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On my left, lacrosse in the football stadium.
Listening to Leonard Cohen.
Taught Jackie (my dog) to get out of the road and obey the command “on the grass.” She’s four or five years old. Still learns fast. She’ll happily do almost anything for a pat on the head and kind word or two.
Getting deeper and darker.
My dog, Jackie, took off into the woods for a minute.
No idea where.
I knew she’d return quickly.
She did.
Hard to get a full shot of the full moon between trees.
Big, bright moon — much bigger than the picture represents.
Just before dark. Going for a walk in the nature preserve behind Catawba.
The full moon is way bigger than it looks in this iPhone pic.
The streetlights seemed way smaller than they look here.
While waiting at a red light, on the corner of Innes and Mahaley – here in Salisbury, NC – I noticed my odometer was almost all 2’s. Even with the dangling 7 – the outlier – how often does that happen? In any case, I was just sitting there. So I took a picture.
This was October 17, 2008, just a few weeks before that historic election.
So much has changed in 162 days.
I took another picture today. March 28, 2009. The odometer shows 228,750.
I’ve driven 6,523 miles. That’s a bit more than 40 miles per day.
Feels like more.
I made one trip to Columbia, South Carolina. Other than that, all of my driving was in Salisbury, Concord, Mooresville, Kannapolis, or Huntersville.
I got two tickets. Both in Huntersville. I left the car running and delivered Coffee News to a salon. I got in a conversation with the stylist. It’s against the law to leave your keys in the car, much less leave it running. I was also parked on the wrong side of the street. The cop was quite angry. It turns out my insurance had lapsed – sixth months earlier – for a few days. So he took my plate. He felt a lot better after that. I drove 45 minutes back to Salisbury without a license plate. This was an honest mistake that the state has found in its heart – after some paperwork, a temporary tag, and a hearing – to forgive.
What’s the lesson here? Always pay Geico on time. Never park funny and then pause to chat with a hair stylist. Appreciate how remarkable this car is. It needs the exhaust manifold replaced. The AC only works part of the time. But overall it does an amazing job.
