Saturday, September 04, 2010


There are many of my friends who believe that Rosemary and I have too tight and a much too active involvement with our daughters and especially with our granddaughters. They believe we should be more detached and not as involved in their affairs.

I look at myself in the mirror when I think of these observations and cite to myself my lucky, early, long, wonderful and fun relationship with my maternal grandmother Dolores Reyes de Irureta Goyena. I have written about her at length in this blog and I do not believe I can add anything new except to stress that my present makeup, for better or for worse is due to her.

As my editorial photographic work has just about petered out and those who take photographic classes opt only for one basic digital camera course ( sort of: I will learn punctuation and sentence structure and then I can teach myself to write!) I find that I have much more time in my hands. So does my wife Rosemary who is unemployed and, like me, de facto retired.

This means that we spend time planning meals when we know the grandkids are going to visit and we put special care in planning the Saturday night and Monday night meals when their mother Hilary also shows up. We spend time figuring out what to do with the girls on Saturday during the day. Rosemary just renewed our VAG membership so we can take the girls to shows there. All in all our live is centred on Rebecca and Lauren.

Rosemary even spoke of taking Rebecca to Staples today to shop for last minute school supplies.

With all the above in mind I told Rosemary, “After I see the podiatrist ( I know suffer from plantar fasciitis) why don’t we drive to Mount Vernon, Washington and have a look at that 2005 Chevrolet Malibu Maxx?” I had already spoken with a salesman, Sean Rome and he was expecting us in the coming weeks.

So we drove to Mount Vernon, without the kids, all by ourselves and it was fun to do so.

Sean Rome was the perfect salesman. He was low key and we were instantly given keys to drive the Maxx and another candy red Malibu on our own. We were even able to drive the Maxx on the freeway were I was pleasantly surprised to find that the Maxx’s steering felt as tight as our Audi’s and its 200HP V-6 engine felt quite powerful but smooth. I liked the Maxx and the price at $7500 is really good. But Rosemary was bothered by nicks and scratches, particularly on the top part of the rear bumper. These scratches and nicks are caused by former owners unloading stuff from the car which happens to be a hatchback.

I left with a little pang of longing for a car that I really liked and that in some strange reason made me smile when I looked at it, exactly as I feel when I happen to look at Rosemary’s great big cat, Casa.

Who knows Rosemary might just change her mind and realize that the folks at Blade Chevrolet have yet to detail the car and those nicks and scratches will be gone pronto.

Meanwhile I will try to heed the warnings of my friends and find more things that Rosemary and I can do together without the involvement of our granddaughters and daughters. That could be as tough as deciding on a car.