short note later at night

Eh, early in the morning is more like it.

My friend A the biker rents "new" movies on Tuesdays, the local Blockbuster’s new release day, and he had "Battleship" to watch. It’s a silly movie – good effects – several sunken ships and wasted cities in Hawaii and Hong Kong, and aliens that don’t look too different than us, but they do have weak eyes – the fatal flaw in our bright Hawaii sun. Typical action movie – tomboy chicks who kick ass and take names, the usual variety of men, some more manly than others, wimpy scientists, stoic Asians. The Navy they showed looked very different than the one I was in in the early 80’s – the Ticonderoga cruisers and Spruance class destroyers were the new ships mixed in with 60’s and 70’s ships, and almost all of those ships are out of service now.

(mine will be decommissioned in February and sold to The Ukraine, an irony, since it was designed to be an escort ship for convoys in WW3 – with The Ukraine, then part of the Soviet Union. It was laid down 30 years ago this year, and a great many of the 50 ships of the Perry class that I was on are now out of service)

The ships the Navy now has are Arleigh Burke class destroyers that are way more powerful than the Cold War cruisers and destroyers I knew then – way more expensive, too, but they look different than the ships I knew then. All of the nuclear ships, except the aircraft carriers are, I think, out of service too, and most every warship built now has gas turbine engines; had I stayed in, I would have had a role, since those were the engines I ran on my ship.

The Navy looks very different now in another way; there are women on board warships now, and there never were when I was in. The duty uniforms look VERY different too, no more denim dungarees and chambray shirts – the uniforms now look like navalized versions of Army/Marine uniforms in blue splinter camouflage.

Huh. I had something completely different in mind when I started writing.

***

Tomorrow – later today – I’ll go to VocRehab and meet with this guy from TJ Maxx, a retail clothing store. VocRehab helped me get a job at the Oregon Zoo, where I mostly worked in the Gift Shop – retail for sure, where I ran a cash register. I wouldn’t mind doing that again. TJ Maxx is in some program to hire the handicapped (or whatever term is currently PC for people with disabilities) I guess I’m sort of officially disabled now. I did not want to be and was in Denial about it for 12 or 13 years, I guess, but the facts sort of speak for themselves, now that anyone is paying attention. My third application for Social Security disability is going in this week, I expect, and they do say "third time’s the charm" so it might actually go through this time too.

If the job works out after a month of unpaid work – a trial period, I guess (corporations getting FREE workers and paid by the government to hire "us"???) I’d have a part time job that is supposedly designed to help me succeed, and that would be a good thing – I wouldn’t be dirt poor, like I am now, relying on help from my former wife. As much as I am grateful for her help, I’d like to be more independent and pay my own way. I’d still be poor, but that is ok; my needs are few, and the more you have the more you might lose.  More than I need is more than I need.

***

Ah, I remember what I intended to write about: My car, which I bought new off the lot in March, 2009, turned over 50,010 miles tonight as I got home form my friends house. It had 7 miles on it when I bought it; a little over 50,000 of the miles on it now are MINE, all mine, and it’s a used car I guess, but I have had all of the use out of it.

The Dodge Caliber is – or was, since it’s out of production as of November, 2011. is or was a very under-rated car. Mine has had almost no problems with it – a front shock started leaking and was replaced under warranty, and the sunroof drain lines were crushed in the factory and replaced under warranty – and the car has been a smooth car to use and to drive. The boom box stereo, nine speakers and 458 watts, is the best car stereo – or indeed any stereo – I’ve ever had. The car is the easiest car to drive I’ve ever owned – it’s pretty much a "turn the key and go" kind of car that is always in the right gear, and is quite powerful for a small engine that gets fairly respectable gas mileage – the best I’ve ever had. With the new tires K* bought for my birthday, it is smooth and rides well, and is pretty sporty, when I choose to drive it that way. I’ve read reviews of my car and have long wondered what car those reviewers drove, and how much of a built-in bias they had towards Dodge cars, because the reviews are less than nice about the Caliber, and they are wrong. It’s the best car I’ve ever owned, and not far from the best I ever drove either. Oh sure, the Cadillac’s I’ve rented were "nicer" cars, with V-8’s in them, and the T-Birds and Cougars were "funner", but the Caliber is the car I want, and is everything I’ve ever wanted in a car.  50,000 miles so far, and the fates willing, at least 50,000 more.

(I have tended to average 66,000 miles out of the cars I have owned; the new truck we bought in 84 or most of the used cars I’ve had prior to the Caliber.  I really want my black Cali to be the last gasoline vehicle I own, and since I take very good care of it, maintenance-wise, there’s no reason it won’t last many more miles – maybe even a lifetime.  It does have a "Life-time" warranty on the power train – engine and transmission, no deductible – and should, if I don’t abuse it, last for me to use for untold numbers of years more)

Ok, time for bed, to get ready for the next act tomorrow.

Maybe VocRehab will help me get the anti-depressants I seem to need.  I need new glasses too.  Tomorrow I’m meeting with my VocRehab counselor too, and I’ll find out.

Onwards.

*****