Smug

I got paid yesterday - the end of the two-week period of utter brokeness (is that a word? The spellchecker doesn't think so. Of course, the spellchecker doesn't like to be called a "spellchecker", either, so can I go by that?) that follows my mortgage payment. So last night I went out and bought four books. Today I bought yarn to crochet an afghan for my daughter for Christmas, and had a delightful shopping spree at Trader Joe's.

And there's another celebration, and the realization of a minor goal: I used my new credit card to fix my old car. I got a new bumper and replacement horn - which turns out to be a high-pitched little squeaker. I liked the sound of my old horn better. Anyway, the bumper on my car, a 1999 Saturn composed largely of plastic, has been dangling for years. Some of it had broken away and it couldn't be rebolted, at least not easily. Last winter I snagged it on a snowdrift and pulled away the right side. The piece of plastic over the tire broke off, too. I had the bumper and plastic piece tied onto my car with a length of clothesline for about seven months. I knew it was going to be expensive to fix, so I kept putting it off. So it feels really good to get it fixed.

When I started this blog, I was trying to decide whether to trade in my car. I chose to keep it, and I'm glad I did. It's nice not to have car-loan payments.

I've also been dealing with my desire to move closer to Boston. I live in a poor city just to the north of Boston - Lynn, Lynn, City of Sin, etc. There is nothing in Lynn. It's not a bad place, but it's not home, either. I've lived here for four years now, and from the beginning I've wished I could pick up my house and yard and drop them in my old neighborhood in Somerville.

I started looking at condos online, and drove by a couple of them not far from my son in Arlington (MA, in case somebody's reading this and wondering which one. He lives in Arlington Heights - I think there's another one near Chicago.). Anyway, last night my car wasn't ready yet, so I took the bus out to my son's apartment. Total commute took me a good half-hour longer than my current commute to Lynn, the one that tires me out and was a strong contributor to my desire to move. So I won't be moving to Arlington. The 77 bus down Mass. Ave. is enough to thwart any lingering desires to live there.

But I still want to move. For the time being, I'm postponing any active pursuit of this goal until next spring.