As much as I’ve allowed myself to be stressed out during the first week of the new year, things aren’t nearly as bad yet as they will be later in the month. That’s a wonderfully comforting thought, isn’t it? I’ll pay later on for any time I waste now, but why shouldn’t I take it as easy as possible while I can? A rough patch is coming, and there’s only so much I can do to smooth the way. Maybe it’s a better idea to store up my resources by chilling out.

The mini-vacation I planned for myself today didn’t work out as I’d hoped, though. I made the appointment at the Saturn dealer for mid-morning and took my Kindle with me, prepared to sit and wait and read for a couple of uninterrupted hours away from the awful phone. Sadly, it only took them about forty minutes to service and smog my car, and I was back on the road. Which meant, back home. And back to work.

And I probably should have engaged the other people in the waiting room anyway, rather than burying myself in the Kindle. They were certainly a chatty bunch, and I’m sure they would have been fun to talk to. Plus, they were all even older than I am, which is always nice. It makes me feel as if there might be some good years ahead of me after all.

Anyway, my car passed the smog check, and now I can renew my license, which expires in a week. The reason I get the smog certification done at the dealer, which charges more than your average station for the same service, is that the company pays for any work I have done there. The other reason is that every time I go in there, they wash the car before I leave, and boy, did it need it. Even though there hasn’t been a lot of rain, there’s been just enough to keep my driveway constantly muddy for the last month or more.