Day Off, Car Sorted

5 March
Ahh… Today is a day off. Woke up at 6 AM this morning anyway, but managed to doze until almost 7. Got up to see 6 heron standing together on the front lawn, and then 5 or 6 deer came out and they had an amusing little staring contest.
We’ve managed to get the car situation sorted out. After some careful research, thought, and prayer we decided to give the VW a pass – not an easy decision! But we have ended up with that ’04 Mazda 3! We got a nice deal, as we bought it from a Dodge dealership that had just taken it in as a trade. The silly 17” wheels were swapped for a more reasonable set that included better tires. I’m now looking forward to the big drive a lot more…
So far adjusting back into American culture is going OK. The exuberant friendliness of store staff is still catching me off guard, but it’s amusing rather than annoying. The traffic situation, however, is annoying. Lots of very large vehicles being driven by very large people who seem to be more interested in the conversation they’re having on their mobile phones rather than watching out for where they’re going. Considering the size of the car parks and the width of the roads, one would think that there would be plenty of room for all, but the large drivers of the large vehicles seem to struggle with surprisingly basic maneuvers, not even managing to get in between the significantly spacious lines in the giant car parks. Must be all those sticky gas pedals Fox news is always going on about…
It’s hard to believe that last week at this time I was walking around the loch at Fyvie Castle!
Andrew