november 2007
november 19 2007 21:49 pst both of us need new tires. and new wiper blades. she needs probably $600 worth of work on the car (90,000 mile tune-up for the honda includes water pump, fuel pump, timing belt, plugs, wires, etc etc etc). the audi will be at 60k very soon, which means i've got a spendy tune-up coming too (timing belt, water pump, general monkeying around with the engine) and i'm going to need new brake pads and rotors before too much more time goes by. and there's a nasty squeaking coming from my right front wheel when the steering is hard over to that side- not sure if it's the power steering, or the cv joint, or the control arm itself, or whatever. and all of that goes without the paint job for her hood (after 10 years, the paint is starting to craze and flake) or the chip and other upgrades for my engine. never mind the thousands of dollars we could spend trying to give our house a little more curb appeal.
times like this i wonder what the hell i was thinking when i quit my job to go back to school.
november 16 2007 8:40 pst it got cold, rained, it's warm again. unseasonably so- it's about 60 degrees outside right now. i spend the whole last week exhausted but incredibly keyed up. finals coming up in about two weeks, classes are ending, i'm trying to wrap up a paper for my copyrights class, and we've both had some car trouble over the last 3 weeks or so. but yesterday i got a glimpse of the light at the end of the tunnel: two of my classes are over with, and i've done everything i needed to do to get credit for one of them. i only have three classes that meet next week, and then the break for turkey day, and then a couple of classes the following week... and then finals.
four of my classes were pretty good this term. one was a major disappointment. more about that once the grades are in.
november 8 2007 23:48 pdt the peppers and squash are done, the leaves have all fallen from the fig trees, and none of the tomato plants will ever bear fruit this year. we haven't had a solid killing frost yet, but it's been cold enough that most of the maples have dropped their leaves and most of the garden herbs are done too. the rosemary and the laurels are holding on, and the parsley is giving it the old college try, but the cilantro and basil aren't even faking it anymore.
and it's dark. after we changed the clocks, it's pitch black by 5:30. overnight lows are stuck in the 40s and the sun never gets high enough in the sky to light up our whole backyard. i might get to mow the lawn one more time before it snows.
november 3 2007 9:23 pdt it's cold here now. been in the 40s overnight for a couple of weeks. all the trees that are going to change color have done so already, and most of them have dropped most of their leaves. there are a couple of chestnut trees near campus that have been dropping nutty little bombs on people's cars for the last month, and almost all of those are on the ground now too.
we're not going to the football game this week, even though this is absolutely the biggest game ever played at autzen stadium. they're anticipating over 60,000 people to fill a stadium that is built with only 45,000 seats. tickets with a face value of $30 were selling on craigslist yesterday for well over $200 each. student tickets, which students don't pay (extra) for but which require a valid student i.d. to get in the door, were going for $50-60 between law students and in the $100 range on craigslist last night.
instead, we're going to help some friends move into their new house. i have all sorts of clear misgivings about the wisdom of trying to drive a moving truck across town during what will very likely be the worst traffic that eugene has ever seen. but i guess that's what friends are for.
