Ticket to Ride
2008-06-20, 10:28 a.m.

Day 1398 Ticket to Ride

First, a brief comment about that kid that died as a result of relying on prayer to heal him Not that this is going to change anyone�s mind on the subject, but here�s my thought anyways:

Having faith is fine. Believing in some sort of higher power is fine. If it bloats your goat and makes you happy, I�m thrilled for you. Unfortunately, stories like the one I referenced arise all too often. People � blind faith is bordering on ignorance. God, Yahweh, who ever people pray too, saw fit to give us a very high end brain. We can use that brain to figure shit out. Take advantage of it. Like I said, if you want to believe in a god, go right ahead. But. There�s a little saying I came across in Al Anon that I�m going to paraphrase here: �Trust in God, but be sure you do the ground work�. Translation? Things aren�t going to be handed to you on a silver platter just because you believe good enough. You still need to take care of yourself.

This is a touchy subject for me. A high school friend lost a sister because his parents were convinced that faith healing would work. It didn�t, she�s gone and the world lost a pretty, smart girl because of her parents ignorance. All over something you & I would go see our doctor for and get it cleared up in a matter of days. (I believe she had strep throat that morphed into scarlet fever and eventually pericarditis. 10 days worth of penicillin when it was still strep throat . . .)

Man, I hope the html compilers don�t choke on those bogus directives . . .

Any-hew.

More car shopping lat night. Took Eric up to where Zach bought his Cavalier. They had a very nice Impala there. 2001, low miles for the year, asking a little below book value. We�d seen it the night before, but the place was closed. Took it out for a spin last night. Super car but for one thing. The previous owner was a smoker. Yuch. Being an e-smoker myself, I didn�t think it was all that bad. Maybe a liberal dosing of Febreeze would take care of it. After all, my van doesn�t stink like an opium den anymore. But for Eric, it was a deal breaker. Can�t fault him for that.

So we headed back home, grabbed a little dinner. In between sips of cooking sherry, Cindy threw together the fixings for a build your own taco salad dinner. So we sat down and plowed through some big-assed bowls of salad. After, we headed to a dealership where one of Zach�s buddies works. Good ol� Matt said �Sure, c�mon over. I�ll make yu a real sweet deal!� But who trusts car dealers, right?

We looked. Nice Impalas, sweet little VW Jetta�s I think they were. Eric was starting to think that maybe an Impala was bigger than he wanted, so he test drove one of the VWs�. Nice little car. Then he spotted this little gem:

For the uninitiated, that�s a Chevy Malibu. The picture does the car no justice. It�s a wee bit smaller than the Impala, has a smaller engine, ought to get better gas mileage. Has all the toys � power everything, CD, remote locks AND REMOTE START!!! (I R so jealous) In the winters up here, remote start is a god send. Start the car up early enough and you never have to scrape windows. Just leave the heaters & fan cranked and let it melt. Never get into a cold car and be able to see your breath for the entire drive to work. Works with A/C in the summer too � cool that puppy right down before you hop in.

The car is only 3 years old, has an average amount of miles for it�s age, new tires, new brakes. Plus, Matt did him good on the price. He took just short of 2K off the original asking price. They�re arranging financing now, and we�ll pick it up Monday night. June 23rd is going to be Eric�s new Christmas. Until he makes his first payment at least.

This also means I don�t have to ride my bike into work like I did this morning (8.28 miles in 28:18 this morning). But I doubt I�ll stop. I save about a gallon of gas every day I don�t drive. At todays�s pries (4.19 is the best I can find here, today) that can add up to $20 a week. Almost enough to justify a new bike.

In the geeze, why wasn�t I surprised department, Cindy was pretty thoroughly trashed when we got home last night. We had a preview of what was to come when we made our pit stop for dinner. By the time we got back from securing Eric�s new ride, she was unable to navigate a straight line. Even the boys were all �Uh-oh � she�s been drinking again� And the boys drink, but responsibly. I�m hoping their mom is at least scaring them straight in that regard.

Now I�m back to my old nemesis. No � not a drunk Cindy, that� HER nemesis. I need to confront my reluctance to sit her down and tell her how I feel RIGHT NOW. She�s on the slippery slope back to full time drinking. I do not want to go back there. But lordy, the repercussions of opening up and sharing feelings � it never seems to go well. I always feel like I�m getting punished for 3 or 4 days afterwards because I dared to have an opinion counter to what Cindy wants to believe.

Old always call Ms. CL and see what she�s up to. I hear she gave up trying to reconcile with her ignorant redneck of a husband and has an apartment back here in the city. Boy � that would be flirting with disaster, wouldn�t it?

Man. I need to get some work done. Also need to decide if I should send Cindy this email I have composed, or save it and use it as a script. I could share it just before she goes to her meeting tonight. I have to wonder how much she�s really benefiting from these meetings. I wonder how much she�s really putting IN to them too.

Not my problem, not my fight. I need to put on and adjust my own oxygen mask first.

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