Having a non-academic weekend rocks! I have no papers to write, no chapters to read, nothing. I got up at 8, lazed around drinking coffee and eating a bagel, then Scott and I went to the Asian market here in town. That place is fantastic!!! It’s literally the best Asian grocery I’ve ever been in. They had freaking everything. We spent over $30 in there, but came out w/ quite a bit, including some Japanese eggplant and some lemongrass (which we otherwise would have to buy in B’ham). Then I did some laundry, and we made pad see-eu for lunch. Yummmm. We went to the gym at around 4 and did about a 1 hour workout. I did 30 minutes of cardio and then 25 of strength training and stretching. By the end my arms were iike Jello. When I did my ab work I felt my bad rib pop. It doesn’t really hurt, but it feels weird. (I was in a near-fatal crash about 4 years ago and really effed up my ribcage, including cracking my sternum and breaking 2 of my left ribs.)
I think we have discarded the idea of buying a Vespa or Honda Metropolitan. No one will let you test drive the damn thing before you buy. WTF?! I’m not dropping somewhere between $2000 and $4200 without knowing exactly what I’m getting myself into. And in the case of the Vespa, maintenance costs are quite high. So, we’ll be keeping my car but fixing the A/C, which is really the problem it has. It may involve totally replacing it, which may cost a couple hundred bucks, but it beats buying a new car for $10-12K, and paying higher insurance and a car payment every month. Maybe once we figure out what kind of job I’ll get and where we’re going, we can decide whether to sell my car outright or replace it w/ something more reliable. By that point, it will be over 15 years old. I’m OK with it, and Scott has even volunteered to trade cars w/ me, so that I have the nicer car. Awww.
I look forward to doing nothing tonight, and more nothing tomorrow. OK, I might go wash my car. But other than that, I’ll be sacking out on the couch watching episodes of The Shield and sipping jasmine tea. This more than makes up for my hellish week.
I thought the Vespa was a good idea. You can take a motorcycle safety course (it gets you a nice insurance discount) and the bikes they use are not much bigger than scooters. In fact, I have heard that they use my bike (the Suzuki GZ250).
I’m not sure about maintenance on scooters, but on motorcycles it’s not too bad. I change my own oil, and that’s about all I’ve had to do. (I did get the rear tire replaced, but the bike is six years old now and it was about time).
Speaking of the Vespa, I met a guy in Birmingham who rides one. (He works for the apparel company that’s doing my baseball uniforms.) I thought it was funny–a dude riding a scooter–but hey, whatever floats your boat. He said he gets around 65 mpg out of it.
If you ever want to try mine out, let me know–it’s a lightweight bike (300 lbs.) with a low center of gravity which makes it easy to handle.
-D.
Apparently w/ the Vespas, you have to change the tire every 2500 miles, and it costs about $100 each time. Plus, there’s no one here in town that works on them, so I’d have to haul it to Bham a couple times a year.
I may take you up on the offer to test drive, but definitely after the wedding. I don’t want to fall off the bike and have skinned elbows in all of my wedding pictures, LOL!