So yesterday, back to Kissimmee ... after I got all the way there the dealership called and said they wanted to keep the car another day b/c they couldn't figure out why it stalled. Told F it was her decision but she'd have to work out her transportation because I couldn't keep driving to K every day, it's wearing me out. She did figure out what to do, and then we went to the dealership and talked to the service people.

They were very nice, and concerned, and want to make sure the car is OK before we take it back. A rental was discussed, if it could not be checked out pretty quick; but, the service man said, age might be an issue.

"She's 22," I said.

He visibly jumped. And that was funny, b/c the finance guy on Friday was shocked when she handed him her license; he looked from it to her and back again, and finally apologized; he'd thought she was about 14. F may appreciate this later, but right now I think it gets tedious.

Subsequently I stuck around until it was time for her to leave for work, and she drove my car through the bowels of Central Florida without incident. Her dad picked her up in the morning, and she drove the car back to her apartment. Passed that hurdle.

The dealership folks called her today. To make a long story short, they could not find the problem and could not reproduce it, and they are now thinking it was bad gasoline. I've had that happen before and it seems reasonable to me. She didn't have to work tonight, so tomorrow her dad is going to drive BACK to Kissimmee to take her to get her car, and probably see if she wants to swap cars for a week or so, so we can make absolutely sure that her car isn't going to do that again.

And then it will be on to the next crisis.

Another happy late night driving through the wilds of Central Florida.

I left out a lot of stuff that we have gone through trying to get that car for F. We nailed down a 4.99% interest rate but that obviously was not done at the dealership, so there's been a lot of phone calls and emails and faxing - you'd think no one had ever arranged their own financing before. Friday we thought it was taken care of, but no. R had left me and F there b/c he had to get to work. Somebody swears she faxed something - somebody else swears he didn't get it - no, we couldn't take the car yet. The salesperson who had sold us the car was kind enough to drive us the hour it took to get home - she lives on the way and was coming into town anyway. She was fairly mortified that we weren't able to drive away but is new at the dealership and couldn't budge them. On the way we stopped at her place and picked up her spouse, an electrical engineer, and he and I had a happy convo about science and numbers all the rest of the way to my house, so it wasn't all bad.

But we thought we'd get the paperwork squared away today, and after a bunch of back-and-forth I think everybody just got worn down and said, come get the damn car, we'll work it out.

So F and I did. I left work at 4:30 or so and drove the 1.25 hours back to her apt and picked her up. We went to the dealership and signed the rest of the papers we had to sign, and then she followed me back to her apartment. Let me interject that F had a terrific wreck about four years ago. Totalled the car. Even though she walked away, it was somewhat traumatizing for her. She could drive a few blocks at a time after that, in little or no traffic, but it was always a heart-pounding experience for her, and she's only done that about five times in the last four years. So for her to follow me home in Kissimmee, driving this new-to-her car, in multilane traffic and unfamiliar streets, took a great deal of courage. F is one tough cookie.

We got back to the apartment, and had something to eat, and she got hold of herself, and then I was going to sit in the passenger seat while she drove the 35-minute drive she will have to her workplace and back. Then I was going to follow her to work, and then come home myself.

So we got a short distance away from her apartment ... and the car died. Shut down. In traffic. F sat there and quietly freaked.

"Stop the car," I said, "and turn it off." We happened to be in the right lane, at a traffic light that quickly turned red, which gave her a little cover to get hold of herself.

There was a BP station on the corner, so I told her that when the light turned green she was to turn the car back on, and pull into that gas station.

"I can't," she said.

"Yes, you can," I said.

She was seriously shaken up. It would have been so easy for me to go around and get in the driver's side and take over, but no can do.

"Nothing has happened," I told her. "We're all right. You can do this."

The light turned green, she turned the car back on, pulled into the BP station, and parked it. And I called the dealership, they sent a tow truck, F and I were dropped back off at her apartment, and I took her to work. L will pick her up in the morning. And tomorrow I'll start calling AGAIN to try to figure out next steps.

Sick of this. But as I told F, this kind of thing happens, and sometimes the only way past it is through it.

We got in about 10 minutes ago from moving the girls.

Wow.

The rental place where we rented the pickup truck to get F's stuff from school no longer has pickups. Everywhere else charges by the mile, and we didn't think we could get everything in one trip in a pickup, so we decided to rent a 10' U-haul. Only they didn't have any 10' available today, nor any 12', so we ended up with a 14' (paid the 10' price.) R was horrified because he still remembers the trip here from Memphis with him driving that thing. This wasn't so bad, b/c it's only an hour trip through Central Florida, not 14 hours through Atlanta and all, except that when we got to the girls' apartment the heavens opened and it rained like there was no tomorrow. We waited for a bit, decided it would not let up, and offloaded her stuff in the POURING RAIN. It took a long time b/c we had to put a lot of stuff in plastic bins to carry from the truck to the door, even though the truck was right there, because seriously, the volume of water falling was unbelievable.

You know what happened as soon as we got the last bit in.

Then a whole bunch of other stuff had to happen, just peripheral details and blah blah, but anyway we didn't get away till after midnight.

Monday I have to go back b/c F had picked out a car at a dealership in Kissimmee but there was a paperwork glitch that prevented us from bringing it home last week. It will be smoothed out on Monday, and I'll go with her to get that car. Will let her drive herself to her workplace and back to her apt to nail down the route, then come back home. And it will be just R and me and the two cats here again.

I'm about to empty-nest again. F and L have signed a lease on an apartment in Kissimmee. It looks like a nice place. The apartment is cheerful and attractive and has about 3 times as much room as they had in the dorm. We also located a car that F likes and will do a bit of research before we (probably) buy it tomorrow. Saturday we'll probably move the girls' things. And that will be that.

This is just about the coolest thing ever.

Vice President Joe Biden celebrated American patriotism and mocked the ghost of Saddam Hussein during a Fourth of July visit to Iraq on Saturday.

He presided at a naturalization ceremony at one of Hussein's former palaces, where 237 U.S. service members were sworn in to become American citizens.

"We did it in Saddam's palace and I can think of nothing better. That S.O.B. is rolling over in his grave right now," Biden said of the former Iraqi dictator, who was toppled by a U.S.-led invasion in 2003 and executed by the Iraqi government in 2006.

...

Biden extolled America's diversity and its destination as a refuge for immigrants, saying newcomers are the "lifeblood" of the country and that "there's always room for more."

"As corny as it sounds, damn I'm proud to be an American," he said. "Thanks for choosing us. You are the reason why America is strong."

Thanking the troops from their military service, Biden said "you are the source of our freedom, you and all who came before you."

"What a sight you are today. What a powerful symbol for the rest of the world you are," he said.

Mentioning America's founding fathers, Biden told the new Americans from across the world that "as of today they're your founding fathers."

...

Biden later met with troops from his home state of Delaware, including his son, Beau, and he visited the mess hall where a Fourth of July feast was served.

Gen. Raymond Odierno, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq, also lauded the newly naturalized troops, saying the Fourth of July and Iraq were the appropriate time and place for a naturalization ceremony.

Invoking the words "give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free" from the Emma Lazarus "New Colossus" poem inscribed at the Statue of Liberty, Odierno said, "to be honest I'm not so sure that its legendary inscription is applicable to this group here today, because when I look at the men and women sitting out in front of me here, I'm having a hard time because I don't see them in terms of tired, poor or huddled."

He said if he had to write an inscription he would say "give me your best your brightest and your bravest. Give me your warriors, your heroes who will enhance our great nation and strive to keep her free."

Many of the soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen were from places like Mexico, the Philippines and Haiti. Some were from Iraq.

Well. So L, F's college roommate/our houseguest, has landed a job, at one of the parks in Orlando. She and F will be looking for an apartment somewhere this side of Orlando probably, where they will be in between both of their workplaces. L's job is an hour and 15 minute drive from our house, so doable in the very near term but not for long.

Another milestone approaches. But F says she won't take all of her stuff with her. We'll see about that.

R and I have an anniversary coming up tomorrow. This will be our 27th. There'll be some July 4 things going on downtown - fireworks and concerts and such - and we'll probably take advantage.

Remember when I said this:

I wonder if there's always been a tacet "if you believe me you're a sucker" whenever they've [Obama and his spokesmen] made these promises.

?

WASHINGTON — President Obama defended his policies on gay rights on Monday, telling an audience of gay men and lesbians that he remained committed to overturning the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” rule and that he expected to be judged “not by promises I’ve made but by the promises that my administration keeps.”

On Gay Issues, Obama Asks to Be Judged on Vows Kept

So if he makes 40 promises, keeps 2 and breaks 38, we are to judge him on those 2.

"Promise". I don't think that word means what he thinks it means.

7/2 Edited to add: my friend emailed me to tell me I probably meant "tacit" instead of "tacet". The words have basically the same meaning, but "tacet" is usually used in music, which is where I've seen it enough for it to impress upon my vocabulary.

I did arrive home on Thursday as scheduled, having had a wonderful time at my nerd convention.

A lot has happened.

Michael Jackson, RIP. Farrah ditto. (A lot of people are kind of struggling with the MJ thing. I've seen too many instances of false accusations to assume that he was guilty of anything other than extreme eccentricity.)

And then two interesting SC cases have wound up. The girl who was strip-searched b/c another girl reported that she had A SINGLE IBUPROFEN TABLET (OH THE HUMANITY) in her underwear was vindicated. And the city of New Haven had it expressed to them that when you have a procedure you can't abandon it when you discover that only white people will benefit, esp. when no one can find any evidence that the procedure actually discriminated against anyone.

I'm kind of tired of the word "privilege" because it assumes a fairytale existence whenever somebody comes out on top. Sometimes they had an unfair advantage and the word is apt; and sometimes they didn't. It's the assumption that I object to.

Ricci is a New Haven firefighter stationed seven blocks from where Sotomayor went to law school (Yale). Raised in blue-collar Wallingford, Conn., Ricci struggled as a C and D student in public schools ill-prepared to address his serious learning disabilities. Nonetheless he persevered, becoming a junior firefighter and Connecticut's youngest certified EMT.

After studying fire science at a community college, he became a New Haven "truckie," the guy who puts up ladders and breaks holes in burning buildings. When his department announced exams for promotions, he spent $1,000 on books, quit his second job so he could study eight to 13 hours a day, and, because of his dyslexia, hired someone to read him the material.

He placed sixth on the lieutenant's exam, which qualified him for promotion. Except that the exams were thrown out by the city, and all promotions denied, because no blacks had scored high enough to be promoted.

Article here.

Yes, I've seen the outcome of this case referred to as another example of white privilege. I suppose it's a privilege to have the guts to confront your disadvantage head-on and plow past it, but that is not a privilege confined to white folks, as we have repeatedly seen.

I wonder how many of the black folks who didn't do so well on this exam would have done better if they had not made the correct assumption that it didn't matter b/c the city would not let those jobs go to white folks. If they'd known from the outset that they really would have to compete, would they have shown the drive and determination that Ricci did? We will never know.

I did go back to Curves yesterday, and had a brainstorm when I got home - I iced my shoulder. It is not bothering me today. On Thursday it had some very stern things to say to me, but not today. So that appears to be the ticket. When I get back from Norfolk next week I believe I'll join.

Working out is good for stress, as I discovered yesterday concurrently with rediscovering what an idiot I am. I gave my office key to my tech in case he needs to get into my office for anything next week. After he left, and I finished up and changed clothes, I picked up my stuff and left my office, locking the door behind me; locked the building, which was quite a procedure b/c the lock sticks and I had to go put all my stuff in the car so I could use both hands; got into my car; and realized that I still had on my safety glasses, with the side shields. I actually went through the process of unlocking that stiff door before I remembered that my tech has my office key. So I locked it again, saying some very bad words that I'm glad no one overheard, and berated myself all the way to the Curves place.

Jumping around and using my muscles did make me feel better, srsly. I calmed right down.

Today the production manager is going to meet me at the plant and let me into my office so I don't have to wear my nerd glasses to Norfolk all week.

****************

Just saw this:

WASHINGTON – Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor resigned Friday from an elite all-women's club after Republicans questioned her participation in it. Sotomayor said she resigned from the Belizean Grove to prevent the issue from becoming a distraction in her confirmation hearings.

In a letter to Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the federal appeals court judge said she is convinced that the club does not practice "invidious discrimination" and that her membership in it did not violate judicial ethics.

But she said she didn't want questions about it to "distract anyone from my qualifications and record."

Federal judges are bound by a code that says they shouldn't join any organization that discriminates by race, sex, religion or nationality.

Did Obama ever give up his membership in the Congressional Black Caucus? The group that wouldn't admit Steve Cohen b/c he's white?

Checked out a Curves today.

(I was careful about my shoulder, which does seem to be responding nicely to ultrasound treatment.)

I had a 30-min workout and I'll have another on Friday and then I'll decide if I want to join. Probably will. It's not so much for weight loss but rather for muscle tone - we middle-aged women have to watch it or we lose muscle mass, and bone mass too. It was actually kind of a fun workout, and the location is right on my way home.

Next week I'll be in Norfolk from Sunday through Thursday.

Hm, what else ... F's on night shift by herself now, which is kind of quick IMO. She's not supposed to be, but the other person on that shift hasn't been showing up. There are a lot of other employees there at night and apparently they're being kind to her - she feels that she is being too slow and not getting enough done, but they know she's new. She's doing lab work and also taking samples out in the plant. When she gets around to updating her resume I think she'll be shocked at all the stuff she can now put on there.

Had a nice weekend.

Yesterday the girls and I went to the mall. L needed some job interview clothes and we had a wonderful time shopping. She picked up some nice stuff, on sale of course. (I suspect a lot of the "on sale" and "clearance" stuff was always meant to sell at the reduced price. So you have to make sure you really are getting a deal.) F got some wonderfully nerdy t-shirts at Hot Topic, including a yellow one with a Star Trek emblem, which she wore today. Shoes, etc. We ate at the food court and had a nice girls' day out.

Today it rained and rained. We made chocolate chip cookies and ate them, I made stir fry for supper (beef, celery, bell pepper, carrot, onion, mushroom, snap peas, soy sauce; angel-hair pasta; orange Creme Saver yogurt for dessert) and then we watched "2001 A Space Odyssey".

Tomorrow, back to WORK.

...My shoulder is kicking up again, for some reason. Range of motion is still OK but it is aching a lot, hurting suddenly when I reach for things like light switches, and that is a horrifyingly familiar feeling. I don't want to go back through all of that. I mention it b/c I need to keep track of this, I guess, so I'll add that I started the daily ultrasound treatment back up day before yesterday. Well, we'll hope for the best.

I'm still around. Got a lot of stuff going on, none of which I particularly want to talk about on the innernets. F's job is going OK, I reckon. L, her roommate/our houseguest, had an interview today, of sorts - they called her and scheduled it but weren't prepared, somehow. My job is, um. Hm. R's OK, and so are the cats.

I made chicken soup last weekend. F ate the veggies out of hers, L ate the chicken, then they switched bowls. They saw the Wolverine movie yesterday. I myself favor action/adventure movies whose protagonist is a regular person who steps up to the plate - like the police chief in "Jaws" who is afraid of the water, but goes after the shark anyway.

I noticed something today.

I have an art calendar on my office wall: it's this Reading Woman thing and all of the pictures are very pretty.

The maintenance manager and the production manager both have calendars with pix of women, too, but they aren't quite the same genre, somehow.

How come none of us have calendars with pix of men?

...Well, I had a Star Trek calendar at work once. Maybe twice.

On Memorial Day it's right to remember and be thankful for our fallen soldiers. We can do that, and still hate war, wish it was never necessary, and grieve for what it does to people. I think that if we observe Memorial Day we can't just glorify sacrifice in the abstract - we have to count the cost.

DULCE ET DECORUM EST

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines that dropped behind.

Gas! Gas! Quick, boys! – An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling,
And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime . . .
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est
Pro patria mori.

- Wilfred Owen
8 October 1917 - March, 1918