First day of retirement!
Today is the first real day of my retirement. Susan and I had a terrific weekend around Asheville, cooking at home, eating out, classical concert Saturday night etc but today was my day to be a gentleman of leisure.
No - hang on. Not quite like that.
I woke up at 4:30 and, as I didn't need a pee, I figured that was probably it for the night. I buried myself under the duvet until 5:20 when I did need a pee and crept off so as not to wake Susan. She got up shortly thereafter and headed downstairs to exercise. Breakfast was homemade granola (by Susan, not by me) and two giant cups of regler coffee, accompanied by the Asheville Citizen-Times which just happened to have one of the best political cartoons I have seen in a long time. (Alas, it's been taken down but there's more at davegranlund.com)
Sat and pottered with my laptop until 7, cursing its inability to read music CDs all of a sudden. Quick check of the Walmart website (not my favourite place to get tech gear) turned a reliable brand one up for $35 and I reckoned my sanity was worth that. So I added it to my to-do list. Time to do.
Drove to our local Walmart which was eerily deserted. Stop 1 was the toy dept to pick up something for a grandson in NZ. The dept appeared to be arranged in order by whatever would fit on the shelf goes there and I quickly convinced myself they didn't have what I wanted. (I later ordered it online for delivery to home.) Next a spray can of primer for the car. Then a DVD drive and, after much deliberating, an Epson printer that is the baby brother of the big one downstairs. I like the fact that it has SD and USB slots as well as being wireless so I can print straight from my camera (not that I ever do). Which brought us up to about 8:30 - time to buy bagels at Brueggers. Two memos to self - they have a huge variety at 8:30 in the morning and everyone in Asheville is there buying them. They are, however, hugely efficient and I was out before the Bank of America had my car towed from their parking lot.
Time for the panel beater, aka body shop. They'd quoted $100 to replace the back light on my car but, when push came to the proverbial, they started making noises about repairing the panel next to the light etc etc and I could see the figure rapidly inflating. Second opinion time. Off to Subaru who said the job would cost $350 (they don't fit used parts, unlike the body shop and charge $105 an hour for labour). And they could do it five weeks from now.
By now I was getting a bit nervous about driving a car with no rear left side indicator - that struck me as a bit dangerous. So as I sat at various stop signs and red lights I did a mental survey of how many people do and don't use their left indicator and made the horrifying discovery that over 70% of drivers in Asheville don't indicate their intention to turn left. Over 50% don't indicate that they are changing lanes. Can't say it made me feel any better.
OK - one last brilliant idea. There's a place in Swannanoa called Subarus-R-Us that looks a bit like a Subaru scrapyard from the freeway - I think that's unkind: many of the cars outside are probably drivable though most of them don't look it. Anyway, the guy there couldn't have been more helpful. $75 for the light (used) and about $35 to fit it. And no, the car doesn't need any body work except for cosmetic reasons. He didn't have the light in stock but a quick phone call turned one up halfway across the state which he may be able to get by Wednesday. Done - see you then.
Which left buying a couple of stocking stuffer sized boxes of chocs for sundry rellies. Earth Fare sells the brand in question which saved me a drive downtown. Except they don't so I had to drive downtown from Arden which is bloody miles. Only to find that a box of 6 tiny chocs is $14. Nah. Time for a brisk walk to the other chocolate shop in town where far nicer and bigger chocs were available at a sane price. Thoughts of Bob Cratchett's Christmas pud floated across my brain.
12:40 p.m. I was done and now I am sitting in my favourite armchair ripping a whole load of music onto my hard drive with my new DVD drive. But there is one last task ahead of Susan and me and that is going to the insurance company to sign the forms accepting what we both consider to be a very reasonable settlement.
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