by Gene Cowan
Where to begin? Summer was hot this year, with many records being set by the overwhelming heat. I wonder if this could be the dreaded “Greenhouse” effect that all the scientists keep warning us about. Oakton, with a huge plastic dome over it.
The last few weeks of summer made up for the lack of anything interesting in the months before. My friend Tom, after 5 months in Korea, showed up for our annual week at the beach. What, many people asked, did you and Tom do every night while he was here? We drank and smoked too much, I replied. And that's precisely what we did. Among other crazy things which would brand most people as completely insane. However, we are already under that classification, which means that we needn't worry about what we do.
One of the insane notions that we followed up on was a ritual practiced by what suddenly seems to be too many people: we had our ears pierced. Collectively, I mean; we only had one done each. After that, we dyed our hair blonde. Well, mine more than his, since he is already a good deal blonder than me.
The car. I'm glad you asked.
Well, it smoked a lot, and after an abortive attempt at fixing it myself, I ended up taking it to a shop. I say abortive, but it was unfortunately quite advanced. As a matter of fact, it sort of was finished, but not too well. For a couple weeks, my car was sitting in many pieces in the parking lot.
It ended up costing $700. A lot of money for someone like me with limited means. But at least my car worked.
Two days later, the first time I drove it, the transmission broke.
One month later, after selling my computer to raise money, I got the car back. Over $1000.
One week later, a woman hit another woman in an intersection, and they both slid into my car and destroyed the front of it.
Me, without my convertible again. The very next day, the heat dissapated and the weather turned spring-like. And I had a rental car with air conditioning. A luxury I could have used earlier in the week when it was 100°.