It ain't cheap

Below is a shot of the car we lease for Ransom; it's the smallest Lexus Hybrid SUV and a nice car. We paid $155 in July to register it in CT for three years — I knew we'd be changing the registration to California soon after but I didn't want to be driving a car cross-country with an expired registration.

So now I've gotten it registered in California, for a price of -- are you sitting down — $587.20 FOR ONE YEAR. In other words, more than ten times the annual fee in Connecticut. Ten times! And I'm not adding in the $60 I had to pay for the smog inspection.

So, yeah, things aren't cheap out here. AAA says the cheapest gas close to me is $4.16 a gallon. In the interest of full disclosure I will point out that in CT we paid personal property taxes every year on whatever cars we leased and that California has no such tax. But, trust me, they get my money in lots of other ways.

I received an offer yesterday to subscribe to the paper edition of the New York Times. $1 a week for the introductory period and then $10 a week after that. That's $520 per year. And guess what. That's for the Sunday paper only! Thank you, no, I'll stick with the digital edition.

All of this is old news, I know. We all complain about how expensive things are, but the car registration was a real shocker. Remember, I'm from the generation that first encountered McDonalds. And when I worked there as a 15 year-old, if you ordered two cheeseburgers, an order of fries and a large soda and gave me a dollar, I'D GIVE YOU 30 CENTS BACK!

(Of course I was working for $1 an hour).

Just another rant from your favorite cynic.

Starting the day with tears

A few days ago I wrote about feeling sad because Ransom had flown back east to teach, his first travel in over a year-and-a-half. I miss him and the dogs miss him, but of course we all know that he'll be home soon.

Not so for the families and friends and, in fact, the entire country as we ponder the events of twenty years ago, September 11, 2001. I started my day by watching TV, something that is extremely rare for me. Being on the west coast the ceremonies were well under way when I tuned in but I still experienced some very powerful moments. The reading of the names is always poignant and I was struck how many of the dead were young. I myself was 52 when the towers fell; many of the victims were quite a bit younger,

I watched the National Geographic's "One Day in America" series about 9/11 over the last few days and that too brought a lot of tears. I am not a TV junky so there were a lot of images I had never seen. Horrifying images. Brutal images.

I also watched a PBS Frontline episode about what the events of that day have meant over the last twenty years as the US has repeatedly gone to war to punish the terrorists or, supposedly, defend our country.

None of this is good news. I am, as the masthead proudly proclaims, a cynic. Frankly I don't see how anyone can be anything but a cynic when you consider the trajectory we've taken over the last twenty years, over the last forty years even. I am proud to be an American, but there is so much room for improvement!

Feeling sad

I took Ransom to the airport today — for the first time in nineteen months! So I am sad. I certainly would not have wished the pandemic on the world, but it did keep us together, 24/7, for over a year and a half. It was on February 5, 2020, that I drove Ransom to Hartford so he could fly out here for a Redlands Symphony gig. He came back on the 17th and we flew together to Alabama for his performance with the Tuscaloosa Symphony. No travel since then, none. Of course many people can tell the same story, but you have to understand how rare that is for us. For thirty-five years Ransom has traveled every month to a concert or recording or teaching gig somewhere. For the first fifteen years or so he would occasionally be gone six weeks at a time. The schedule eased up a bit over time, but there has never been nineteen months without travel — not even close.

The remarkable thing is we got through it all and even thrived. Yeah, there were spats and harsh words now and then, but our relationship is stronger than ever and that's why I miss him. The dogs miss him too.

But there's also good news about his travel: it took me four minutes to get him to the airport. I am not kidding or exaggerating: 4 minutes! Palm Springs is a small town; I'm guessing nothing is further than fifteen minutes away and the airport just happens to be on this side of town. Not too close to be a noise problem; just close enough to get there quickly. And this is the first time that's ever been true. In the city, in the Catskills, in Connecticut airport-transport was always an hour.

There's not much other news to report. We're in a holding pattern as the last of the paperwork for our loan gets sorted out; we're scheduled to close as soon as Ransom gets back next week, but we won't take possession til Oct 10 or so. Then it'll be a rush to get the new tile and bathrooms done and to schedule the furniture delivery from storage once the work is finished. We've extended our lease on this rental, so we have until Nov 14 to move out and in. With any luck we'll be cooking a Thanksgiving turkey in our new home. Anyone want to join us?

Finally, I want to start sharing some of what our life looks like here in Palm Springs. It won't be great because an iPhone just doesn't capture the vastness that is the California desert, but I'll give it a try. First then, a shot of some typical landscaping one sees all over. There's very little grass, but lots of plant life growing through the ubiquitous rocks and pebbles. The shot is taken at the entrance to our community.