Too complicated? in A small but passable life.

I finished reading “The Doomsday Machine” by Daniel Ellsburg today. A good, but scary read. If you are a person that worries about small things in life this book will cure you of that annoyance. Especially now that we’ve installed a petulant toddler in the white house.

Rest assured, if you live in or near a major metropolitan area anywhere on Earth, the end will be quick. Probably instantaneous. The truly lucky ones will be instantly vaporized while they’re sleeping.

So yeah, I went to the library to drop that book off and pick up a novel that was waiting for me.

I went by the car dealer to pick up the dash cover I’d ordered. I brought it out to the car and Mom and I decided it just wasn’t a good color. I took it back in and ordered another color. I also tracked down the finance guy and asked him if everything was cool with the financing since Mom was fussing and fidgeting because she hadn’t heard from anyone about anything. He said the car was paid for and printed out some correspondence between him and the credit union confirming a check had been cut and cashed. That was all I needed to placate Mom.

The last stop was the grocery store. Mom decided she’d wait in the car. Say what? That has never happened at the grocery store before. I think she just likes sitting in her new car. I rolled the windows down for her. I had parked in the handicap spot for her and almost moved the car but there were several other handicap spots so I left the car there and went in. I got everything on the list.

Back home, after lunch, and while lying down listening to NPR the monsoon came crashing through. Dust carried by a sixty mile per hour wind followed by rain. Thunder and a lot of rain.

The new shiny car sitting in the carport is now covered with dirt. But it only has 49 miles on it after a week of ownership.

I’ve only read about half the owner’s manual. I’m in awe of the amount of seemingly worthless options we didn’t get. I mean sure, some seem useful but the car is complicated enough as it is.

I think the coolest feature is the program in the little screen in between the tach and the speedo that gives you a running total of your mpg on the current tank of gas. It says 29.1mpg right now after 49 total miles.

It’s also got a slightly bigger touch screen in the middle of the dash. I’m going to try to figure out how the radio works next. That’s where I left off reading in the manual. I’ll be able to connect by Bluetooth to my smartphone where I currently have over 300 CD’s on a microSD.

And, there’s buttons on the steering wheel that control both those screens.

And the real kicker is that I have to use my reading glasses to see anything.

Maybe I can just talk to it? Like through the smartphone?

I better finish reading the manual.

So yeah, it’ll take me years to figure everything out.