Vaguely hunting

We can no longer stand driving around this big smog-entrenched, heat island of a city in an old rambling falling apart van with no air conditioning. Falling apart is one thing. No air is another. The lungs suffer. Of course, not knowing if your vehicle is going to start up when you cut it off is kind of troubling. The van’s relability on the road has so deteriorated that Marty’s scared to drive it to out-of-town gigs. It’s in the shop every other week for something or other to be looked at. We’ve blown a lot of money on repairs over the years and it’s not worth it to us to dump more money into it. The engine is fine. It’s the peripherals that keep going out on us, like the transmission which we’ve had to replace three times The shape it’s now in, Blue Book says we can get $700 for it. Big whoop. The question is do we get the driver’s side window fixed so it rolls down and try to sell it ourselves for a little more money. (Yes, that’s right, no AC and only the passenger’s window rolls down. Makes for a nasty hot experience. Means we are never without bottles of water when we go out.)

So I’ve been sitting here this evening going through pro and customer reviews of vehicles that may suit (carry us and just Marty’s keyboards, no more carting everyone else’s gear, those days are over) which don’t go at absolutely mind-blowing prices and cut us some significant slack in the gas department. And you know how I wrote the other day, “But he (H.o.p.) enjoys good film and I suppose some of my love for it has passed along to him. Not things like “Juliette of the Spirits”. It’s not something he would enjoy yet.” Well, while I’m plodding through reviews, I hear music from “Juliette of the Spirits” and I go in and find H.o.p. lying there on the futon beside Marty, beaming, watching, “Juliette of the Spirits”, asking questions about this, that and the other.

“What? You like ‘Juliette of the Spirits’?” I say.

He looks up, grins big, says, “I don’t just like it! I love it!”

Oh my.

Anyway, he asks questions about what’s going on and we explain to him.

So that’s what was going on this evening. H.o.p. has discovered Fellini. I’ve been reading vehicle reviews. I’m planning on stopping that pretty soon and settling down to watch “8 and 1/2”. I think.

Mainly, I’m looking forward to a vehicle with air conditioning. I can count on my fingers and toes the number of months we’ve ever had a vehicle with working air conditioning over the course of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 presidents? Yeah, I think that’s right. And it is time, time, time, to have one. Hopefully by the end of next week.