Okay, I’ve got it now. When I need a new car, I must first spend a week comparison shopping. When Donna needs a new car, she gets to drive home the same day with the first one to catch her eye.
If you read about Donna’s accident, you know we’ve been waiting for the final verdict on her old Trailblazer. After the insurance adjuster’s initial examination, it seemed we’d be able to have it repaired. Once the car was on the lift at the body shop, though, he found significant additional damage: it needed a complete new frame in addition to the front-end damage he already knew about. That put it over the limit and USAA totaled it. We got a certain amount of money for it, and that became the down payment on a replacement car, a one-year-old Ford Escape.
I have zero issues with Donna’s choice. I wanted the decision to be hers, anyway, and this car makes perfect sense: it has just 14,000 miles on the clock, it’s economical yet peppy, it has all the bells and whistles, and most importantly it has a level floor in back, ideal for the heavy sewing machines Donna schleps to workshops and classes. Turns out I fit in it quite comfortably, too.
So now the real fight is on: who gets to park in the garage, me or her? My truck is worth more; her car is newer. What’s the answer, Magic 8 Ball?
As if I didn’t already know. 😉
Just back from an appointment with my Turkish-American pedicurist, who passed through Istanbul Atatürk Airport a week ago. She predicts we’ll soon have terminal entrance security checks at US airports, like those at Turkish airports, credited with preventing the terrorists from killing many more people. I’m sure she’s right … I remember people warning about the vulnerability of American airports in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, pointing out that if terrorists want to kill a bunch of people, the best place to set off a suicide vest bomb would be in the crowded lines to the ticket counters, where there is no security at all.
Reports are now coming in that the flight data recorder from Egyptair Flight 804 indicates “possible lavatory and avionics smoke” prior to the crash. Retrieved wreckage apparently confirms this, with evidence of “high temperature damage and soot.” Fire on an aircraft in flight is like fire on a ship at sea: there’s no place to go to escape from it. It’s a horrifying scenario. Not that it makes any difference to the dead, but I wonder if the fire was started by someone sneaking a smoke in the lavatory.
Speaking of the dead, did you know that over 30 million users died during the first eight years of Facebook’s existence? Over 400 Facebook users pass on every hour, over 10,000 daily, over 312,000 every month. Based on those stats, I have to conclude using Facebook is far more likely to kill us than suicide bombers or airliner lavatory smokers.
My personal policy is to defriend the dead on Facebook, but I usually wait a couple of months before pulling the plug. I can’t offer a solid rationale for that other than to say I try to do unto others as I’d have them do unto me, and that I hope my social media memory won’t be instantly snuffed out when my time comes.