Six Years!

Brain Squeezings turns six today!

I haven't marked too many of the anniversaries of the site's inception, but this year it seems appropriate. After all, one of the several reasons I started blogging in the first place was to help assuage the grief and pain attending dissolution of my first marriage. It, and the people who've read and commented along the way, have indeed helped me, beyond my wildest dreams of success. Amy, beloved wife of mine, I'm looking at you. :-D

Along the way I've made a few new friends; lost a few friends; done a fair amount of dating; learned a little about beer; got fired and hired; moved; held forth on subjects from parenthood to webcomics to technology to politics to wine; killed a pair of cars; and even, this blessed spring, managed to remarry, and this time it's going to stick.

(Yes, yes, I know there hasn't been an actual wedding post yet, but since getting back from the honeymoon there's been more than a little bit of drama to our lives, and it's only mostly been from the Altima's terminal wreck. More detail [and wedding photos!] to come.)

Leading the bloggèd life (even if Brain Squeezings's posting frequency has varied wildly with my mercurial need to opine before the world) has been a cleansing, eye-opening, educational experience, and an enriching one as well. I can't wait to see what the next six years of Squeezings will bring.

Thanks to all my readers, past and present, for hanging with me through whatever part of this journey you've hung through. I'm a happier, healthier person for having undertaken this little exercise, and it's largely because I've had great people out there reading, commenting and sharing the ride.

(Lifts a glass of Sangiovese)

Prost!

-Rich

The Mercury Mystique, Long May She Drive

Meet the new addition to the Miller family. A silver 1999 Mercury Mystique, acquired through a friend of my new parents-in-law. It's the little sister to the Mercury Sable/Ford Taurus: sturdy, reliable, but at nearly eight years old, rather lived-in. It came with a few quirks: no radio; only a valet key (unable to unlock the car's doors); some trim damage inside the car (and lots of dust and "age patina").

Still, for $2,500, not too shabby for being paid for. A trip to the local Mercury dealership, a locksmith, my local Circuit City and an inside-and-out car wash, and the car's looking presentable and behaving well.

It's also the V-6 "sport" version of the Mystique, which is surprisingly zippy, and since it's a late-'90s American car, it's still got enough heft that I'd feel safe in another crash. Amenities are good, too: power windows and locks, AM/FM/CD/iPod/Aux sound (now), air conditioning, sun roof.

It's also got some goofy faux-woodgrain panels on the dashboard. Since the steering wheel was looking fairly ratty (you know that beaten-up look that softer steering wheels get after a few years), I found one of those cheapo steering wheel covers at Wal-mart that was a great shade of black "leather" and an exactly matching hi-gloss faux woodgrain pattern. Stylin' now!

Anyway, I'm nearly entirely mended from my little brush with automotive disaster: aside from some remaining tenderness in the form of an upper-shin bruise and stiffness in my right shoulder and neck, I'm approaching 100%.

Coming this weekend: moving hijinks, as space for Amy's stuff is made among mine!

-Rich