er... three posts in a day?

i blame norma. she didn't have enough posts to keep me busy.

i saw a cnn link, Sobbing as my old car was towed away (actual link text--not my words), and my thought was... is this abnormal?

i know it's easy to associate this reaction to materialism, but it's really more about emotion, sentimentality. if it were about materialism, she would probably have been more excited about the new car than sad about the old car (upgrade!).

when my family's first car (a yellow pinto, post-blowup redesign) had some misalignment or slippage in the steering column (i don't know... i was probably 6 or 7 when this happened), we sold it for $95 (or $75; i'm not sure), and i hid in my room and cried as it was towed away, refusing to watch. this one i remember. the one i don't remember is crying when they cut down "my" tree (the tree outside my bedroom window. we lived in an apartment, so it was never even "my" tree to begin with).

up until read this article, it never occurred to me that anybody could find this strange or materialistic. overly sappy, maybe, but not strange. it's like taking away a child's safety blanket or favorite stuffed animal. the loss is akin to losing a friend.

don't believe me? try throwing away a child's blanket or stuffed animal and replacing it with one that is exactly. the. same. try it. you deal with the tears.

***

an aside: the photo caption says "Psychologists say it's common for an object to feel like it's become a part of you."

umm... i'm pretty sure that when the object is inanimate, it's uncommon for the object to feel... well, anything.

yes, i know it's a "proper" use of the word... but the ambiguity makes it hilarious.

***

once in a while, there will be the sound of large vehicles in reverse outside my bedroom window in the morning. most of the time, it's the truck that picks up our trash compactor, takes it away, and then brings it back, empty. normally, this takes two, maybe three sessions of reversing, so even if i'm awakened, it's not a huge deal. a few months ago, it once took a guy AN HOUR to take it away. i was quite unhappy with the disturbance (all i wanted was 15 more minutes!). he was bringing it back when i was leaving for work, so i got the hell outta there. no way i wanna get stuck in *that* fiasco.

this morning, we had a bit of a repeat. this time, the beeps only lasted for a three or four seconds, but there were also only three or for seconds between beep sessions (beep-beep-beep, rest, rest, rest, beep-beep-beep. you get the idea).

after it became clear that there was no way i'd be able to get back to sleep, i stumbled out to the living room and looked out the balcony to see if someone was taking away the compactor again. nada. it was also quieter in the living room, so i went back to the bedroom, looked out the window, and saw a caterpillar something-or-other (it looked like a compactor or a dozer, but maybe a mini-one? i'm not an equipment specialist; i don't know) going over the same bit of ground over and over. is the beeping really necessary in this situation?

and this isn't just me being selfish. the whole time, i was wondering how the kids could focus (i live across the street from an elementary school), especially since it was closer to them than it was to me.

okay, me being peeved about the whole thing has everything to do with me being selfish. but that doesn't stop me from wondering about it.

is it a good idea to bring in the heavy machinery while the kids are in school?

***

i seem to have angered blogger. apparently all my posts were written at 2:45 pm. and zero seconds.

again, i didn't do it.