"Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now."
My Boog Pages
Friday, July 11
Good vs. Bad
My 4th of July weekend turned out to be a wash. A good start, a minor fall, a major lift, then crushing disappointment.
I don't know if many people get the weekend started right by bying a car, but I finally broke down and did it. "Broke down" being the operative words. My wife's old Saturn was a good car, but after 9 years and 150,000 miles, its best days were behind it. I've driven it for five years now, and it was beginning to take on my personality. It grumbles a lot. It's lazy. When things get too hard, it just gives up. Worst, it's getting injury prone.
So I pushed, pulled, and otherwise coaxed it over to Arlington. Trade value: $500. That was a bit of a surprise. When I almost bought a car a year ago, they salesman started off at $2000. Once we'd settled that, we started in on the haggling. After an hour or so, we had them down to within $200 of our target price, which can mean one of two things: A) my negotiating skills are on par with Henry Kissinger, or B) we started too high. But we got a good deal, and I am now the AYATOLLAH!! of TOYOTA COROLLA!!!! I got a good car with about 100,000 miles left in it, and it should be worth more than $500 when I get rid of it.
After we got all that done (and it took half the day), we headed up to Lake Murray, just outside of Ardmore, Oklahoma, where my wife's sister lives. We didn't get up there until 9 o'clock at night, and it was hot and crowded. I was fully prepared not to have a good time, but, surprisingly, I did. We crashed at the sister-in-law's place that night, and the next day we rode jet skis, boated, swam, and just generally hung out. A good day. Until (ominous music) THE END...
I didn't even want to get in the water, I swear. We were tubing behind sis-in-law's husband Barry's boat, and I was there to make sure my son didn't fall off. Then we stopped in a quiet cove to have a swim. I don't like swimming, and I didn't want to swim, but my wife insisted I get off the tube and into the water to help the kids - both of whom were in clear view and wearing life jackets. So I did. Then my wife got in like 20 seconds later, which left me asking myself, "Why the hell did I have to get in?
So there I am, swimming around in about 18 feet of water, when it happened. Exactly when, I'm not sure; I didn't notice it was missing until over an hour later. But at some point, my wedding ring slipped off my finger and was gone.
It was a good ring, too, all dinged and scratched on the outside, sure, but the inside was a bright and shiny as the day I'd put it on. That was six years ago, and it had barely been off since. I was so pissed off at myself that all the fun I'd had was retroactively ruined. And dammit, now I can't get mad at my wife for losing HER wedding ring (during a move last year).
Furthermore, I now have to spend money on a new ring, and if there's anything I hate worse than losing something like an idiot, it's spending money to replace something I lost like an idiot. Now I'm an idiot AND broke.
James Lileks knows my birthday - although why turning 34 should make you a bad father is beyond me.
In addition, Lileks shares my thoughts on camp. My own thoughts on my daughter's summer ballet "camp": "If it's only two hours a day, is it really a camp?" Why, when I was a kid, we had REAL camps! My parents exiled me to a small town near Kerrville, Texas, for 5 weeks at a time! And I was grateful! (that it wasn't 6 weeks)
Seriously, having so much in common with Lileks is a little disturbing. Could I be his secret identity? Has anyone ever seen us together in the same room? I myself will keep an eye peeled.
In Other News: Turner Sports has called up Skip Carey and Pete Van Wieren after (unfairly) sending them down to the minors, aka calling games for Turner South. As a result, I watched my first Braves game of the year. Result: boredom. Baseball is not a game you can just start watching. You have to follow it. So this year may be wiped out by apathy. But, God willing, I'll recover from this setback, and with hard work and dedication I'll have a great 2004.
