A new year

This is turning out to be the blog that refuses to be written. For those regular readers in my audience, you know where I'm coming from- there are just some days (weeks, months), where the well is just plain dry, and your best efforts to come up with a subject, opening line ( or even a title, for Pete's sake!) are all for naught. I started writing this particular post by erasing all of my work from two nights ago. I've gotta say, it was poignant, riveting and in the end, TMI (*too much information).

And uncharacteristically even for keyboard-challenged yours truly, I'm blundering at about the rate of three typos per line- a big number even for me.

So anyway, I'm on vacation this week. We generally don't do anything special when I have vacation- I'm hoping for a day trip or two later in the week. As I write this, it's September 1st, and as it's the first Monday of September, it's Labor day. It's evolved into the end-of-summer holiday here in the States... I think I had written a similar post earlier about Memorial Day, and how it had devolved into the beginning-of-summer holiday....

I was able to get the grass cut before it rained this morning, which amazed Jennifer. I am NOT a morning person, and doing work in the morning is even more amazing. The yard looks nice, and everyone is happy. Tomorrow- Tuesday- I'll probably take our some weeds and dead sunflowers. I was a bit disappointed with our sunflowers this year; we had purchased some seeds around the beginning of summer with the intention of planting second crop, but never planted them... work schedule, don't you know.

So now it's September, pretty much officially Autumn. The song on my mind is the Mamas and the Papas' "California Dreamin'. Not necessarily because I'm a fan of the song or the group- or even California, but because- even though the song is set in California, it reminds me of the leaves changing colors in autumn. It always has. Put this song on, and my mind is suddenly in Horicon Marsh, Wisconsin, waiting for the next big wave of birds to take off or land.

And in keeping with the theme of I've got nothing to write, two days have passed since this blog was updated. I'm listening to Chris Tomlin's Burning Lights as I write this, and finally have had some things to report that were interesting (at least to me!).

For starters, we took Meerkat in for her first scheduled service today. We made an appointment for the service with Grand Subaru, and made sure that Sandy would be in. She's a lot of fun, and knows her stuff when it comes to Subarus , which is a good thing, as she sells them for a living! So, while Meerkat was getting an oil change and general checkup, Jennifer and I test-drove a few different vehicles- a Crosstrek and an Impreza Sport, both 2014's.

The thing that really stinks about test driving cars is that car dealerships in the United States seem to congregate on highly-trafficked roads. On the plus side, you get a good feel for how your prospective vehicle will operate in the real world; on the negative side, there are few opportunities for hard accelerating, hard braking or hard cornering... and quite honestly, I'm sure dealers REALLY don't want prospective buyers putting too much punishment on their demonstrators, especially if they're a high-volume dealership without a "dedicated" group of demonstrator vehicles. After all,Subaru has a break-in period where hard breaking and certain torque thresholds are to be avoided.

Still, even within these restrictions, Jennifer and I got a good feel for both of the cars. As current Subaru owners, I think our expectations were fairly high, and both vehicles met them. Both were peppy, had crisp throttle response and were very responsive to the steering wheel. The manually-shiftable CVT is a hoot to drive, with steering wheel mounted paddle shifters- this was the first automatic transmission that I've ever driven that actually engaged me as a driver.

Straight line performance (acceleration) was satisfying- especially in light of the Crosstrek's allegedly anemic 2.0L. The Crosstrek weighs at ~300lbs (10%) less that our Outback, so in terms of HP/weight, we're actually experiencing a bit more raw power to the wheels in the Crosstrek vs the Outback- and I believe the Crosstrek is a bit better on fuel economy as well.

So, we're probably going to go with the Crosstrek. To be perfectly honest, I liked the Impreza Sport a bit better, but I have to be a realist: if three vehicles were in our future, there would be no discussion. However, with my iffy foot and knee, the higher entry height just makes more sense for us- so its the Crosstrek.The other thing that Sandy said was something like," I'm not selling you anything but the orange one" This, of course, was after which one she would have recommended- she was all Crosstrek. To which I replied, "It would be cool to have one in the Subaru Rally Blue,"  To which she replied, "$4K option".

Well, sorry if this ended up being a Subaru ad... not really! We're hooked up with a great dealership, a super salesperson and a just plain fun to drive vehicle. Maybe someday I can buy an old WRX for cheap and run it noncompetitively.

*Before I forget, 42 is in production again! This is exciting, and I hope to have updates soon.

That's all for now. It was a day featuring test driving, and that was fun. As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.