Daddy's Back!

Turns out it wasn't such a long 20 days after all. I bought a Super Duty today.

Now hear me out. I did NOT buy the $60k dream Super Duty. Another dealership down the road just happened to have a used one that caught my eye in a big way. I was just innocently driving by when I saw it and cut across three lanes to fly into the dealership parking lot. Clearly the Universe wanted me to have a truck. Now. This particular rig was my dream Super Duty back in 2007. It's got all the bells and whistles that they had in '07, it's the exact color I wanted, AND it has the bonus of being outfitted with some seriously aggressive wheels and tires. HOT!

The great thing is I picked it up (after a lot of haggling) for a mere $28k (which I verified IS the KBB value) so I kept the Yaris! This truck will definitely get me by until the 2012 Super Duty comes out. It's so sweet! I'd post a pic but it's dark now, and the truck'll be covered in a foot of snow by morning. I'll post a pic next week when it feels like (and actually is) spring again.

Why did I bother to keep the Yaris? I like it. It's my Bouldermobile. And I like Gerard having something to get around in (he won't drive anything bigger than a Jeep). Also I like to be able to park on the front row at Whole Foods and take just one parking space. The Yaris is for in-town errands and occasional jaunts to work, while the Super Duty is for out-of-town, the horse ranch, moving crap, hiking and snowshoeing expeditions, road trips and just plain cruising on beautiful summer afternoons.

And while I'm on the topic of the Super Duty, I've done a lot of reading up on this forthcoming redesign. One thing I thought was particularly intriguing was that its max towing capacity will actually be such that if you were to load that beast up to the max, you'd legally be required to get a commercial trucker's license to tow the load. Wow! I had to pause and asked myself, "Why on earth would you ever need that?" Well I wouldn't. But it would sure be cool (in my world) to have. In addition, this'll be Ford's first 100% American made diesel engine, and it'll also be the cleanest one yet produced. In talking with a co-worker who specializes in hydrogen fuel technology, I learned that diesel engines in the US are actually 10% more efficient than gas engines, and the technology is in place to boost that to 20%.

I'll be following the buzz on Ford's new engine closely over the next 20 months. I bet you can't wait to read all about that.

I'm so ready to hit the open road again.

Tuesday Night on the Town

I don't think I've had this much to drink on a Tuesday night since college.

Patrick, a 28 year old brilliant scientist and co-worker who just returned from his latest stint in Vienna presenting on his integrated assessment model, invited me to The Kitchen for their monthly community beer and wine tasting. It's by reservation only, and everyone gets seated at a big community table. Over 4 hours, we're served multiple courses, each with a beer and wine, that fits whatever theme they're featuring that month. Tonight it was something about the Ides of March, St. Patrick's Day and some other nonsense, so the food/beer/wine was Roman and Irish. Strange, but it worked. The food at The Kitchen is really good. It's one of my favorite Boulder restaurants. It was also the first time I'd ever been served wine by a sommelier. It was pretty cool. I actually learned just a little bit about pairing wine and food, though I have to say I still think it's mostly bullshit.

Boulder is such a weird and fun place. At our table, there was a 25 year old girl who was, by her own admission, a gold digger. She likes to date rich older men. She's also smart. She has a degree in biology and works in biotech, and she's missed only one of these events in the past two years. There was a nice woman who has her own PR company, and her likable but incredibly crass husband who kept insisting in a good natured way throughout the evening that Patrick and I were going to fuck before the night was over. (We didn't of course. It was never a question.) There was the German woman who apparently ranks third in the US among women runners, and who talked incessantly about running. There was the 55 year old fat married man wearing high heels and a blouse who, apparently, just likes to "shake things up" and kept hitting on the 25 year old biotech girl, which she clearly found exasperating. There were two strapping young men, dressed almost the same, who I couldn't figure out if they were gay or straight, and a few other couples at the other end of the table I didn't really get a chance to talk to very much. Then of course there was me and Patrick, and our really fun beer and wine experts who just circulated telling us all about our many beverages and being good natured despite the table they were serving. We were also visited in regular intervals by the chef, who explained where all of the food items came from, how he prepared them, and how he came up with the combination of flavors.

It was quite an awesome night. The conversation ranged from integrated assessment of renewable energy, to running, to sex. I thoroughly enjoyed myself. At one point I found myself separating from the moment, just sort of stepping back and looking at the big picture of my life. On the one hand I want nothing more than to have my ranch, my monster F350 and to spend a whole lot of time running the roads and traveling. But on the other, here I am, a "scientist" by title, with an awesome (albeit desk) job having a $75 per head meal at a table full of the most eclectic mix of strangers in this freaky fun town. Life can be so weird, and despite my complaints I recognize how lucky I am. I'm lucky to be able to experience just a little more of the weird, wild world than most of the rest of my family. I'm lucky to have choices in life.

Most of the people I've met in Boulder have been to far flung places. They've traveled the world, they speak multiple languages, they've got multiple degrees and have so many crazy stories to tell. Compared to them, I'm plain as vanilla. But compared to my roots, I'm the one with a the wild adventurous life. I guess, again, it's all about perspective. Relativity. I sat at the table tonight drinking my beer and smiling, and thinking how very lucky I am just to be out in the world.

It just sucks that I have to go to work tomorrow.

It's My Obsession

612 days.

I called the Ford dealer - the one holding my dream Super Duty. I told him that after a long, careful, painful consideration, I would have to decline their best offer. It is the financially responsible thing to do. The Yaris has 3,212 miles on it. I haven't even taken it for its first oil change yet.

My stomach is in knots over this. I am almost completely blinded by my desire to possess this thing. Almost. I have just enough self control to say no, but just barely.

Why bother? Can I afford it? Yes. But even at 0% interest, a $60,000 truck financed for 60 months equals a payment that even I haven't been able to justify. But I have calculated that, if I stick to a strict budget, then on November 18, 2011 I'll have enough cash to buy the truck outright. No financing, no payments, no worries. Hella bargaining power.

612 days.

Of course there are still 20 days left for 0% financing. It's going to be a long 20 days.

Broomfield

Every now and then I start to feel trapped, or maybe it's just that I'm needing a change, but I start thinking about moving out of Boulder or, at the very least, to a different part of Boulder. Maybe some place a bit cheaper where I won't be wasting so much money on rent while trying to save for a house in the country. For example, if I moved 15 miles away to Broomfield, I could get an apartment that's twice as nice for half the price.

This weekend I did some apartment shopping. One of my stops was in Broomfield. I spent a lot of time trying to get a feel for the place, to see if I could live there for a year or so. It's total suburbia, the kind of place I've long shunned. But it's 15 minutes closer to work, and the apartment I looked at is very nice. It's brand new, has a big, modern floor plan, massive closets, enormous kitchen, brand new appliances, garage, big windows, year-round heated pool, allows dogs, etc. It's half the price of my current apartment, which has a single closet-sized bathroom, a couple of pantry-sized closets, no pantry at all, and a galley kitchen with appliances manufactured around the time I was born. But I do have the mountains and Boulder Creek, which is something Broomfield can never hope to offer.

The complex is completely surrounded by Big Box stores. You name it, it's there. Broomfield is suburbia at its finest. I was also scoping a gym, so I checked out 24 Hour Fitness which is right across the street. The young sales dude gave me the tour and asked if I was ready to join. I explained that I was actually living in Boulder but was considering moving to Broomfield in the summer, and was just scouting potential neighborhoods at this time.

"Oh man I love Boulder!" he said. "It's so quiet out there, plus you have the mountains! The people are so friendly. Wow, I'd love to live out there! But I can't afford the high rent, so I live here in this hell hole."

I decided I should give Boulder a harder look.

Learnin'

They say you learn something new every day. That must be an average because I swear there are some days I don't think I learned a damn thing. Today was not one of those.

Today I learned:

1. That I'll be driving the Yaris for at least another year, probably two. I went to the Ford dealership earlier in the day. They had my dream truck on the lot. I mean, down to the last bolt, this truck was exactly what I would end up with if I could sit down and draw up the plans from scratch. It was $59,000. I drove it. I salivated over it. I caressed it. I sat in every seat. I looked at it from every angle. I tested every feature. I even applied for credit and worked the numbers. All I had to do was sign on the dotted line. But I drove off in the Yaris. This wasn't the agreement I made with myself when I bought the Yaris. Stick to the plan, man.

2. Biker bars aren't nearly as much fun as gay bars. Yes, I picked the place and organized an after-work happy hour. We did have a good time, and people at work seem to like this bar (which is why I picked it.) But I couldn't help but take note of the stark differences between the two kinds of establishments. When you go into a gay bar most of the patrons have gone to great lengths, or at the very least some lengths, to take care of themselves and make themselves attractive: nice clothes, fit bodies, fashionable hairstyles. And it's so easy to meet and talk to new people. But in a biker bar, it's all about how much fat you can squeeze into denim and black leather, and how much greasy gray hair you can stuff under a bandana. Have these people no pride at all?

3. Life can play very cruel jokes on you at times. Or so it seems.

4. My gaydar is seriously out of whack. Apparently I wouldn't know a homosexual if he smiled, winked and flirted with me week after week for over a year every time I went into Whole Foods. Or if he stared at me every time he passed my desk at work for months on end. Or if he was the slightly effeminate new guy who showered me with compliments and kept asking me what I was doing this weekend.

Gays are weird, straights are weirder, and people in general leave me exhausted.

Shelter

There are a lot of terrible things in the world. It's easy to lose oneself in chaos and despair.

But now and then I'm reminded that, for all of the pain and darkness, there are beautiful things too. Not things. People. Moments. Blips in time that are so exquisite that they can make one forget, for a time, about everything else. So powerful are they that they can melt the heart and bring light into the deepest, loneliest places of one's soul - places we dare not venture within ourselves until the path is illuminated from without. For just a little while the world could not be any more perfect.

But always it fades. Always that thing that brought us so much joy grows dark and cold and disappears into the nothingness from which it seemed to come. We are left again in a cold, uncaring world. Only the memory of that blissful moment remains to keep us warm as the long night sets in. And I am left to wonder why. Why should it be that such a beautiful thing cannot last - if not eternal, at least then a single lifetime? Is that so much to ask from a Universe so large and mysterious?

Perhaps these moments are like a spring flowers, sure to fade but always sure to return again and offer a respite from the long bleak winter. Perhaps there is a very, very rare flower - a rose that blooms eternal. A flower so fragrant and stunning and full of magic that even the coldest winter wind cannot steal its warmth.

Perhaps I'll always be a hopeless romantic.

Procrastinating

Lordy what a gorgeous sunny day. I've got the windows open. It's almost enough to make me forget that tomorrow is supposed to wet and cold.

I saw the first honeybees of the season and the crocus are now fully open. I also saw a couple of gardeners cracking open their sleepy garden soils. It does my heart good.

In totally unrelated news, here is one example of the many reasons I hate the world's ridiculous obsession with utterly useless technology: MeBot Seriously?

Looks like I'm going to be traveling to San Diego for work in a couple of weeks. I'm meeting with some Navy officials about renewable energy optimization on their bases. I may extend my stay and soak up some beach while I'm there.

In April I'm off to DC for mom's birthday, and in May mom is coming to Boulder for my birthday. I'm surprising her with a room at the Hotel Boulderado, one of her favorite spots in town.

June, July and August I plan to burn all of my vacation time: New York, Chicago, Portland, Yellowstone National Park, Sequoia National Park and the Grand Canyon are my top considerations.

But at the moment, I have 7.5 days until the quarter ends and all of my assignments must be submitted for final grades. With diligence and a dash of luck, I'll get it all done this weekend and I can breathe easy for a couple of weeks until the spring quarter starts. I'm so looking forward to summer.

Spring!

Nearly every day this week was in the 50's, the first "warm" streak since last fall. Over the next five days it may not even dip below freezing at night. Woohoo! This morning while walking to the gym I noticed spring flowers in someone's garden! Yes, the good 'ol crocus, always first to push through the frozen soil in early spring, has graced us once again with its lovely yellow, white and purple flowers here in Boulder. More trees are starting to bud. Soon daffodils and tulips and green leaves will be everywhere, and I'm going to cry like a baby if a late winter storm throws a wrench in the works again this year.

I was just reading about the kickoff to the Star of Texas Fair and Rodeo in Austin. It's going to be eighty degrees in Austin next week. EIGHTY! That's like summer here! I'm really getting homesick thinking about all those Texans in their cowboy hats and trucks and short sleeves enjoying the rodeo while we're just barely starting to thaw out up here. There's still piles of snow taller than me outside.

But then again, we do have mountains. And wilderness unlike anything in Texas. When it's mid-August and Austinites are oppressed by scorching sun and 110 degree heat mixed with 90% humidity and smog, I'll be under a crisp blue sky enjoying 87 degrees and almost no humidity.

Who am I kidding. I love that Texas heat! I guess I just love it all: Colorado or Texas. Frigid snowstorms or scorching heat waves. Icy whitewater streams or tepid lazy rivers. Stuck-up vegan do-gooders or ass-backward conservative ignoramuses.

Wait, scratch that last set.

UPDATE: I just checked the weather. It's going to freeze every night and another snow is expected this weekend. Dammit!

Would it be extravagant if I flew to Austin next weekend, bought an F350 and drove it out to the rodeo?

Happy Texas Independence Day!

Y'all!

Daily Affirmation

I do NOT need a Ford F350 Super Duty even though they're 0% financing until April.

I do NOT need a Ford F350 Super Duty even though they're 0% financing until April.

I do NOT need a Ford F350 Super Duty even though they're 0% financing until April.

I do NOT need a Ford F350 Super Duty even though they're 0% financing until April.

I do NOT need a Ford F350 Super Duty even though they're 0% financing until April.

I do NOT need a Ford F350 Super Duty even though they're 0% financing until April.

Lord help me.