and there are many paths to tread /through shadow / to the edge of night /until the stars are all alight

This new car thing is making me a little crazy. Last night I dreamed that it got stolen! Eek. In any case, I love my Xterra. Last night Nick dropped me off at the dealership after work and there it was, new tow hitch and everything. They put the tongue part of the hitch in the back…when I picked it up to inspect it, I realized how heavy it is! That is one solid piece of tube steel. 5,000 pounds of towing capacity, here I come! (Overkill, yes, but just think of the possibilities!) Anyway. My car now has the ability to tow not only my one sailboat, but about three and a half of them put together! This weekend I will probably go out and get one of those sturdy bike racks that goes into the hitch as well.

Oh, and I forgot to mention the coolest thing I have done in my car so far. On Sunday when Dad and I went to the Astros game, we parked in a grass lot right next to the curb. After the game, instead of having to back out carefully like I would have had to do in my Sentra, we just bump-bumped down off the curb. Yeah! SUVs are fun.

I’m feeling a bit better today. I got to the ballpark early last night after getting my car, about an hour before gametime. The Pirates were still taking batting practice and the crowd hadn’t started to fill in yet. The announcer hadn’t started his booming annoucing yet, and the roof was open. The weather was cool, the sun was warm, the breeze was blowing, and I felt good. I bought a program and read about Andy Pettitte. It may sound a bit strange, but it was really peaceful there, sitting in the upper deck mostly alone. Reading, watching the crowd down below, hearing the crack of the bat as the Pirates hit home runs in warmup. I was almost disappointed when the announcer came on to start the pre-game stuff (“Welcome Astros fans!…”).

But it was a good game. Andy Pettitte only pitched 5 innings in his second start since coming off the DL, but only gave up one run, and had eight strikeouts. The bullpen was a little shaky, but the offense provided enough to win the game 4-3. There were three home runs in the game, two in the first inning alone, and all in the 400-foot range. Long ones that went to or over the train tracks. Cool.

This morning I made the coolest Matlab movie ever! It shows a footprint progressing along a groundtrack, shown in red when it’s bad (i.e. over land) and yellow when it’s good (i.e. not over land). Ok, so it’s not the coolest ever, but I was pretty proud of myself.

And my new mp3 player (a cheap one bought from Amazon with the assistance of two bday gift certificates, thanks to you know who you are) came in the mail yesterday. I can run with music again! Yippy.