“Hey, Dad, how come the car’s not on the blog?”

Matt’s right, how come the car isn’t on the blog? Is it because it’s a Lexus?

I’ve always worried about Matt driving Diane’s old airbag-less Mazda. Yeah, we grew up without bags and soft dashboards and crumple zones, and for a while non-tempered windshield glass (or was that before my time?), and many of us survived. Still, driving without airbags feels to me like walking into battle without a flak jacket. If you get shot in the face, so be it, at least you tried to protect yourself.

Sometime in April we told Matt we’d buy him a car as long at it didn’t cost more than ten grand. I’m not sure what make I thought he’d focus on, but I admit to some surprise when he narrowed his choices down to BMW and Lexus. I vetoed the BMW because for that money he’d be buying an older rear wheel drive car. Not in New England, I said. Then he found his dream car on autotrader.com. A 1998 Lexus ES 300 with 74,000 miles.

I said, it’s too old. He said it’s in perfect condition. I asked why a small dearlership in Lawrence? He said because they’re good people. I said keep looking. He said he’d take me to Lawrence, to Michael’s Motors and prove me wrong. We went, he did, and now he has the nicest car in the family. The nicest car this family has ever had.

As an aside, I’ve never bought a car without feeling like I was ripped off. I bought my truck after 9-11, after the dealer lowered the price twice after he finally asked me what I was willing to pay, and I still felt like I’d been screwed. With Matt’s car, after meeting Sean and his dad, Michael, and seeing that Lexus in my yard for the last three weeks, I feel good and clean and unviolated. In fact, I feel nothing but pride in my smart son’s smart choice.

“Hey, Dad, how come the car’s not on the blog?”

Matt’s right, how come the car isn’t on the blog? Is it because it’s a Lexus?

I’ve always worried about Matt driving Diane’s old airbag-less Mazda. Yeah, we grew up without bags and soft dashboards and crumple zones, and for a while non-tempered windshield glass (or was that before my time?), and many of us survived. Still, driving without airbags feels to me like walking into battle without a flak jacket. If you get shot in the face, so be it, at least you tried to protect yourself.

Sometime in April we told Matt we’d buy him a car as long at it didn’t cost more than ten grand. I’m not sure what make I thought he’d focus on, but I admit to some surprise when he narrowed his choices down to BMW and Lexus. I vetoed the BMW because for that money he’d be buying an older rear wheel drive car. Not in New England, I said. Then he found his dream car on autotrader.com. A 1998 Lexus ES 300 with 74,000 miles.

I said, it’s too old. He said it’s in perfect condition. I asked why a small dearlership in Lawrence? He said because they’re good people. I said keep looking. He said he’d take me to Lawrence, to Michael’s Motors and prove me wrong. We went, he did, and now he has the nicest car in the family. The nicest car this family has ever had.

As an aside, I’ve never bought a car without feeling like I was ripped off. I bought my truck after 9-11, after the dealer lowered the price twice after he finally asked me what I was willing to pay, and I still felt like I’d been screwed. With Matt’s car, after meeting Sean and his dad, Michael, and seeing that Lexus in my yard for the last three weeks, I feel good and clean and unviolated. In fact, I feel nothing but pride in my smart son’s smart choice.

Red and white Rhododendrons

A whole lot of scraping and priming going on.

Will this deck be finished for the party on Saturday?

Susan arrives and we do our usual La Cantina run, this time with La Rad and family.

The moon from my deck, not a cantoloupe on black matte paper.

300mm lens with a 1.4 teleconverter

The moon from my deck, not a cantoloupe on black matte paper.

300mm lens with a 1.4 teleconverter

Diane’s mother

Diane’s niece

Photos and more Photos of our most recent camping trip to rakkity’s Grok Hill site. Matt, Robby and Joe drove up Friday afternoon after packing for all of thirty minutes. Due to a detour near the shopping center in Keene, they missed the supermarket, and instead bought provisions at a small, mostly liquor, store in Marlow. Adam and I followed Saturday afternoon, and re-provisioned at Shaw’s.

The weather was warm with plenty of rays from the sun , an equal number of mosquitoes, and only the briefest of rain showers. Most of us swam in Spoons Pond – Matt and Robby alone Friday night which always surprises me and I don’t know why.

Adam and I joined the guys Saturday night for dinner and we touched on some interesting topics which included : transsexuals (we all know why that came up), home schooling and transitioning to college, parents, and why the woods offers so much peace.

The funniest lines(paraphrased) of the trip:

Adam: How late were you up? I thought maybe 3 or 4.

Joe: We saw the sun

Matt: We saw it and ran into our tent. You know you’re up too late if you see the sun and hear some crazy-ass birds singing.

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