Jeeps

What a wonderful day. I woke up, enjoyed a nice breakfast, went horseback riding at 10:30 (and had a GREAT ride) and then went to the local Fillin' Station for some soup and tea for lunch. I was even highly productive with grading until Liz met me and we moved outside to enjoy the beautiful weather.

This is when the productivity decreased, but the day ripened. We chatted casually for a little while-- I told her about the Wilderness Trails Ranch being interested in my application materials, she talked about her need for a pair of sparkly underwear (j/k, Liz ;-), and we talked with a couple guys in a wedding party (one who happened to be "the hot meter reader guy"). Later, when she was talking with her mother about various tax deductions, I leaned back in my chair, felt the sun on my back and watched clouds bump into each other as they moved across a crisp, blue sky. It was grand.

Sometime after she got off the phone, I thought of the Jeep and how great it would be to have one at that moment. I asked Liz if she would come with me to test drive one. She agreed, so I called the man selling it to set up a time. He needed an hour, so we killed time at the bookstore across the street, (we read some pretty dirty stuff-- I think my favorite was a sex scene from a book where the author wrote it from the first person perspective, but then switched to third person when referring to his member).

This is the beautiful piece of machinery that we drove around all over town today:

My verdict: Pretty damn sweet. Just needs a hard top so I can actually hear the radio when traveling on the highway. Also needs to come down a couple thousand in price, and I am still debating whether or not I should hold out for black.

Liz's verdict: Although she thought the Wrangler was cool, it still wasn't a CJ. Apparently there is some sort of weird Jeep culture where rivaling gangs defend the superiority of their Jeep's particular model. A Wrangler just isn't as tough as a CJ, I guess.

After an hour and a half, the Jeep went back to its rightful owner. I do think the man was a little worried after we were gone so long... and maybe the fact that I said, "See ya in a week" after he handed me the keys through the driver's side window had something to do with it. Heehee.

I am going to do my research on buying a hard top and a CD player before I talk turkey with the man. Haha. Talk turkey. What the hell kind of cliche is that? Who ever came up with "talking turkey" as a way to express negotiation?

My turkey doesn't look very confident.

Anyways, so I left and headed for St. Clair with Nathan. The drive was beautiful. The pavement was wet from a quick rain, and the sun was sitting lower in the sky, but still strong enough to make everything smell intensely spring-like. I love that wet pavement, wet dirt and grass smell. Very fresh. All of the colors were intensified by the rain and sun, and the sky was almost a cobalt- a vivid, deeper blue to the East. I was driving and marveling at the beauty of this blue against the bright yellow of the dried cornstalks when suddenly a rainbow started to appear. I actually watched a rainbow appear out of nothingness against the backdrop of these draining clouds and golden corn. These are times I wish I had a camera with color film in it.

It was so amazing that I pulled over on 83 and showed Nathan. We sat and watched the rainbow deepen and intensify as the sun set a little lower. It was quite entertaining to see Nathan as he giggled and tried to say "rainbow" while pointing out the window. Unfortunately, I eventually had to pull back on the road-- I was beginning to feel like people might think we needed assistance. Who knows, maybe I do need help. I did spend like 10 minutes, mouth open, oooing and ahhing at light reflecting off of water drops in the sky.

In case you feel the need to oooo and aahhhh at sun reflecting off of atmospheric moisture, I have added the following image:

Hope that was as good for you as it was for me.

The night closed with Nathan jumping up and down in the bathtub, treating the 2 foot by 4 foot tub filled with 5 inches of water like a waterpark. Drenched everything within the three feet of the tub's edge, including myself, but he was having so much fun yelling "Booyyyeeee Yah!" and jumping on his knees, that I couldn't help but let him do it over and over again until there was more water outside the tub than in it.

Really a wonderful day.