|
|
|
engagement ring
Tuesday, May 8 2001
After work today I immediately launched into the engagement ring project and completed it in fairly good time. The end stage of size adjustment saw me pushing a flat file back and forth in the ring's gap until the ring, when the gap was closed, was the correct size. It was good I still had Gretchen's finger there for reference. The paste silver solder I'd bought didn't work at all so I had to resort to more conventional electronic solder to seal that gap. Instead of a soldering iron, I just used the blue flames of the kitchen stove. While I worked Gretchen was playing the Liz Phair album that has the song "Cinco de Mayo" on it. That is, of course, our song, since that was the day we became engaged. Back in the Bathtubgirl era, the important date was always July 11th or "7-11."
I was with Gretchen on the balcony drinking microbrew and she was smoking a Parliament when our pie from Tony Maroni's arrived. Somehow we managed to eat a large vegetarian pizza in its entirety.
Tonight was Gretchen's night to fly back to New York and it was my job to drive her to the airport. I drove my new Punch Buggy of course. It took a little getting used to; I haven't driven much since this summer and I haven't driven stick in years. That little car has enough power for the freeway, but it feels rather precarious to drive. The suspension is loose like an Amish buggy on a bumpy Ohio backroad and the windshield is all gummed-up, cracked and big swath of glare at night. So I was nervous for the whole drive. It occurred to me that I must have been a significantly braver person back in the old days when I'd think nothing of setting off on a 400 mile roadtrip to Oberlin in the Punch Buggy Green. I'll never forget the time I had to pull over in Morgantown WV to tighten down the head bolts because the compressed engine gases were escaping past the head gaskets explosively.
Before her plane departed, while Gretchen and I spent our "quality time" (the airport kind that really can't be very high quality) in tired silence, a deaf woman came around and left stickers for us to buy on the seat beside us. Gretchen thought they were pretty cool and gave the woman $2. I ended up in possession of the non-pink half of the stickers so I guess I'll be using them to help trick out my new car.
For linking purposes this article's URL is:
http://asecular.com/blog.php?010508 feedback
previous | next |
