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12/15/2009

Tuesday - and More Meanders. Really.

Since we've actually run out of Meandering Belgians (at least for today), we'll just have to start with an apology for yesterday's lack of real meandering and meander today, instead. Really.

PattiKen, won the print of 'Nobody's Home'. She commented yesterday that she was thrilled. Not half as much as I am. Now I'm going to find out how much it's going to cost to ship that sucker to Massachusetts (damn, I can't believe I spelled that right without looking it up).

I have made a decision about Sarah's story - I now know where it's going. I've been wondering, for a while, what this story was really all about. I know now. And now that I know, a lot of the meandering stuff I had planned for the story is totally unnecessary. I had no direction and the story didn't, either. Now it does. I see the path.

When I was a kid, I didn't care for cranberry sauce. (I don't know - I just didn't). In November of 1965, our Thanksgiving Dinner, delivered by helicopter to our hilltop firebase just outside Chu Lai, was, as a result of a Navy screw up, all cranberry sauce. No turkey. No mashed spuds. Just three trays of cranberry sauce. The dinner we got for Christmas that year was more balanced, thankfully. And I ate the cranberry sauce. And I make sure to eat cranberry sauce every year - so that I don't forget why I like cranberry sauce now.

Sometimes I think GM has thrown the baby out with the bathwater. I keep getting mail, snail mail, from every car dealer in 20 miles, it seems, telling me they're ready, willing, and able to maintain Saturn vehicles. I own a Saturn. A 2004 Vue with a 6 cylinder engine and automatic transmission. I have 106,000 miles on my Saturn. I get around 26 miles per gallon in mixed driving. On regular gas. Meanwhile, the vultures are picking over the bones of Saturn while GM restructures around Cadillac, Chevy, Buick and GMC - and I'd take my Vue over any one of those marques.

I want to say I'm sorry. You guys deserve better than yesterday.

Ndinombethe.

14 comments:

Jientje said...

I have this "thing" about giveaways. I never enter a giveaway if it's going on on a blog I'm not familiar with. You know, if I'm not a regular visitor on this blog then I feel I cannot comment or add myself to the list, just to enter the giveaway. It does not feel right to me. If you had done the giveaway here, I would have been the first one to comment!

I'm weird.
I know.
But it's me.

That Saturn of yours is a very comfortable car, I much enjoyed the sightseeing we did in it.

Nan Sheppard said...

Greatly excited about Sarah! And yeah, sometimes we don't post for a few days, and sometimes it's just blither, but that's OKAY! It's like seeing your great friend and saying "HI!" and they say "OH, mumble mumble gosh darn..." you know it's just an off day.

You're way better about posting than most of us!

Jientje said...

Nan is right. Don't say you're sorry. At least you give us a little something every day. Like cloclkwork.

Oh and um, congratulations to PattiKen, she's one lucky girl!

Shadow said...

this sounds like you, a litte of this, a little of that. and now, i'm going to think of you every time i have cranberry...

CaraBee said...

Completely agree with you on the GM business. Chevy and GMC are pretty much the same thing, why save them both but get rid of Saturn that has produced good cars and has a loyal following. Makes no sense to me.

moneythoughts said...

Someone got your turkey and mashed spuds that day. What a trick to play on a bunch of Marines on a hill in the middle of Nam on Thanksgiving. I can and I can't believe that someone would do that to you guys. So, now you eat a little cranberry sauce to remind you of that time. In essence, the cranberry sauce has become your Seder plate. I think you will know what I mean.

I had to replace a dead battery in my BMW yesterday and AAA made it so so easy. I will never give up my membership now.

Perplexio said...

I'd have taken a Pontiac over a Saturn... But I agree with you about taking a Saturn over a Chevy, Cadillac, Buick, or GMC Truck.

Now Caddy, if it were a classic... then maybe I'd take one over a Saturn. But not the newer models. They don't do it for me.

It just seems like GM kept their crappy lines and did away with the good ones (Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Saturn).

PattiKen said...

I remained thrilled, and even more thrilled that you are thrilled (yikes, this sounds like a Cole Porter song!). But I just wanted to tell you that I would be happy to pay for the shipping of your print(no, wait! my print!)to MA. I'm grateful - and did I mention thrilled? - to be the lucky recipient.

I love the cranberry sauce story. I too will always think of you when I have it.

Unknown said...

Jientje: You are not weird.

Nan: I'm excited about Sarah, too.

Shadow: My job is done here.

CaraBee: Yeah - the view from down here isn't very clear, I guess.

Moneythoughts: yeah. My own personal Seder plate.

Perplexio: I agree. Totally.

PattiKen: You don't have to pay for shipping. She and I do - and that's fine.

Moonrayvenne said...

I am so excited to see where Sarah's story is going. Sometime's it just hits you when you have no idea on which way to progress.
Don't be sorry, we all get a little irritated once in awhile.

Loraine said...

I don't do giveaways anymore, or enter them... too much trouble.

I love my homemade cranberry sauce...

Emily/Randomability said...

I was wanting to try to find the write (hee hee) words to say, but whatever i come up with, just doesn't sound right, so I'll just type it anyway.

Thank you for eating that cranberry sauce for us.

Holly said...

It must be so exciting when a story opens up for you and you "see the path" and what the story wants to be!

Too bad about the Saturn and GM in general.

Mrs4444 said...

Congrats to Patty :)

What a GREAT feeling it must be, to have the Sarah pieces falling into place. Nice.

Thanks for your military service Lou.