It is sad, but true. My 30+ year-old car is now held together with duct tape. White duct tape, with a little black gorilla tape to be added when I get the Saab back again (the gorilla tape is in the Saab's glove box.)

The Volvo started out its life in Colorado, land of snow and salted roadways. All things considered, I'm pretty lucky that the body has held up as long as it has. But now there's a pretty significant leak somewhere, and it doesn't take too much rain before the floor of the passenger side gets pretty wet. Today during yoga, I had an 'aha!' moment about the probable water path and tonight I've applied duct tape to the suspected problem.

You see, the body of the car has rusted pretty much through in spots on the passenger side in the area where the body is covered by the door. I suspect that the bottom of the door leaks as well, providing the initial stream of water. So I've covered that part of the car body in layers of duct tape. We'll see if the floor can stay dry now. If so, I'll look for a more durable solution.

Whee! I have glasses! (Again. I've had them since 3rd grade, but it's been about 18 years since the last pair.) Things in the distance look crisp and clear again. Things up close look twisted and distorted but that's a combination of 1) my brain learning how to 'see' with both eyes again and 2) the vagaries of age and nearsightedness.

Because of the way my eyes (one very nearsighted and one only needing slight correction) I've had "built-in" bifocals for years. My brain used one eye for distance sight, and one eye for reading. This has worked beautifully up until recently, when the 'reading' eye has started to slip into near-sightedness itself, and the 'long-distance' eye is getting fuzzy as well.

A couple of years ago I tried getting prescription reading glasses, and that didn't wind up working well. (See previous note about eyes not knowing how to work well together.) Ultimately, I resorted to the over-the-counter drugstore glasses for reading and that has done just fine. Until recently.

I found that with my 'good' eye starting to fade, I wanted glasses again to correct my distance vision, and after a journey that has taken two months(!) to complete, I have them. It's lovely.

The interesting twist to the story is that my generic reading glasses work beautifully with the new distance glasses.... except that they're both in 'glasses' form. I'm wearing two frames even as I type this. This is a classic 'engineering' look, but probably will not play well in the classroom. Looks like contacts are in my not-too-distant future.

Had a more or less "free" evening last night. I wasted it.

Just got back from the wedding of a dear friend's daughter (the daughter is pretty dear to us as well, of course). Besides having a wonderful time visiting with people that I don't often get to see any more, I also discovered that Cleveland is actually a much nicer place than my initial visit a few years ago had lead me to believe.

Glenn Research Center has always been on the list of places to check out once my Masters is done, but it has risen sharply up the scale of desirable places. Sister Number 4 might actually get a visit if I moved that close, and I've already mentioned the existence of dear friends that have already moved east themselves.

The only major drawback that I can see at this point is the winter. They have the potential for snow over about six months of the year. A snow bunny, I'm not. This will take some consideration...