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Hi Mom,

Arrived at Epiphany Harbor and am safely at anchor, all's well, and writing again for self entertainment while the quest continues for a girlfriend. So I'll share what appears to be a further act of social suicide (aside from my cougar dissertation) in the buying of my first car in 9 years. Thanks Mom for going with me to test-drive the Porches last week, I sure liked them and my depressive lacking for wind-in-my-face was certainly cured by dose of ragtop. But in hindsight my wrench turning (shade-tree mechanic) tendencies would have atrophied, and then I discovered an oil-change for the mid-engine Boxter is $200, far too high a price for a job I don't mind doing myself, let alone that of a Cheap Bastard.

I'll update you and friends on the Reality Show gig which will lead into my decision to finally get a car after 4 months of being home. I had been delaying the purchase to see if I might again be setting sail this December for the Island Hopper series, which now, though not dead, seems to have lost its momentum. There's a 'last hope' as it is being pitched again to National Geographic next week I think, and I do have some real interest with another production company sponsor, but it wouldn't happen for a year. Be-that-as it-may I tapped my IRA and went in search of a convertible for the sake of Windblown Withdrawals, and after a couple weeks test driving BMWs and Boxters, I mentioned my quest to a friend-couple over dinner. Tom said 'Why don't you buy my car?' So I drove it for a couple days and I must admit that it is the funnest car I have ever had, and at 2/3 the price of the others, with less than half the accumulated mileage, the same gas consumption, and by far faster, with the plus of a removable hardtop, I was sold… It was even the color I wanted (white) and is twice the age as the others, next year will be a classic, same year model as Amanda, American made as well, and best and worst of all, simultaneously the only car ever named after a famous fast sailing vessel design, yet retains the man-cheesiest of reputations for muscle-cars, it's basically a mid-life crisis car. The name comes from a French design vessel which was utilized for trading, smuggling, as a privateer, and was a top choice of pirate vessel for incredible speed and maneuverability in its heyday era of the 17th and 18th centuries. The design name was once tagged to the last sailing vessel-of-war built in the US, was also the design for the USS Saratoga, and there's also a famous joke from the seventies (still told today…yesterday in fact to me) about a mouse and an elephant, referring to compensating for manhood. If you haven't guessed it yet, or have become bored with my long winded stall spun into a web of justification, well here goes…. I bought a Corvette.

Likely the worst car for impressing the potential, laid back, bohemian type, girlfriend I seek, I have explained repeatedly to friends this last week (for all the hazing I have been getting) that I did not buy it to impress a girl I have yet to meet, but because I enjoy driving it more than any car I have ever owned. My sensitivities to fuel costs are somewhat compensated by overdrive and computer, which has demonstrated that a brand new Honda sports-car gets the exact same mileage (19 city/25 hwy) with about ½ the horsepower and a fraction of the acceleration…GIDDY-UP! Mom your going to love it, and with the automatic transmission you going to look great driving it. It has, as your fond of saying, "plenty of umphf!" I even have insurance for the first time! I am also taking defensive driving online for my first speeding ticket! "Get outta the way, Oma's other car IS A VETTE!"

Back to the world of brain marinating chaos in our time-starved culture, where Chef Tedium crates no cuisine without a side of depression, and tail-chasing is the main course of-the-masses, now super-sized by economic crisis. I've joined a Gym, cropped my hair, shaved my chin-fuzz, and have worn shoes more in the last few months than since the last millennium. Between grooming, the gym, commuting, general email communicae, txting, purging phone and email logs, computer class and work, my drinking has declined for there is no time for hangovers, and scheduling a date takes about a weeks advance notice. 'Time flies even without having fun' (my personal epiphany of the obvious) and though I keep writing how I am having a blast with the EV (entertainment value) of it all, I have now been home for over 4 months which seems little more than 4 weeks. Apparently in parking my happy-ass indefinitely in Mainstream America I've put my lead-foot to the accelerator-of-life. …. which (no offense to any on this email list) seems mostly filled with parking spaces marked 'Handicapped Priorities', and my former life of roaming with it's 'gift of time' has been spun-out of existence, as temporal reality races by like my Corvette passing a Hybrid.

....or is it just me?

"Indefinately? Ooohhh, the Financial Purgatory!"

Love you, ecstatic to be home with mixed feelings, EV still rules, especially behind the wheel of 400+Horsepower…Giddyup!

Ben

PS: copied to friends, as always much love.