May is for Birthdays

Alex Turned 35 on May 26th
Frank and I brought him a token candle to blow out, balanced on a small can of Pringles. Alex loves blowing out candles but he also loves eating Pringles.

St. Denis Home prepares the favorite food of each resident for a feast on his birthday. Alex positively devours the Filipino Lumpia in the foreground and the spaghetti off in the lower left corner. Afterward  they also present a traditional fancy celebratory cupcake. Alex's this year had a big "3" and five smaller candles. Sweets are not his thing but those candles... ? They are a big hit. Multiple re-lights are quite common.

Then Alex opened some presents. There were shorts and a puzzle. This gift is a set of Duplos from us. We also got a bucket to store them in. As he unwrapped the box, Alex fastidiously placed the small shredded pieces of wrapping paper in that bucket with the Duplos. To cushion them? Nope. He just enjoys tearing up paper.

Diane Turned 68 on May 26th
After returning from an afternoon with Alex, Frank and I drove home for a small celebration for me. An Ace Hardware Store just opened up down the street from us, replacing the OSH hardware that had been there. Curiously, at the checkout counter they have a freezer chest of deep, deep frozen pies. These pies are chilled so cold that one of them will "burn" your fingers carrying it out to the car and each takes 2 hours and 40 minutes to cook. I had warm peach cobbler for my birthday selection. It was so warm the bottom of the candle melted, too. I also enjoyed some flowers from my friend Vickie.

Other Old Goats on May 26th
To clear out the high grass and bush in the open area behind our home prior to ires season, the city brings in goats to eat their way through it. It tickles me to watch those old goats. I guess it takes one to know one.

Enough Ponder, Time to Wander

We bought a new car. A 2021 Supersonic Red Toyota Avalon. Here it is with Frank's Blizzard Pearl 2016 Toyota RAV4 behind it.

Frank and I had posted a list on the white board mounted on the door out to our garage. It was a reminder of the goals we wanted to accomplish once the pandemic isolation lifted enough to venture out and about again. Some of the more high time and energy investment items:

• √ Visit with Dan and Carrie's family. We met with them at a rental cabin in April.
• √ Visit with Robin and Jeremy's family. They came for a visit in June
• √ Buy a new car. We did that in May as told below.
• Buying new iPhones is still on the to-do list
• Updating/upgrading our Comcast box, source of our computer and television service is pending

In 2016, on the Monday after Thanksgiving, Frank had bought a white Toyota RAV4 and had driven it home that very day. We were happy with it and fortunately it even accommodated transporting Frank in his position-limited configuration due to a broken hip surgery two days after getting the car. (See post for 12/15/16.) But I digress. 

This year, on Thursday May 6th, Frank took that very same Toyota RAV4 into the dealership for routine servicing. I never did acclimate to a hatchback scenario of the RAV4, though Frank liked it; cargo tumbles all over and is visible to general passersby. Prior to his appointment that day I browsed the Toyota website for options for a four-door sedan with a big trunk.  With all those myriads of choices on the website, there was not one photo of the trunks of the vehicles. There were ton of images of different wheel options but not a single one of a trunk. When I arrived to pick him up from the service side of the dealership after he dropped off his car, we walked on over to the sales side to investigate models in person.

The inventory at the dealership was at one sixth capacity. Some reduction may have been by choice but the main reason was that not as many cars were being manufactured  due to the pandemic. I test-drove a white Toyota Avalon Hybrid. It felt wide and comfortable and familiar to drive almost immediately. And quiet. So, so quiet I was not even sure it was running. We also drove a Toyota Camry and it paled in comparison. Of course the salesman saw I liked it and strongly urged us to drive it home that day. We insisted we would think about it and anyway would be back later that day to pick up Frank's RAV4. We did not drive home a new car that day. We have a rule to never buy a large purchase without at least thinking about it overnight.

We slept on it. The Avalon felt right and we felt relieved not to be trapped in our usual analysis paralysis. The next morning we called the salesman and told him that if he could find the car in red, we very possible would buy it. No commitment yet, but we might. We advised him not to exert the effort to prep the car, that we were still deciding. He ignored that advice and when we pulled up, there displayed prominently directly in front of where we parked, no cars nearby or surrounding it, brightly polished and shiny red, was the car. I got inside to drive it and see if it still felt as good. It did. We bought it.

I drove it home and parked it proudly and happily in our driveway.

Per the Wikipedia entry for Toyota Avalon

Avalon is a legendary island featured in the Arthurian legend, fitting it in with Toyota's tradition of naming their sedans the word for "crown" in various languages (Crown, Corona, Camry, Corolla), types of crowns (Tiara), or other things associated with royalty (Scepter).

Per my other Googling about, I recalled that Avalon is the place where King Arthur's sword Excalibur was forged.  Also, Morgan le Fay (the fairy) tells Arthur of her intention to relocate to the isle of Avalon, the place "where the ladies who know all the magic in the world are". Perhaps this background information will serve as inspiration for a vanity plate. My Pontiac's vanity plate, NOT*BLU is being retired.