11/09/10 ALL BEER CANS AND PLASTIC BOTTLES

FOG OVER THE CHANNEL
MIGRATING TUNDRA SWANS
WHAT $2,612.72 WORTH OF DAMAGE LOOKS LIKE

Tuesday, 8:15 AM. 47 degrees, wind N, calm. The sky is completely cloudless and there is considerable fog over the channel, but it is rapidly dissipating. The barometer predicts mostly sunny skies.
A large flock of over 100 migrating tundra swans were on the bay at Ashland yesterday, about half of them young of the year.
Well, I got an estimate on the repair of my Chevy truck…$2,612. 72; the damage didn’t seem bad until all the bits and pieces were added up. You will recall that I hit a deer. I shouldn’t have been surprised, as friend Myron’s repair bill on his little Pontiac Vibe last year was $2,000 and change. He hit a dog. Why these great expenses? Because the grill, lights and everything else at the front of the vehicle is not real, only an illusion, sort of an automotive holograph. Looks nice sitting there behind a bumper that can’t “bump” anything (why not call it a “nose,” like in “I broke my nose”). These vehicles ride nice, are pretty, have plenty of power, but it’s mostly for show. Kind of makes sense, since GM is owned by the US Government, which we are finding out is also quite a show (think of the Broadway musical “It’s a Grand Old Flag,” with Jimmy Cagney and a cast of too many thousands singing feel-good songs as the Doughboys die in the trenches). Perhaps I am being too tough on old General Motors, as I suspect the other makes are all just as bad, all of them putting vehicles together with bubble gum and paper clips. But GM is a special case, since you and I own it.
Remember the ‘60’s song, “Little boxes, little boxes…all made out of ticky-tacky”? I never did know what “ticky-tacky” was exactly, but the body-shop guy hit it on the “nose” with “…all made out of beer cans and plastic bottles.”
If, as I suspect, my shiny truck is a metaphor for our society and the economy, buckle your seat belt and hang onto the wheel, we’re in for a long, bumpy ride.