July…. Seventh month of the year. Wimbledon, Women’s World Cup Soccer, Mens Gold Cup Soccer, Baseball All Star Game,
Nathan’s Coney Island Hot Dog Eating Contest, My sister Maria, daughter Rhiannon grandson ZR, and life long best friend Bill Cross all have July birthdays and our own glorious United States of America celebrating her own birthday on July 4….. A glorious month.
And speaking of our heritage…. A few thoughts …
“Give me liberty or give me death!” Patrick Henry.
“Liberty has never come from the government, liberty has always come from the subjects of it. The history of liberty is a history of resistance.” Woodrow Wilson
“In a democracy dissent is an act of faith.” J. William Fulbright
Please lift a glass to America and what she stands for….
On a less serious note. To begin our festivities….
A guy walks into a bar. He orders 12 shots of Jack Daniels. The bartender sets them up in a row. The man picks up the first shot glass and dumps it on the floor. He then picks up the 12th shot glass and dumps that one on the floor. The bartender has been watching this and asks the man why he is wasting good Jack Daniels. The man responds, “Well the first shot always makes me gag and the last shot is just way too much for me.”
And then this happened…
My trusty paint chipped,faded blue Toyota Matrix, plastered from top to bottom with sheets of political bumper stickers is about to be donated (sadly) to some deserving public agency. The car is sixteen years young and I am quite fond of it. Sheila drives the newer Saturn Aura,but she feels a newer car featuring more safety features to shuttle our five grandchildren is needed.
Our good friends, Dan and Sandy recently bought a Subaru and love it. My world traveler sister, Auntie Mame, just purchased a Subaru and adores it,and our oldest daughter, Jessica, just purchased a Subaru and is quite pleased with it. Dear wife Sheila needs no more proof. We are buying a Subaru.
We drove to Modesto and met with the lady who sold Dan and Sandy their Subaru. We chatted a bit talked about the Giants and went on a test drive on the Subaru Sheila had picked out earlier ;the candy apple red ,fuel injected, four speed, dual quad ,ram induction, posi-traction ,V12 Chariot of the Gods.After our short spin around Modesto our sales lady spent a good amount of time explaining how safe the Subaru is. She bragged about the multiple air bags, the 24 hour nurse who sleeps in the trunk, and all that complicated social media electronic cloud stuff. We said we wanted it. She pulled out a bunch of papers, we signed them and I glanced over at Sheila and said, “That wasn’t too bad.” Sheila replied, “Brooks we still have to go meet with the finance man.”
Well, I thought we were done. And who suddenly appears but the friendly finance man .He flashed a quick smile at us and ushered us into his dungeon /lair/ office of extended warranties and legalese double talk. His main goal was to sell us a six year extended warranty for whole bunches of money. He spent the first fifteen minutes telling us how “unpredictable” our number one safe car might be, what with all the 2,000 electrical computer chip ,do dads etc. and how they may fail especially after the three year/36,o00 mile warranty expires. With a caring concerned face he said, “One of these parts can easily cost you $10000.00 .You certainly want to protect yourself from this type of financial stress.” Sheila and I put on our caring faces, shook our heads slowly and said “We believe the Subaru is an outstanding car that most certainly will hold up, even after the three year or 36,000 miles warranty expires. Why on earth would we need to purchase an extended six year warranty?”
He slowly took out a pristine blue and white monogramed Subaru hankie out of his back pocket and wiped away a lone tear. We shook his hand and signed or initialed dozens of documents where all the appropriate checks were. He asked us one more time if we wanted the six year warranty and we politely declined. He smiled and told us the vehicle was now ours. We shook hands and he wished us well. Boy ,I sure hope those Subaru commercials are not exaggerations.
Life can be funny. Our brand new candy apple red Subaru has been sitting in our garage now for four weeks. Sheila doesn’t want to take it out on the road for fear of scratches, dings, and what not. Sheila is still driving the Saturn and I am sproudly tooling around in my bumper sticker plastered blue Toyota Matrix and loving it. I still get to wave to all those other drivers and pedestrians who for some reason are waving at me with one digit extended.That is so strange.
So until August 2:,Read a book, hug a child, pet a dog, stroke a cat, eat a bar of chocolate, and IKIRU!