living here today/Cause the flag still stands for freedom/And they can't take that away." The general message of the song - be grateful for the many veterans who have given their lives to keep this country safe - is absolutely applicable at any time and place, especially now. However, I can't help but feel that our flag doesn't really stand for freedom anymore. George R.R. Martin had a pair of interesting posts a while back about security and what it means.
Benjamin Franklin said "those who sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither." I am sure that many of the reforms hustled through in the wake of 9/11 were done with the best of intentions. (For purposes of this post, I'll depart from my usual stance and work off the assumption that the government by the people, for the people actually functions and has only the best interests of its citizenry at heart. I don't actually believe that and haven't for many years, but I will use this assumption for the sake of making only one argument at a time, and avoiding unnecessary rhetoric.)
My father drove out here to Chicago in fall of 2003 to bring me Perdhro. He bought a one-way plane ticket back to Maryland. When he went to the airport (with his bitty briefcase containing his newspaper, and a bag he managed to fit four days' worth of clothes into that would suffice me for one), the TSA put him through every screening process possible. A man travelling alone with no checked baggage. *shakes head*
...As usually happens, I got distracted halfway through my rant, lost steam, and am now slightly boggled. Where I was going was basically this. I think that far too many of our rights have been slowly fenced in, in a gradually tightening structure that is nothing big or major at a time - but it does add up, doesn't it? I mean, I applied for car insurance - not a car loan, merely insurance - and they checked my credit rating. I call shenanigans!
Yeah, that was building up to be a great rant, and then I tried to get the matted knot of fur off teh cat, and derailed. *rolls eyes at self*
In other news, I made omelettes tonight! For the first time! Mine had mushrooms and cheese; wrenbow's just had cheese. I wish the pears I bought as a side dish had been more ripe, though. Mine was inedibly crunchy. Oh well, there are oranges in the fridge. Obviously a superior solution. In fact, I'm going to go get one right now!
Anyway, the thing is done. My mom and I have agreed that, whenever she acquires new employment, she will be considered repaid for paying for Perdhro's new transmission in February. She kept saying she wished she could have just done it for me, but I pointed out that the important thing was that she was able to charge it for me when I needed it and that was good.
But my new car gets twice the gas mileage and will hopefully be very reliable and well-behaved, so I'm looking forward to that :)
Today I also have a moderate political rant. I was listening to the radio on my way home yesterday and I heard a song I've liked since I was a little girl - Lee Greenwood's "God Bless The USA." I was caught by something in the first verse that I had always taken for granted - "I'd thank my lucky stars/To be living here today/Cause the flag still stands for freedom/And they can't take that away." The general message of the song - be grateful for the many veterans who have given their lives to keep this country safe - is absolutely applicable at any time and place, especially now. However, I can't help but feel that our flag doesn't really stand for freedom anymore. George R.R. Martin had a pair of interesting posts a while back about security and what it means.
Benjamin Franklin said "those who sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither." I am sure that many of the reforms hustled through in the wake of 9/11 were done with the best of intentions. (For purposes of this post, I'll depart from my usual stance and work off the assumption that the government by the people, for the people actually functions and has only the best interests of its citizenry at heart. I don't actually believe that and haven't for many years, but I will use this assumption for the sake of making only one argument at a time, and avoiding unnecessary rhetoric.)
My father drove out here to Chicago in fall of 2003 to bring me Perdhro. He bought a one-way plane ticket back to Maryland. When he went to the airport (with his bitty briefcase containing his newspaper, and a bag he managed to fit four days' worth of clothes into that would suffice me for one), the TSA put him through every screening process possible. A man travelling alone with no checked baggage. *shakes head*
...As usually happens, I got distracted halfway through my rant, lost steam, and am now slightly boggled. Where I was going was basically this. I think that far too many of our rights have been slowly fenced in, in a gradually tightening structure that is nothing big or major at a time - but it does add up, doesn't it? I mean, I applied for car insurance - not a car loan, merely insurance - and they checked my credit rating. I call shenanigans!
Yeah, that was building up to be a great rant, and then I tried to get the matted knot of fur off teh cat, and derailed. *rolls eyes at self*
In other news, I made omelettes tonight! For the first time! Mine had mushrooms and cheese; wrenbow's just had cheese. I wish the pears I bought as a side dish had been more ripe, though. Mine was inedibly crunchy. Oh well, there are oranges in the fridge. Obviously a superior solution. In fact, I'm going to go get one right now!