Maunderings

I have a new car! My old car developed a faulty transmission, the climax of a series of smaller problems that it had suffered over the past year. It was going to cost a bundle to fix the thing and I argued in favor of getting a good used car rather than continue being nibbled (and bitten) to death by the one I was currently unable to drive.

Instead, after researching what was out there, we went to a local dealership and I am the proud owner of a Ford Focus in a crayon-blue color. I’m still feeling it out, but so far, I really like it. One thing it came with was a six-month subscription to satellite radio. Dozens and dozens of stations to pick from, plus the usual am/fm stations. Tomorrow I will get serious about Serius radio, and program more than the two stations I selected when the salesman was showing me how it worked. (When I got home, all I remembered was how to turn the radio on.) And give the car its first bath. One of the neat amenities in the co-op we live in is a car washing station in the underground garage. It’s good exercise and it saves money.

The Super Bowl was exciting, wasn’t it? I found it to be a great game, probably because my team took the lead from the start. But I didn’t like the half-time entertainment. The special effects were wonderful, but the music sounded, to my antique ears, unmusical, even amateurish. I understand this is normal in people my age.

I took my dyeing resource to lunch yesterday. She answered some questions and loaned me three good books on dyeing – one devoted entirely to the three major kinds of natural dyes that give you red. One is made from insects, one from the roots of a weed, and one from a shellfish. None, unfortunately for my story, is poisonous. But I’m working on a new angle that may do fine.

It’s my turn to host my writers’ group this Wednesday. It’s amazing and comforting to see what a writers’ group can do to improve each member’s writing. If you’re a writer, do you belong to a writers’ group