Never Buy A Car While Temporarily Insane

Does anyone ever buy a new car and have it work out the way they think it's going to? I think I'm just hopeless at this game. I was thinking about buying a new car. Let's be honest about it. I was a sucker for a new car smell and our existing car was about to go out of warranty. I thought I was doing a good thing. But the deal didn't quite work out as well as I had hoped. My car payment went up -- $60 per month -- and so did my interest rate. And the car? It's really the same car that I had -- just newer with a few more bells and whistles -- and not as many as I had expected. When I got to the dealership, they told me I had to put another $1600 down. I told them again that I couldn't put any money down. They got me down to $500, which will actually not be put down until late in October. And since we won't have a car payment next month, we can do the $500 payment. But there were still problems. They finally got me into a 2008 Galant that they sold to me for $1000 under invoice. It doesn't have the sunroof, bluetooth, or homelink, but it does have a 6-speaker stereo and they are throwing in an ipod adapter for me. And I'm getting a car that is under factory warranty again. I think that at some point, I just gave up. I got trapped in my own objections to putting money down. "Well, Mr. Lindsey, if you can't afford to put $1000 down, how are you going to pay for car repairs that come up later?" And, "Well, what's going to happen if you need to get out of the car in another six months? You'll be worse off then, considering how the banks are now." So, perhaps I screwed myself there. Hell, I did it when I went to the dealership in the first place. I don't think I'm qualified to buy a new car anymore. Next time, I'm going to send Jeff to do it. Better still, I'm going to ask my dad to do it. Maybe I'll send Jeff and my dad together. The dealership had better watch out.

Somehow, they convinced me that I was doing the right thing, and maybe I wanted to believe them. I really thought I was doing a good thing. I don't think it turned out too badly, but it certainly didn't go as well as I had expected. Jeff is not pleased about it, but he's not angry with me about it either. I can make up the difference by canceling the $10 per month gym membership that I never use, and if I take my lunch instead of eating mediocre food at work, I'll more than pay for the difference. Besides, it would help me lose weight anyway, since I usually end up eating grilled turkey and cheese sandwiches. That's what I've found to be the most reasonable lunch, since salads are expensive and most of the entrees don't appeal. But the neverending mediocrity of the Riverfront Cafe is another blog post altogether. $6 or $7 per day adds up.

I feel sort of ashamed. Getting a new car is supposed to be a happy thing, but I'm almost embarrassed to talk about it. The car is nice and should be reliable, and they insisted that they made updates to the engine in 2008 that increased performance and efficiency (not that the original one was bad). Maybe I knew in my heart that I didn't really need a new car. I should have talked myself off the ledge before I jumped off of it. But there's no point crying over spilled milk. It's done. The paperwork has been signed and will be sent off tomorrow. I have to go back up there tomorrow and finish things up. Jeff didn't want to talk about it when I got home. He wasn't angry with me; I think he was just stunned by how it all turned out. So am I, as a matter of fact.

So, what do we have now? We have a 2008 Galant ES (black) with the same basic options as our other car except for: steering wheel audio controls, alloy wheels, 6-CD in dash Rockford Fosgate stereo with subwoofer (apparently, this thing will thump -- I hope the world likes ABBA) and six months' worth of Sirius satellite radio, anti-theft system, and a shiftronic automatic transmission. I think everything will be okay. It will just take some getting used to. I have to go back on Saturday morning to have them put in the iPod adapter.

Maybe I can blame it all on temporary insanity. At least, our insurance will only go up $5 per month. I checked on that today.

New Car? Sort of...

I had been considering getting a new car. I went back to the Mitsubishi dealership today because they had a special on the Outlander (a small SUV). The car was advertised at a good price, but when we got down to brass tacks, the dealer wanted me to put some money with it, and we don't have the funds to do that right now. It's kind of a shame, because the Outlander was nice. The salesperson decided to do what he could to put me in a new vehicle, but the Outlander was apparently out of the picture and so was the smaller Lancer. So, he suggested a 2009 Galant. I'm not sure how this is going to work, because the Galant is a more expensive car. This is a special Galant, though. It is all tricked up with a sunroof, power seats (which are cloth, but heated), steering wheel audio controls, 17" mag wheels, Bluetooth, and more. I'm not sure how this is going to work out, but he feels that he can get me in this car with nothing down. They have to check with the bank on Monday to see what the payment will be and the interest rate. The dealership sent me home in the new Galant so I could get a feel for it. Jeff is so confused. He keeps saying, "It's the same car!" I'm going to get it in a different color. I was a bit dismayed when he suggested the Galant, since I was really looking for something different, but the car is different enough on the inside to seem like a different car. Essentially, if we get this car, we will be getting the same car, but it's all dressed up and it will be back under factory warranty again. But if the deal falls through, we'll go back to our old car and nothing is lost. After we had dinner, I wanted to go for a little joyride, but Jeff said he knew how the Galant drove, so he went to bed. Leah went with me and she liked it. I like the sunroof more than I thought I would.

So, I don't know. I may come home from work Monday in a 2009 Galant or a 2006 Galant. Either way would be okay, but the new car would be more fun. :-) 

First Job

I'm sure everyone remembers their first job. I look back on my first job with fondness. I was hired in March, 1988 as a doorperson at General Cinema V in White Settlement. When I started working there, the theater was probably close to ten years old, but it still looked pretty good. The concession stand was elliptical and was the center of the lobby. We called the carpet "pizza carpet" because it was this wild red pattern that looked like you could drop pizza on it and no one would notice. My salary -- a whopping $3.35 per hour. We worked long days (especially in the summer) and obviously we didn't make a lot of money, and the uniforms were a bit dorky, but we had fun. I was a doorperson for a while and then I asked to work in the concession stand. That was harder work and I didn't really like it as much because I didn't get to wander around as much. But I still had a good time. For some reason, I especially liked working during the week during the school season when we were on an abbreviated schedule. I was usually the only one working in the concession stand on those nights and I would open it up and close it down. I wasn't too crazy about sticking around until midnight during school weeks, but it didn't matter on the weekends. Sometimes the closing crew would go out for dinner afterwards. Our options for a sit-down meal at that hour were a bit limited to IHOP or the Old South Pancake House, but we didn't care. I worked as a cashier for a while and while that had its moments, it was extremely boring. I had to stay in that little box all day, and I nearly froze to death in the winter. Fortunately, I could watch the planes taking off at Carswell AFB. We also had the best perk: free movies! We had arrangements with other local theaters where we could get in on passes for movies as long as it wasn't a brand new movie.

My parents were a bit anxious about me working. They never pressed me to get a job, but I wanted to earn my own money and having something more to do on weekends. I think they wanted me to enjoy more freedom since I would be working forever, and it might also have been a bit sad knowing that I was growing up and probably wouldn't live at home much longer. When I got the job, my dad glowered at me in his best fatherly manner and told me that I could take the job as long as I kept my grades up. It turned out okay, since the school year was starting to wind down anyway. Working also got me out of two tasks at home that had really begun to chafe: mowing the yard and going to church. Actually, I had accidentally taken myself out of the lawn mowing business a year or so earlier when I ran into a fence on the riding mower. I panicked and didn't have enough sense to shut off the mower, so the drive chain caught on the chain link fence and ratcheted me up in the air until I was completely perpendicular. Shane had to come out and rescue me. He held the mower in place (and shut it off for me) so I could roll off the side of it. I think it scared Dad a bit, especially when he replaced the second-hand riding mower with an expensive new one. :-)

Anyway, back to General Cinema V. I used to love going upstairs to the projection booth. When the films would be delivered for the week, I would carry them upstairs (they were heavy!) and one time, I helped the projectionist load the film onto the platen. It was a delicate operation and he kept fussing at me not to drop it, since the film was so expensive. But I still snuck up there when I had a chance. I also loved the secret staircase in the back of auditorium 3. It took you to the same place where the other staircase took you (up to the second floor where the projection booth, manager's office, and other supplies were, but it just felt secret. Sometimes I would linger in the staircase hoping to hear good gossip from the manager's office, but I never did.

We had good times, but it started to wear thin after a while, especially after so many of my friends left. My dear friend Cristy was a cashier for a while, and my dear friend Francie was originally in the concession stand and then she came back as Chief of Staff. The fun went out of it and I wanted to move on to what I thought were bigger and better things. I worked there about a year and a half before quitting to go work at Best Products. I've had good jobs since then, but I sometimes long for the simple days at GCC.

The really sad part is that the theater has been closed for a long time. It just sits there, all shuttered and forlorn. I don't think they have torn it down yet. I can look at the picture and remember what it was like in the summer of 1988. That was a magical summer for me in many ways.

Here's a link to a picture from 2003.

General Cinema Lives Again!

I promise - this is my last one for tonight!

For Karen

This is her favorite ABBA song: Chiquitita

I can bring home the bacon... nuh NAH nuh nuh

I have a friend with whom I can sing the theme song from the old Enjoli commercials of the 1970s and we laugh our heads off about it. For those of you who may have forgotten about Enjoli, it was (or for all I know, still is) a cologne for women. It was the 8 hour perfume for the 24-hour woman. I think this one was one of my favorites, and if so, it's no reason I turned out gay. I wonder if my parents cringed while I sang and cavorted to its jazzy jingle.

Here's one I don't exactly remember (slightly before my time) but it's still fun: the old Noxema shaving cream commercials accompanied by David Rose's musical piece called The Stripper. 

I love those old commercials. There are so many more, but I don't have the energy tonight to go digging for more. If you were a child of the 1970s, what were your favorite commercials? I'm sure I'll post more later. Enjoy!

Weekend Update

I've finally gotten all of my homework done. Now, don't misunderstand me -- it's not because I had so much of it. I was so unmotivated this week that I put it off until the last minute. I know that it shouldn't be that way, but that's how it went. All I can do now is vow to improve next week. It always takes me several weeks to really get into the groove of a semester.

Jeff has been making sweeping changes in his academic career. He's planning to pursue a double major of anthropology and history, focus on Russian as his foreign language of choice (building on his experience in the Army) and work to become a translator. He's so excited! Since he will be doing tons and tons of reading, especially once he starts on his history classes, he has started taking a class to help him with reading retention. The class meets at UNT on Sundays from 2:00-5:00. He had his first session today and he said it was a good class. It meets until October 12. Jeff will probably pursue a master's degree in history instead of information science.

I'm a bit disappointed with my class choices in the spring. Last spring was slim pickings as well. I suppose that's not too uncommon as you get closer to the end of a program, but most of the classes available for me to take are classes that I have already taken. I'm going to get creative and see if I can add classes from other programs to my degree plan. After all, I'd like to be well-rounded. And I'd still like to graduate in the Fall of 2009!

We were talking about cars today. We have a 2006 Mitsubishi Galant, and it has been a good car so far for us. We haven't had a single problem with it. All I've had to replace are the tires, and we're just about at the 60K mile mark. I know that Mitsubishis are supposed to be generally reliable cars, but their resale value is the pits. The question on our minds is: do we keep the Galant until it's paid off and have that act as Jeff's car, or do we trade in the Galant on another car and just buy Jeff a car when the time comes? I don't think we need to really make a decision on this until next year, since we will have had the car for four years, and we shouldn't be so upside down on it. My thought is that we trade in the Galant when we feel it's a good time and when we get a good deal and just buy Jeff another car when the time comes. Here's why: the Galant is on a 6-year note (I'll never repeat that mistake) and by the time it is paid off, we'll easily have over 120K miles on it. How much longer can it last? I put 20K miles a year on a car, since I drive about 80-90 miles per day just on my work commute, and it gets used for all our errands and any other car trips we have to make. I've liked having a Mitsubishi. The Galant drives well and is extremely roomy, and as I've said already, it has been a good car. And Mitsubishis have a good warranty. I'm still under my bumper-to-bumper warranty (though not for much longer) and I'm under the powertrain warranty until the 100K mark. I wonder if I should go for another Mitsubishi. I'll get a loyalty rebate that should counteract some of the poor resale value. Who knows? But we can make that decision later.

I hope everyone has a good week! I'm going to toddle off to bed here in a bit (I'm up late tonight) but it will be okay.

Hang In There - It's Friday!

Good evening, dear and gentle readers. I hope that you all have had a week full of enlightenment and perhaps even a little intrigue. For those of us at the HOPA (House of Perpetual Autumn), we've been fairly slug-like. I made a strong vow on Monday to get most of my homework done before the weekend, and I've really let that strong vow fall by the wayside. Fortunately, the workload is not that extreme, so I should be able to comfortably catch up tomorrow night and Saturday afternoon.

My dad just got hearing aids. He has had difficulty hearing for a long time, most likely because of the constant noise of working at Lockheed. Now, he can fully participate in conversations, and he's excited about it. I'm looking forward to going out to the family manse on the west side and talking to him. Mom and Dad had to replace their air conditioner too. Mom had retired to the back room to get on her computer while Dad was down at lodge. When he returned, the a/c unit was blowing smoke and shooting off sparks. I'm glad he got home in time!

We've all heard about the big economic news this week. AIG is being bailed out with a loan, Lehman Brothers has gone bankrupt, and Bank of America bought Merrill Lynch. I have heard many commentators saying that this means more on Wall Street than on Main Street, but I wonder about that. I've read that Washington Mutual is struggling. We have had some bank failures. I just read an article on Yahoo about tent cities springing up across the country in places like Reno and Santa Barbara. I've seen blog posts from people asking for a New Deal, like FDR started back in the 1930s. Are we going to get to that point again? Or is this going to blow over soon once the market rights itself?

It's been a busy week at work. We had issues with our learning management system and the phone rang off the wall yesterday. Finally, we got things under control and the calls slacked off, but I hope this isn't something that's going to keep happening. Learners tend to lose faith in a learning system that doesn't work. We've had a massive event going on this week and most of the department has been gone. We were having meetings on campus on Monday, then down at the Convention Center the last few days, and they wrap up back at the campus tomorrow. I have been helping to hold down the fort while others are away, but I went down to the hotel tonight to help load buses. For those gentle readers who attended the 1988 Brewer High School Jr-Sr Prom at the Hilton, that hotel has been renovated into a Sheraton Spa. It went from a Hilton to a Ramada Plaza, then down to a Ramada, and then it was vacant for a long time. Fort Worth is also building a luxurious Omni hotel by the convention center, and if you have the $$$ to do it, you can buy a residence in the hotel. How's that for schwanky?

The weather has been just gorgeous here this week. We seem to be (I'm hedging because nothing is certain here) in that period of weather where fall seems like it's just around the corner. The high temperatures have been in the low to mid 80s, and night temperatures are in the low 60s. It's pleasant weather for going for a walk. I think I'll get out a bit this weekend between homework sessions.

Take care and enjoy the weekend!

Pet Peeves

We all have pet peeves. You know, those little things that people do that just annoy the crap out of others. I don't think I have too many, but one of my big ones is talking on the phone in the bathroom. Please, please, please, if we are talking on the telephone and nature calls, please put the phone down or let me call you back later. Don't take me in the bathroom with you. I've been in the men's room at work and I've seen guys at the urinals trying to keep their cellphone on one shoulder while they are taking care of business with their other hand. Couldn't they wait until they were finished before taking the call? Maybe that's another form of multi-tasking. Even worse, I've heard guys sitting on the toilet having conversations. My ex used to take this to an extreme. He would sit on the toilet and call his friend, and they would talk about their bowel movements. I never could understand why they would do this, since it was so gross, but they got the biggest kick out of it. I'm happy knowing that my friends are having satisfactory bowel movements and enjoying good digestive health, but I really don't need to know more than that.

I also grind my teeth when I hear the word irregardless. It isn't a word. The proper word is regardless. By saying irregardless, you are negating the word regardless, and you might as well not say it. I do not consider myself to be an anal grammarian in the slightest, but irregardless does cause me to cringe.

Beyond those pet peeves, I think I'm a very patient person. I try not to let things bother me. Drivers do all kinds of stupid things on the freeway, but I try not to let it bother me. If it did, I would arrive at just about any destination shaking with anger because of the traffic, and I really don't want to become that person.

Life is all too short. Be happy. That could be my anti-depressant talking, but I think it's a pretty good philosophy to live by, and it's actually harder than it sounds. I've known people who don't seem to believe that they deserve to be happy, so they put themselves through all kinds of needless misery.

I'm going to go to bed now, so think about your pet peeves and discuss amongst yourselves. :-)

Hurricane Ike

Hurricane Ike came ashore as a Category 3 storm and mercifully only had a storm surge of 15 feet. While that is high, Ike was predicted to have had a storm surge of about 20 feet, which would have almost completely submerged Galveston Island. As it was, Ike was a massive storm that brought flooding and heavy winds (there are photos online of massive wind damage in Houston) and they are still trying to assess the damage. Ike spent the day shimmying up through East Texas. We were supposed to get heavy rain and winds, but it was just a bit too far to the east of us, so we got some breezes and steady light rain throughout the day. Ike was a massive storm; almost as big as Texas itself. It was about 500 miles across.

I'm spending the weekend working on homework. Tonight at 3:00 am, I have to take a part in some maintenance being done by our IT department on our learning management system. I'm not sure why I have to do this part of it, since it's so minor. It shouldn't take but about 5-10 minutes to do, but I have to sit up until 3:00 am to do it. Oh, well. At least I don't have to drive in to Fort Worth. I can log in remotely from home. My goal is to have the majority of my homework done tonight so I can just enjoy the day tomorrow. 

Jeff spent the day rearranging the living room. I think it turned out very well. 

The Deceptive Privacy of Cellphones

I'm mainly an online college student, so I can't comment on this firsthand, but Jeff attends class every day and he often has interesting stories to share. When I got home tonight, I went to the kitchen and heard a discussion Jeff and Leah were having about cellphone usage. Jeff has commented before that every student at UNT is glued to their cellphone whenever they are not in class. Last semester, he was tickled when a girl was be-bopping along on campus, talking animatedly on her cellphone, and was so focused on her phone call that she didn't notice when a squirrel dashed out in front of her (UNT is famous for its squirrels) and pooped right in her path. Yes, readers, she didn't even break her stride -- she went on to class with squirrel poop on her designer shoes. Now, it's not as though she had blundered blindly into a massive pile of bison poop, but she still had poopy shoes nonetheless.

Today, Jeff noticed that when many of these students are on their cellphones, they think they are somewhere private, when in fact they are right in the middle of everyone. For instance, there was a girl today on her phone talking (probably quite loudly) about testing positive for chlamydia. She was carrying on this fairly intimate conversation, seemingly oblivious that others were now looking askance at her and discreetly moving away from her. In fact, another girl was on her cellphone and she interrupted her call to say, "Ohmygod, you won't believe this. This girl is sitting here on her cellphone and she just told all of us that she has chlamydia." Jeff saw a guy sitting nearby frantically sending a text message from his cellphone. Did he give her chlamydia? Does he know her boyfriend? Was he warning him? Jeff also saw a girl sitting nearby with her laptop typing furiously. Maybe she was removing this girl from her friends list on Facebook, or perhaps she was doing a web search on whether or not it was safe to sit on the same seating area as someone with chlamydia. In any case, if the girl was trying to keep her recent diagnosis a secret, she had failed miserably. I'm not making light of the fact that she has chlamydia, mind you. I do think it's a bit amusing that she decided to tell the world by speaking loudly about it on her cellphone.

Jeff reported another cellphone incident today. A guy was talking on a cellphone and smoking a cigarette. He was having a furious argument on the phone and walked right in the middle of this huge crowd of people waiting for the bus. He was screaming into the phone and furiously puffing on his cigarette. Finally, he flung the cigarette down in anger and everyone wearing open-toed shoes scrambled away like crazy. The guy stomped off in a rage, not knowing or caring that he nearly set the feet of several innocent bystanders ablaze.

The best part for me is to hear how Jeff tells the stories of campus life. If anyone wonders why Leah and I often have fits of screaming laughter, this is one of the contributing factors.

Another story is how UNT recently instituted a policy where students could not bring visitors to class without the express written permission of the instructor, the dean, the president, and possibly the Pope himself. The scuttlebutt on this policy, dear readers, is that a young female student decided to bring her boyfriend to class with her and proceeded to loudly make out with him in front of everyone. The instructor had to threaten her with security to get her to leave. Hence, a new policy was born.

Everyone, just shake your head in amazement. And behave yourselves whether you are in class, the grocery store, or on your cellphone, or you are fair game for the blog. :-)

Reflections on the Weekend

Jeff and I did not do much at all this weekend. I meant to work more diligently on homework than I did, but I ended up working until the midnight deadline tonight to get my assignments turned in. I know better than that, so I'll be more diligent this week. Jeff ended up working on our DVD database, watching movies, and playing video games instead of doing homework, so at least I don't feel like I was the only one who sinned. :-)

On Saturday, the high point was going to the eye doctor. I love going to the eye doctor. I've started going to a really nice one that is just down the road. It's always fun to see all of the gadgetry and the tools they use to determine what needs to be done to help you see better. Dr. Battani has a great sense of humor and he keeps you entertained. His wife does all of the preliminary testing and she chatted with me about their recent trip to Japan. I've started wearing the 30-day contacts and I really like them. I don't have as many problems with dryness and the lenses are comfortable. Our vision insurance gives us about $120 towards contact lenses, so my out of pocket expense wasn't too bad. It was less than I paid for glasses, that's for sure.

I spent several delightful hours today talking with Francie Chambers, formerly known as Frances Collins. We lost touch during the college years and recently reconnected, and I'm actually going to work with her on a project for school. She and her husband need to design lesson plans for some training in 2009, and I've volunteered to take on a three-hour block of instructional design for them. They get my work for free, and I get to submit it for a grade; we both see it as a win-win proposition. Anyway, we had been trading emails back and forth, but I called her today to get some details on the project and used the time to also play catch-up. She had that same lilting giggle that I remember from days past. She has a good life in Georgia, but she said she would move back to Fort Worth in an instant if she possibly could. It was such fun catching up with her. She's coming back to Fort Worth for a visit during the Thanksgiving holidays, and we're going to try to get together for dinner some night.

So, in the period of a few months, I've gotten caught up with two of my dearest friends, and I'm thrilled about it. Cristy, Francie, and I are all curious, inquisitive people who love to people-watch. It's fun to imagine what the person's life was like just before you saw them, and where they are going after they leave your presence. I like to think of it as training for a fiction writer, which is what I'd like to ultimately be if I'd get off my duff and bear down on writing. I've got a good story idea floating around in my head, but it won't do me any good if I don't get it down on paper. I want it to be about a trio of lesbians struggling with their personal lives and their self-esteem, so I would call it We Three Dykes of Disorient Are. There's more, of course, but I don't want to share too much of it now.

The Art of Silliness

I don't know about you, but I have always had a soft spot for the silliness in life. Silly books, silly movies, silly websites -- they are all precious to me. When I've had a bad day, I can put in Airplane or The Naked Gun and just laugh my cares away. I miss terribly the SatireWire website. It's still out there if you want to see it, but it's not being updated any more. I loved headlines such as "Axis of Just As Evil" and "AT&T to Cut Workforce by 120%". The Onion is also priceless. I gave Jeff an Onion calendar for Christmas one year and we had a ball reading the made-up stories. One of our favorites was a photo of a grumpy owl, accompanied by the surprising headline, "Owls are Assholes!" For some reason, that really tickled us and we just have to utter that phrase to make each other laugh. 

I have two books of comic film reviews that are always fun to read. One of them is If You Ask Me..., which contains the collected writings from Libby Gelman-Waxler, a critic for Premiere magazine. Libby is actually the creation of the extremely clever and witty Paul Rudnick. I loved Libby's review of Wild Orchid, the scandalous Mickey Rourke flick with Carre Otis and Jacqueline Bissett. She also is a big fan of Dennis Quaid, especially when he deigns to appear nude. I also have a copy of Bad Movies We Love, which was written by two of the film critics at Movieline magazine, Edward Margulies and Stephen Rebello. This book doesn't take on the well-known stinkers like Plan 9 from Outer Space. Those movies are too easy; everyone knows how bad they are. If my memory serves, the first movie they skewer is Fatal Attraction. I love the pictures in the center of the book; the captions are hilarious. 

In today's world of high prices and bickering politicians (to name just a few of our ills), silliness is necessary. No, strike that. It's a requirement. 

They Could Have At Least Kissed Us First

I'm really not one to complain about much, gentle readers, and it takes a lot to get my proverbial knickers in a twist. Nonetheless, they are quite twisted. So, I will share my complaint.

In July, we moved to a new apartment here in Lewisville. We had spent over four years at our former residence, the Marquis at Vista Ridge, and our days there were happy ones. The apartment was anything but unique in terms of layout, but it worked for us, and it had many nice touches. Jeff and I had two cats when we moved in, and when Leah joined us in October, 2005, she had her cat with her. The original plan was to have all three cats (which is against the rules, we know) living harmoniously together. Well, the original plan didn't work out. Leah's cat, as it happens, was much more comfortable being the sole kitty in the house instead of having to share the territory with our cats. There was a huge clash of temperaments, and Leah's cat was unfortunately limited to her bedroom. He was unhappy, and when he was unhappy, he peed everywhere. This made Leah unhappy, since her bedroom smelled like Houston in August, and had to move her cat to another home. By all accounts, he's in a very happy home where he's the sole kitty and has full run of the place.

However, we knew we would have to deal with charges for a pet treatment when we moved out. For not only did Leah's cat have his share of whoopsies, our other cat became more than a bit incontinent as he was nearing the end of his life, so we had several stinky places in the carpet. We knew that a pet treatment was in our future. However, we were not expecting to have to pay for carpet replacement as well, since the carpet was not new when we moved in, so it was at least five years old and would likely have been replaced anyway. But no, they charged us for carpet replacement and a pet treatment. What makes it even stranger is that they didn't charge us for full replacement -- just the areas that were damaged.

We tried to reason with them. We tried to get them to return our calls. Leah, with her experience in apartment management, knew some of the inside tricks and really tried to get the apartment complex and the management company to be reasonable. Most of the time, they stonewalled us. They refused to return phone calls or emails and effectively refused any form of communication with us. Finally, we went over there this week and settled the account by paying what they said we owed them. We didn't want to risk having anything go to collections and create black marks on our rental history. Fortunately, we didn't owe much; they just took all of our deposit money. We were screwed out of about $150-200.

So, it's a real shame that a good relationship with an apartment complex had to end in such a crappy way. We were good tenants. We had no noise complaints against us. Our rent was always on time. When we moved out, Jeff and I spent all day working on the apartment, getting it clean. Jeff filled in all the nail holes so it would be easier for them to repaint.

If you're reading this blog and considering moving to the Marquis at Vista Ridge -- don't! The manager there (Jo) will get you upon moving out, and you won't have any way to dispute the charges.

The Way We Live

In one of my class assignments, we were asked to complete a philosophy quiz. After answering the questions and submitting my results, I was identified as an existentialist. I had to look up what that meant, since I've never studied much philosophy. Of those who responded, I had another existentialist, a hedonist, and a Divine Command. Cristy suggested that a good blog topic would be the way people live. I agree!

So, here we are, gentle readers (hopefully Miss Manners won't mind that I borrowed her phrasing). Maybe we should have some music.

"Memories...
Like the corners of my mind.
Misty, water-covered memories...
Of the way we... live."

Go on. Hum a few more bars and imagine that famous voice (you know, the one that's like buttah) singing the theme song to The Way We Were. But in this instance, let's say that Babs had a synaptic hiccup and renamed the song The Way We Live.

So much for humor. :-)

How should we live? Is there an absolute for all? Our federal, state, and local governments have enacted laws that we must all abide by, but when the letter of the law ends and we get into moral questions, how do we make choices? What do we use as our guide? I don't necessarily think that God's law (or what has been interpreted as God's law) should be the sole guiding moral force in our lives. At the same time, it doesn't hurt to follow some basic religious principles. For instance, we can probably all agree that it's best not to kill, or steal, or be dishonest, and we really should try to be good people. At least in the sense that we're not going out of our way to be bad or do harm to people.

There are many people who are devoted to their church and their faith, but many who are not. I believe in God, but I'm not devoted to a particular church. I grew up Baptist, and I really don't think I'll ever go back if I can help it, but that doesn't mean that I'm without any spiritual faith or that I deny the existence of God. I don't know that I could deny the existence of God -- or some higher power -- because there are too many things in our lives that are unexplained. My big issue is that I grew up thinking and hearing that gay people were sinful, and as a gay man, I have a hard time supporting a church that feels that way.

I do agree with existentialism that we ascribe meaning to our own lives. Really, our lives are what we make of it. We can make our own destiny. We don't control all that happens to us -- there's no way we could possibly do that -- but we can make the best choices possible based on the information available to us and aspire for goodness.

Feel free to leave comments and share your thoughts.

A Lazy Weekend

Jeff and I have been on our own this weekend. Leah is in Tennessee with her mother. I hope that it is going well. We've had one report that being in the house is odd, since so much has been sold and the house seems to be largely closed down. But back in Lewisville at the house of perpetual autumn, not much has been happening. Jeff bought a database program to help us manage our massive DVD collection. We have about 600 titles, I think, and it's nice to have something to help us manage it. You see, we don't have regular TV, so we watch DVDs when we want to plop down on the sofa in the living room. Jeff has been working on this database since Thursday night, so he has barely left the apartment. He showed the database to me today. It's pretty impressive. It's based in Access 2007 and has all kinds of built-in linking capabilities and search features.

I went out yesterday to do a few quick errands. I drove to Plano to go to the mall there (The Shops at Willow Bend is much less crazy on weekends than our mall here in Lewisville) and get some items at Whole Foods. I ended up buying a bunch of munchies that largely have been eaten solely by me. Jeff had leftover pizza on Saturday night, so I dug into the chicken salad, cheese, green olive tampanade, hummus, and dohlmas that I brought home. He didn't really want any of it today, so I dug into it again, this time having some delicious tuna salad instead. We also have some pimento cheese spread made with smoked gouda cheese (completely yummy, but definitely a treat and not a regular purchase).

I have discovered that I love dohlmas, which consist of rice wrapped in a grape leaf and soaked in olive oil. I've had them at Mediterranean restaurants and they are completely yummy. Jeff thinks they look disgusting, and they do look a bit like slimy pod things, but I think they are delicious. So when I buy them, I get them all for myself.

This weekend, I have also been re-reading the mysteries I have of Joseph Hansen. Joseph Hansen wrote a series of detective novels with a refreshing twist: they had a gay main character. My gentle readers might be asking, "Scott, what's so refreshing about that?" My reply would be that these books started appearing in 1970, and it was refreshing at the time. I have three of the books: Skinflick, Gravedigger, and Nightwork. There are many more, so I believe I'm going to start tracking them down. Dave Brandstetter is the main character. He is an insurance death claims investigator. He is older, attractive, intelligent, perceptive, and resourceful, and his homosexuality is presented merely as a fact. Dave has relationships and they are discussed honestly. He's not a prissy queen; he's just a regular guy. He's not perfect either. But the reader roots for him and cares about him. These books are set in Southern California and they are very evocative in terms of time and place. Over the weekend, I have re-read Skinflick and Gravedigger, and they were gripping reads.

Tomorrow, I plan to do some minor schoolwork and do some email cleanup. I'll make calls to friends and family on Labor Day. Otherwise, it will probably be another day here at home. This coming week is going to be busy, since our LMS Manager is on vacation and I get to fill in for her and keep up with my work. It's usually quite hectic when she's gone, so let's all keep our fingers crossed that nothing disastrous happens. :-)