home

home safe.

car cost $625 and died twice before i even left the shop parking lot. they said it just needed to drive the kinks out so i left and we clattered home. i beseeched all the gods i could think of to get him started again when i stopped for gas. so far so good.

my car and i had a serious talk about generosity and goodness on the way home. i explained to him how much i need him and what our priorities are. i told him that he has great power to help me help other people. we can bring goodness to the world together. i reminded him that without his help, i will be unable to work and thus unable to feed or clothe myself. i gently told him that it was very unkind of him to cost me over $1300 in the past week. i felt it was a good conversation. i promised that i would always be kind to him and would keep him tuned up and i swore to only play good music on his stereo system. i told him he is quite handsome, and that the only thing i have against him is his race--being ford and all, you know--but that since i am boring-old-white-american myself i won't complain too much. but i did tell him quite firmly that he must stop with all the sputtering and dying. i told him i can take a bit of whining--the occasional misplaced open-door or airbag dashboard light, for instance--but no more of this sudden-death nonsense.

then i realized that i really should at least be kind enough to give the poor kid a name. i still came up with no "i" names, so i thought of his license plate, which begins with "r." i figured "i" could be the second letter. "r-i." "riley" came to mind immediately. i think it fits. riley is a character on buffy the vampire slayer. he is a military man. he is attractive in an abercrombie sort of way. not exactly my type, but pretty nice. my car is similar in that way. also, my car sort of looks like a tank sometimes so that fits the military thing. and in addition, the word "riley" kind of reminds me of "rilo kiley" which is a band i like and that makes it a little more "me." done. his name is riley.

i think our talk and the naming did some good; between nebraska city and lincoln he stopped his clanking. knock on wood.

thank you for your kind attention to my ordeal. now i am going to lay in bed and watch grey's anatomy and go to sleep.