Meet the Rolling Shadow

A few weeks ago, Vivian took the Rolling Prune into Walker Tire for a check-up and received a fairy grim diagnosis. It needed a number of serious repairs totally more than the car was worth three years ago when Vivian bought the 95 Chevy Cavalier, so it was time for us to trade her in. Finding the ideal replacement wasn't nearly as easy as I'd hoped. Viv and I visited several car lots here in Omaha, both big and small, and none of them seemed to want to sell us anything other than new or nearly-new vehicles that cost double or more than we wanted to spend. We were finally able to find a small dealer in Ashland with a 2001 Honda Accord that he was willing to sell us for well under its "blue book" value. Over the weekend, we drove the rolling prune off into the sunset and came back with a shiny new rolling shadow.

It's been a busy couple of weeks for Vivian and me, but we've still done our best to get out of the apartment and stay social with our friends. Last Sunday, we had a great Superbowl party at our friend Venche's house, with some of the retreating to the basement to play Clue during the second half. On Friday night last week we made a brief appearance at JNO, and I'm glad we did. Robin Merserau made a rare appearance with her husband Tim and son Danny. She was a regular at JNO long before I came on the scene, and it was good to see her again. Vivian and I had dinner at her parents house on Saturday, and we got to play a couple games, including one called Snafooey that was invited by a friend of mine in Lincoln.

Though we're doing our best to remain social, there is a real chance Vivian and I may become homebodies soon. I just recently discovered how many full-length movies are available for free on Hulu, and Vivian and I can watch them on our new TV just as easily ad popping in a DVD. We watched Rudy last week, one of her favorite movies, and it seems new ones are popping up all the time. We could even watch Horse Feathers, my favorite Marx Brothers movies (check it out if you haven't seen it — these guys are hilarious even after seventy years). At this rate, Blockbuster will soon be out of business, and Vivian and I won't have any reason to leave the house.