the solutions have come to a couple of those problems I mentioned in the last post. last week I took out a loan and got a car: ’95 Honda Accord with 150k miles on it. it’s a five-speed manual transmission and I expect that I’ll get mileage in the high twenties, for in-town driving, and thirty to thirty-five miles to the gallon on the highway. it has a cd player and leather interior. pretty good body condition, and it’s nice and clean inside. I’m very happy with it so far! I’m going to have to get some work done on the brakes (probably just new pads =$50 or so) and do an oil change (my friend will show me how to do it so that I don’t have to shell out money anymore).
I had to borrow money for the down payment, too, but if I live on some sort of budget, I might be able to get this all taken care of.
my girlfriend bought me a bike, too. it’s not quite the quality of bicycle that I’d grown accustomed to, but I imagine that if I tune it up really well, it’ll do the job until I can afford something better. I live above a bike shop, and I’m nervous about what my landlord will say if he sees this thing. after all, he did offer to give me a loaner to ride until I can buy something. oh, well. I’ll explain that it was a gift and let him know that I’m still planning to get one of his bikes by the fall.
finally. . . there’s the whole thing about the teeth/gums. I didn’t mention in the last post, but I’ll have to quit smoking after the surgery in order for everything to heal up okay. it’s also not a bad idea to not smoke at least a week before the surgery so that I can get the chemicals out of my system. so that amounts to about three weeks of not smoking. if I go three weeks without smoking, I’d be a real fool to start again. the first few days is supposed to be the most difficult, and if I can get three weeks into it, then I oughtta hold off on smoking for at least a year. and if I can go a year, why start again, ever? the prospect of making a change like this is staggering. smoking cigarettes has been a part of everything that I’ve done for the last ten years. suddenly I will do everything without cigarettes. wow. “you’ve only got to change one thing–everything.” one day at a time, right?