(friendswood) bye bye jetta and other suburban vignettes

so i took it back. i decided to get a prius in seaside blue instead. against my own better judgement, i opted for leather seats, despite the incongruity of the vegetarian driving around in an all-cow interior. and against justin's advice, i also opted to get this thing fully loaded, figuring that if i'm going to splurge, i might as well get everything i think i'll use. it was actually justin's final words, "well i'm glad you're getting more or less the car you want" that made me change my mind and pay the extra (too much) money for the onboard navigation and bluetooth phone option. it is due to arrive in 4-6 months. sad that people who want to do their part for the environment have to pay so much extra money and wait for half a year to get their car, while if i wanted to buy a huge duelie or a tricked out hummer, i could get it today. sigh.

tonight is the final presidential debate. i woke up this morning thinking about how different the world will be depending on who gets elected, and once again how anachronistic our electoral system is. i wonder what it would take to completely revamp the voting system in this country. catastrophe or an act of conscious will?

on a more local front, i decided on sunday morning that my driveway needed to be cleaned up after the tornado mess. my saturday walk had aggravated my irritation with nefarious leafblowers as i walked by a neighbor happily and cluelessly blowing away (before 8am on a saturday). i was glad this guy lives on the other side of the block. determined in my anti-leafblowerness, i decided to put my muscle where my judgmental thoughts were and sweep my driveway with my pushbroom. how many times had i thought, "how hard can it be to sweep your driveway the old-fashioned way?" well, it turns out it's pretty hard. especially if you have a big pebbled-cement driveway like mine with lots of little tree-berries and pine needles. and ants. oh, the ants. if you've never been to texas, you should know about the ants. you see, houston has little to offer in the way of natural beauty, but one thing it does have is beautiful, gorgeous, thick, luscious, delicious-looking grass - fields and fields of it - that makes you think of running barefoot through it and lying on it to watch the sky (another great thing about texas). but beware. the grass is only there to taunt you. never ever walk or stand barefoot in it. neither wear sandals while doing yardwork. the ants will get you. before you realize what's happening, your foot is covered and they all start biting at once. sandals are the worst in this case because you have to spend the extra time ripping your shoe off to stop the pain. then you have days of swelling and itching. aye, lassie, avoid the grass.