Light

Today, I’m grateful for light, without which, we could not see. There would be no color, photography would not be my hobby, and reading would not be quite so easy as it is, at least in the ways we understand them now. But isn’t it fun to imagine what life would be like with only infrared or some other part of the electromagnetic spectrum to light the way?

All praise and thanks be to God for giving us the gift of light and enabling us, thereby, to see. Alhamdulillah!

Play

Today, I’m grateful for play.

Play is a beautiful and wonderful thing. Its a gift from Allah that allows us to exercise our bodies and minds, sharpen our skills and develop new ones, relax, even compete. When we play, at our best, we get into states of flow and, indeed, we thrive. Don’t believe me? Check out some Ted videos, maybe, or some psychologists. Continue reading “Play”

Buying a New Car: the Alltrack

As mentioned earlier, I test drove a white Alltrack SE with the driver assistance package on a Thursday. I told Chris I would return the following week, ready to buy a black Alltrack SE, and again specified the driver assistance package. The buyback money came through on Saturday, and was available to me on Monday, so I took off work a bit early on Monday afternoon, called Chris to let him know I was coming, and went to the bank for a cashier’s check.

My wife and I arrived at Metro VW (now Principle VW) about 2:30pm on Monday. My wife is a master of haggling and she enjoys it, so we were all ready to make a deal on a black Alltrack SE with the driver assistance package. We waited about 30 minutes for Chris to bring the car around, had a quick look at it, and commenced to haggling. Continue reading “Buying a New Car: the Alltrack”

Buying a New Car: Saying Goodbye to Hank

My first car was a 1968 Chevrolet Suburban. It had issues (an undiagnosed cracked manifold among them) and after many months of frustration, sat in the driveway for a few years before being sold for scrap metal. After that, I drove a Civic (flipped 1 ½ times, totalled), an Accord (transmission failed), a 1971 Beetle (t-boned by a mid-1980s Blazer, totalled), a Prelude (rear-ended, totalled), and the Forester that I traded in when I bought Hank.

Hank was the first car I bought all by myself, and the only one that I said goodbye to over many months. It was hard.

Continue reading “Buying a New Car: Saying Goodbye to Hank”