New tires...

11 August 2025: Spent most of the morning at the dealership, including getting new tires. Kind of hard to believe how long I've had the car. I managed to get a bunch of little tasks done (emails, emails, emails) and even a bit of writing for the Year's Work essay. 

The best part, though, was getting to catch up with Emma. She just always impresses the heck out of me. We talked a bit about how she's in a kind of "women in leadership" class/group with Subaru and how it feels to move through a male-dominated space (not all bad!). We could have talked for hours, I think, but she was, of course, at work. Still delighted to have seen her. 

Emma and the oil change...

3 January 2024: A former student who I am very fond of, Emma, basically runs the service department at the Subaru dealer. Every time I go, it's fun to see her and catch up. The last time I went (over the summer, I think?) she had just found out the gender of her second baby. Social media updates let me know when her baby arrived (another girl). 

When I scheduled my appointment yesterday to get an oil change/tire rotation today, I wondered if she would be back from maternity leave. And she was--in fact, it was her first day back. So, we got to catch up again, this time with lots of baby and big sister updates.

Always grateful for chances to connect with former students. Just more evidence for how lucky I have been. 

LBC 2.0

23 March 2021: Said goodbye to Little Blue Car 1.0 today and actually got teared up. So many memories in that car since 2008. 

Said hello to LBC 2.0 and felt like I wanted to puke in a good way (?). Grateful to be fortunate enough to be able to get exactly what I wanted.

LBC showing its age

25 February 2021: My beloved Mazda, "Little Blue Car" (LBC for short), is starting to show its age. To be clear, I haven't spent much money on it at all--over 12 years and 160K miles. But today, I had to take it in because the driver's side window wouldn't go all the way up. And a working driver's side window is pretty important in general and even more important in a pandemic, when so many things are better done via drive-through. When I got to the dealer (always my first choice for repairs), one of my favorite former students was working today, a wonderful bonus (we got to catch up and talk about her new baby). 

As I anticipated, it will cost about $300 to fix. How can I not do it, even if I am pretty sure I'll be getting a new car soon-ish? Just feeling lucky that I have the money. As with so much lately, I am continually reminded of my privilege. 

Anyway, they got the window up, ordered the part, and I'll bring it back on Tuesday morning for the repair. Not too bad. And I still managed to make it to all three of my meetings on a day that got coopted by an unexpected car-repair trip to Hagerstown. Again, feeling blessed, but as I said to Hannah via text earlier, in a non-hashtag, unironic way. 

A clean car...

1 Februrary 2014: Like everyone else around here, I've been driving around in a filthy car (filthy on the outside--I keep "Little Blue Car"* pretty darn clean inside). I stopped by the car wash today and found the line five cars long for the "drive-through." (And all the do-it-yourself stalls were full, too.) So I waited, listening to some of my favorite podcasts, took my turn, and drove home in a shiny clean car. The whole process probably took 30 or 40 minutes, but I didn't mind.

Time to think. Time to do a bit of people-watching. Time to listen to some good stories. The zen experience of watching the car wash do its thing when it was my turn. The satisfaction of having something lovely and clean. All of these are good things.

Not such a good thing? All the nasty weather predicted for this week, including a snow storm which seems to have caught our weather forecasters by surprise. Grumble. And so much for the clean car. Oh well. Focus on the good, right?

*"Little Blue Car" is the only name I've ever come up with for the car. It works quite well. 

House stuff...

I will never claim to be a home-design expert, but I do think things are looking kind of good around here (at least on the outside) lately.

First: the siding got powerwashed. I can't believe what a difference it makes. Everything looks cleaner (duh!) and brighter. Money well spent! Because of the heat waves and  lack of rain, the flowers out front have been a bit slow to take off this year, but you can see them peeking through in front of the shrubs. (The flowers are a lot prettier out back--and there are more of them. Maybe I'll post some photos of those later.)

Special thanks to the sky for being a lovely shade of blue today.

Second: I paid some folks to tame the thorny shrubs that had threatened to take over the entire front yard. (Well, not quite, but it had gotten bad!) I don't have any "before" pictures to give you a sense of how crazy they were, but I do have some "afters."

Front view of the bushes. Still big, but much tamer!

This whole area that is now open/clear was covered by the bush. You couldn't even see that downspout before (or that cute little statue thing my mom got me for it.)

Finally: the trim got fixed. Yay!

Good as new. And again, check out that blue sky!

And then there's this...

Zoom zoom!

Yeah, that's not a house-repair exactly, but the trim and the shrubs got done within a couple of days of each other and I was so happy about it. That happiness was quickly tempered by the surprise of a flat tire and an eventual $330 charge for two new front tires.

The expensive summer continues...

Closed!

Closing went well today. The whole thing took less than an hour and was actually kind of fun. I was moving stuff into the new house by 12:00. Four absolutely packed carloads, some more packing, and a decent amount of cleaning later, I am WIPED out! Let me take a moment to sing the praises of my Mazda 3 hatchback, which can fit a ton of stuff into it once I put the seats down.

Anyway, the movers come tomorrow morning to do the rest--all the furniture and heavy lifting (books, etc). But already, I've made progress settling in and making the place feel like home.

Tonight, one last night in the old apartment. And then on we go! Thanks for all your well-wishes. I've got awesome friends.

Zoom Zoom!

So here it is--my new car! It was time to give up the old one--it was right on the brink of 190,000 and I was getting more and more nervous by the day with it. I'll actually miss it--it was a nice ride, comfortable, classy, etc.

But the new one is awesome! It's the car I was dreaming of getting (in terms of relatively practical dreams): the Mazda 3 hatchback, in "stormy blue mica." I love it so much--even the little things like volume controls on the steering wheel and an auxiliary jack for my ipod (never mind starting when you need it to).

What do you think?

A brief explanation...

It's been serious around here lately, I suppose. Even the laughing baby post was more about lightening the mood. As many of you know, there's an actual reason for my mood: a health crisis involving a family member. I won't say too much specifically about that now, except to say that your prayers are appreciated more than you can know. Adding to the stressful environment? Two conferences in three weekends. Last week (March 20-21), I was at PAC, presenting my paper on "The Black Cat." It went well, but unfortunately, I had to leave early to drive from Asheville, NC to Martinsburg, WV, to meet my sister the next morning so we could drive up to New York. If you're into numbers and schedules (and really, who isn't?), I'll run some by you:

• 9:00 a.m. on Thursday: Head to Asheville (via Greensboro, to pick up a friend)
• 5:00 p.m. on Thursday: Arrive in Asheville to present my paper on Friday morning.
• 7:00 p.m. on Friday: Get the call from NY saying, "Yeah, you should come home" and hop in the car.
• 2:00 a.m. on Saturday: Arrive in Martinsburg, WV, repack my bag, attempt (unsuccessfully) to sleep for a few hours.
• 7:30 a.m. on Saturday: Meet sister, who's driven in from about an hour away, and head up to NY.
• 12:30 p.m. on Saturday: Arrive at my parent's house in NY. Spend the next 27 hours or so visiting the hospital, babysitting, running errands, and attending church on Easter Sunday. (In retrospect, I am so glad for that last item--it really made a world of difference.)
• 3:30 p.m. on Sunday: With the moment-of-crisis having passed us by, we feel okay enough to leave and head back to WV.
• 9:00 p.m. on Sunday: Arrive back in Martinsburg
• 9:00 a.m. on Monday: Back on campus. "Good morning, class. How was my Spring Break, you ask?"

Incidentally, the un-official hero of the weekend was my car, which carried me over some 1600 miles in four days, not bad for a 1996 Maxima with over 180,000 miles. Next up on the schedule: 4Cs in New Orleans. I've spent all weekend finishing my paper and am just about done (thus, having the time to post this message). My hope is that a week from now, I'll have both conferences successfully under my belt (a weird expression, right?) and some good news from home. I'll try to keep you all posted regardless.

Monday morning milestone...

My old car reached a pretty impressive number this morning on the way to work.



I've only had three cars that I called my own: a 1999 Chevy Prism, a 2002 Saturn SL1, and this car, a 1996 Nissan Maxima. I had a sentimental attachment to the Chevy for all the obvious reasons--it was the first car that was mine and I got it right after college when I moved to Greensboro and set out on my own (cue "Wide Open Spaces" by the Dixie Chicks). The Saturn was a fine car, although I can't say I missed it too much when I turned it back in (it was a lease). This Maxima is a hand-me-down car. First, it was my brother-in-law's. It was the first brand-new car he ever owned and he took great care of it. Then it was my dad's for a year or two, and now it's mine.

For the record, I love this car. I've had to put a fair amount of money into it, but what can you expect at this point? Otherwise, it's comfortable, it drives really well, and still looks great. Plus, it has some cool features none of my other cars had, like a sun-roof and seat warmers. (Admittedly, I don't get that excited about seat warmers, but I know lots of people--like Shannon--do).

Anyway, happy 180,000 miles to my car! To celebrate, this afternoon, we're getting an oil change.