Will brake for change...?

Slowly but surely I have been learning how to drive my "new," post-totalled-Prizm car, a 1994 Nissan Altima with a manual transmission. I am not good at it. I don't stall too much anymore - I just sound now, as Ruth says, "as if you want to drag-race everyone at every stoplight." I'm working on it.

The hand-brake is my friend, both for parking and on hills. Somewhat disturbingly, however, there have been a number times when I've released the brake when the brake-light has not turned off so that I've had to repeatedly brake and un-brake in an effort to fully release it.

As I cleaned out my car this afternoon, attacking it with a shop-vac, I discovered what appears to be the reason. Upwards of $2.05 in loose change - an assortment of nickles, dimes, and a few quarters (no pennies) - was rattling around in the handbrake casing, lodging itself in various tight spots. $2.05 is all that I have managed to recover so far - I think there's still around a dollar in there, but I can't reach any of it at present. I did get the particular dime that seems to have been causing the problems out of the way, though. I wasn't able to remove it - but I haven't stopped trying.

How did it get there? Visions of someone emptying a change jar into the handbrake well... Doesn't seem possible. Probable, rather.

(That $2.05, plus the $.50-or-so that Kate and I came across when we first cleaned the car, plus the $.37 I found cleaning the rest of the car today means that I really bought the car for only $97.08...and counting...)

In other news, I am one step closer to Rome - I received in the mail today the letter from the Apostolic Nuncio confirming Bishop Mengeling's letter presenting me to the Angelicum. So far, so good...

June First

It is June first and I am no longer employed by Ave Maria College. An odd feeling. Racing and racing until the end to get everything done, not getting everything done (though getting most of it most of the way there), and now a strange sensation of floating...not euphoria, but more like a kite after the string has been cut, or like Wile E. Coyote when he finds himself beyond the edge of the cliff, hanging for a second.

What

comes

next

...?

In my case, Detroit Summer Outreach with YouthWorks-Detroit is the immediate answer. I would be down there right now, but Janice needs space to move into my room with Ruth, so my stuff must be packed and removed. It is taking a bit longer than I thought, I think. I am making progress, though - I've boxed up eleven cartons of books and at least five of other things, all of which are right now down in the room that was April's and will be Charity's. I am planning to be down in Detroit for our first prayer meeting - tonight at 8 p.m.