November 9, 2009

Moving Along; Not Moving Along




Checking under the VW to see if I can figure out what’s wrong, 1979.



Himself: Very patient with me. Played games, job hunted, sanded and primed the white bookcase, helped move stuff in the living room, set up sound system, and discovered that Kaiser Southern California with a 50 buck deductible was far cheaper than COBRA for one person.

Herself: In a panic and unable to listen to G when I discovered I don’t qualify for Medicare. January 1 I will qualify when I am off G’s COBRA. Will they take an application earlier. And too, it appears that I might not be able to afford all the extras A through D plus the Medigap coverages. Discovered mold on the glass front bookcase and in the small Victorian dresser. I killed mold.

Balance: When the speaker for the evening was trapped in LA traffic and unable to get to us, I admired the heck out of the

The bane of my existence, transportation.

I spent all my money and soul keeping my old sports car on the road. Having a car gave me freedom. No matter what happened, it always broke down. I sold my soft green Datsun truck to repay a man who bought bad speed from me. Somewhere along the line, I acquired JR’s orange Fiat Spider. It never ran either. Grandmamma bought a tired Datsun 510, and it kept on running. You bet I had car envy.

In a moment of insanity, mother took me to a dealer and bought me a used,tan, VW hatchback. She traded in my SPL 311 on it, and I let her do this for the promise of reliability. It had one of the very first automotive computers under its back hatch.

One of the first things I did was go with a friend downtown to go drinking.

The second thing I did was toss my wine out the window on the cop that stopped me.

My friend Dale got me released on my own recognizance, and mother came to get me. Then these fine folks put me in my car, we each drove our own car to the nearest Denny’s, and after feeding me, they let me drive home.

Mother’s health was failing and she was often in the hospital. One day, very brave of me and very far from help, I broke down on the freeway as I was going to see her. The computer quit, the serpentine belt quit….I’d never heard of a serpentine belt, and later it rolled down a hill into a guard rail.

I fixed it up, lied a lot, sold it to some poor person, and went back to taking the bus. I walked to the bars tacking to the left and tacking to the right.

Years later, when she couldn’t see to drive, she gave me her 1966 Oldsmobile coupe. One night she decided she didn’t like the fact I used the CC she gave me with the car for gas, and she took the olds back.

Walking was good for me.


It became a mill-stone around my neck.

3 comments:

  1. i like the addition of drawings. keep it up.

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  2. OH!!! i LOVE the drawings!!! do you have one of blessing the cop? : D

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  3. Beware of Cobra. The first year is fine, but every year thereafter for as long as you have to buy it, it'll get more and more expensive until you just can't afford it even if you were rich. We had it here and nearly went broke paying all the copay out of our pockets for two years (to the tune of about $1400 a month until I hit the donut hole--AFTER the insurance) when we moved here until I qualified for Medicare. Cobra is a mixed blessing to say the least.

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