Yesterday I had to borrow my friend David's truck to return his wheelbarrow and buy one of my own. Because I'd gotten used to his nice wheelbarrow and don't want to go back to my rusty, rickety one. Wheelbarrows are one of the few situations where plastic is absolutely better than metal. The plastic ones weigh less, are stronger and don't rust.
But I could talk about wheelbarrows all day. The point is that David's truck is kind of a nightmare. Don't get me wrong, I am extremely grateful to him for letting me use it so frequently. Our landscaping work would be ten times harder if I didn't have easy access to a truck to bring mulch, haul away trash for the dump, bring home wheelbarrows, etc. But the truck is hard to drive. It has no power steering or power brakes, so it takes all my strength to get around sharp curves, and I have to be very careful about driving slow and giving myself lots of room to stop. When people cut in front of me or tailgate, they have no idea what a hazard they are creating and that adds to my stress. The truck used to backfire constantly, but he took it in for a tune-up and that seems to be fixed. (I kind of wish it still backfired because then people might give me a little more room.) It still stalls out sometime at stoplights. The new problem is that it also leaks exhaust into the cab. Actually that's probably not a new problem, but last time I borrowed the truck it was warm so I had the windows open and didn't notice. This time I definitely noticed.
By the time I got home I was wiped out, both from driving the truck and from breathing carbon monoxide. (Next time I'm going to wear a heavy coat and leave the windows open.) I had planned to cook dinner but ended up lying down while Georg got take-out. Then I fell asleep in the middle of the movie we watched after dinner. So I didn't get to any of my planned preparations for the Chapel Hill Christmas Parade this morning, like cleaning the car or taking a shower the night before since we had to be there so early.
The parade was great though. We've been to 3 Chapel Hill parades now and I think this was the best one. There was a good turnout, lots of people all along the route. It was cold but bright, and the sun warmed us up enough that we were comfortable driving with the windows open. We listened to a 3-CD set of big band Christmas music that I bought for the Divaville Xmas show. It has a bunch of classics performed by lesser-known musicians (like Fats Waller doing "Jingle Bells!") and several songs I'd never heard before, like "Little Jack Frost Get Lost" and "Christmas Chopsticks." Good stuff.
Undersea Mah Jongg is no longer "barbie car" in the eyes of the crowd; it's now "bubble car." People went nuts over the bubbles, especially the kids. I swear that bubble machine is the best thing I've ever done for the car. It was really fun to hear what people said about the car as we drove past. Some people thought the art was temporary, like one woman who said "Nice decorating job!" and obviously thought I had done it just for the parade. But I was surprised at how many people got it, and even knew the term art car. I heard one little boy explaining it to another: "It's an art car. Art. Car."
The crowd got noticably hipper in Carrboro. I heard one guy call my car "an iconoclastic float." That's a new one! (I also heard that the Carrboro crowd went nuts over Lisa's biodeisel stickers. Good for them!) I didn't see anyone I knew, which was too bad, but several people recognized me. I heard things like "hey I saw that car on 40!" "You parked next to us one time!" and "You work near my dad!"
So anyway, the parade was a great experience. I always get such a buzz from parades. My only complaint is that my mouth was a little sore after smiling and waving at people for 45 minutes!
Our group was Undersea Mah Jongg, Lisa and a couple of guys from the New Beetle club, and Toby Galinkin and her art car. As far as I know, Toby is the first art car driver in the Triangle. Seeing her car in 1990 or '91 is the reason I have an art car. So it's amazing to go to events with her now. We had lunch after the parade with the bug folks, unfortunately Toby and her friend Ann couldn't join us. We ate at the Barbecue Joint, which was excellent as usual. I had a reuben, Georg had crab cakes, and everyone else had barbecue. Mmm, reuben. The sign said they cure their own pastrami and I believe it.
I didn't really feel up to yardwork when we got home, but it was such a nice day. So we put up outdoor Christmas decorations. I know, I know, just a week ago I said it was too damned soon. But what the heck, being in a parade got me in the holiday spirit. Our decorations aren't too elaborate. Just lights around the front porch, and a lit up artificial tree on the porch. The tree was a bit complicated, first with having trouble finding all of it in the shed, then one of the strands of lights didn't work, but I didn't know it until it was on the tree. Also two strands were multi colored, but two were all red. So I did a lot of moving bulbs around to make them all multi, but heavy on the red. I can't wait for it to get dark so we can see how it looks!
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