Cars, boats, and.... Onions

Another long and (as it turned out) tiring day. 

You recall that we spent Tuesday afternoon in the Hyundai place, and eventually moved (jabbed by MFO to “quit waffling! just go ahead and do it!!”) to begin filling out paperwork.  I had a meeting at six, and so had self imposed a deadline of leaving by five.  Tick, tock, as we madly signed this and that, worked out about the trade in of FlutterMobile One (FM I), signed some more stuff and finally wrapped up at about five before the witching hour.  We mutually decided we would bring the down payment check when we picked up the car (Thursday as the salesman had Wednesday off) and also because we had to transfer some funds to cover it.  Fine, congratulations Mr. Moody you have a new car!  So I moved to leave, and headed toward FM I to hasten to the meeting.  Salesman:  “Um, where do you think you’re going?”  well, I was going to drive home and get ready for the meeting.  “Well, technically you don’t own that car anymore”.  Uh Oh, as the light bulb slowly illuminated over my head…. “your new Genesis won’t be ready for delivery until Thursday as we agreed, and we would prefer you don’t drive it anymore”  He did graciously offer a loaner (A new Veracruz) until Thursday at their expense.  Okay.  “Is there anything in the (FM I) you would like to get?”  well, yes – dark glasses, phone charger, base badges,  etc., “okay you can get those and we’ll just keep the car until Thursday when you bring the check and get the Hyundai”.  Now lest anybody is under the impression that removing said glasses etc., “cleaned out the car” you don’t know the Feeder very well.  Most of the time it looks almost like it is lived in with multiple empty water bottles here and there, god knows what in the recesses of the trunk and console, and so forth.

So yesterday after a nice coffee with the “Thursday buddy” at Starbucks, I piddled around until one o’clock came and headed to the dealer in the loaner (don’t EVER look at a Veracruz, by the way) with the hefty down payment.  The kind salesman had moved my new car into the showroom for the “fam tour” so as not to bake outside.  I may have mentioned before that they don’t move many Genesis models down here, and hence he was a little unfamiliar with some of the features not common with the lower priced models which are popular here, like most of the Genesis's Nav System.  “I’m not sure” was used in the lesson quite a bit, although he successfully did the Bluetooth Dance with the Droid.  He was very honest about it, and I don’t really hold it against him.  It did, however leave me with a stack of owner’s manuals the size of the Gutenberg bible, and probably about as incomprehensible.  The car has a lot of “gee, whiz!” features, heated and cooled driver’s seats, reactive cruise controls, a little sun shade for the rear window that goes up and down as needed, automatic rain sensitive windshield wipers (whatever that turns out to be), headlights that lead you around the curve, push button start, keyless entry, and others too numerous to mention.  Probably those readers who already have “luxury” cars are familiar.   Anyway with the tour completed, it was time to wish the FM I a goodbye (not quite as tearful as the MOMSTER I).  So I mined here and there and hopefully got everything removed.

(Last known picture of the Flutter Mobile)

Finally drove the Genesis out of the lot being veeerrrryyyyy careful (funny how new cars turn you timid) and brought it home to the safety of the garage.  Maybe I’ll just leave it there.  I spent some time this morning playing with the Nav stuff and learned how to call by voice command, saying “Channel 76” and have the XM move to Symphony Hall on its own, play a little with the maps and so on.  Then I drove it down to HSMC to pick up some glasses for my Scotch class for our tour group next week, and the car is really sweet.  All 4.6 liters and 8 cylinders do their job well.  One little feature I tried which I though “why did they put that in there” is called something like temporary hold.  You push this little button to activate it, and next time you get to that red light and fully stop, you can take your foot off the brake pedal (such as to catch up on text messages) and the car WON’T MOVE until you hit the gas.  Anyway here, in all it’s complicated wonderfulness is FlutterMobile II

And a little peek at the plush driver’s station (no aviation terms for me), and yes, the steering wheel is "upside down"

Oignons....

So last night secure in the knowledge that the car was safely nestled in the garage next to its bigger sister, MOMSTER II, I decided to cook something nice while MFO attended a little lecture up in Prince Frederick.  I was going to prepare (my adaptation of) a rice soubise, to go with the grilled/smoked pork chops.  The chops were smoking nicely (almost didn’t need any charcoal last night), and when she called and said she was leaving for home, I got out the onions to dice them up for the rice dish.  Now, I could just not say anything, but in my policy of full disclosure, my normally excellent knife skills were a little lacking last night, with the result that after a late night trip to the emergency room to stem the tide of blood (no stitches, looked worse than it actually was), this morning my hand looked like this

Be more careful, feeder.

Oh for those of you wondering, here’s a shot (an increasingly tempting word) of the ducks terrified at the specter of the “pool toys”.

"Why yes, Daphne, I do feel like a dip. Besides, I have to take a dump"

Anyway, last night, dinner resulted in a different mode of

DFD 

 +++++++++++++

PS this season’s edition of the St. Mary’s College River Concerts start this evening at 8pm, and hour later than usual..

Bonus – a shot of the Kalmar Nyckel, who is visiting this weekend