...and then I saw the Jag slide into the curve.

[ehowton]

When I was stationed in England, I was assigned to the Joint Analysis Center at Royal Air Force (RAF) Molesworth. However, as this was an old Ground Launch Cruise Missile base, there were no support facilities, nor billeting there, so we lived 10-miles away on RAF Alconbury. Most people took the A14 (nearly double the miles) because it was a wide, modern road (hence the 'A' designation). But not I.

The B660 was a narrow, secondary road (the more numbers in the alphanumeric, the more 'secondary' the road), winding through rural villages and chock full of scenery. Most of the road, however, was a twisty thing through huge fields of agriculture. The road was so narrow, and the turns so sharp, and the vegetation so high, that it was like driving through a walled corridor - you couldn't see anything around the bends. Many servicemen new to the area often drove their car straight off into a ditch, then never took the road again. Though I never had a mishap, I admit, it took me months to learn how to navigate the slalom effectively. What used to take me half an hour to drive, over time, I had down to about fifteen minutes. Those familiar with Stephen King's short story Mrs. Todd's Shortcut from Skeleton Crew know exactly what I'm talking about.

I was driving a 1976 Jaguar 3.4 GT Cabriolet. A very large car for its time, especially on those narrow rural roads. Once, I made a turn at speed around one of the blind corners and hit the brakes - hard. A flock of sheep was taking up the entire road, with a lone herdsman in the center. He was hollering at the sheep and they parted and made their way around me - the car gently rocking as we were bumped on all sides. Another time, the largest pig I've ever seen was blocking the road, and no amount of horn was getting it to move. Fortunately, I had with me a girl who grew up in San Antonio. She said to me, "I know how to handle this," as she exited the vehicle. She approached the sow, and yelled, "SUEY!" as she slapped that pig right on its rump. That was good for about five steps. She repeated the process for an eighth of a mile or so until we found the farm it belonged to.

My car was fast, I was young and overseas. What a feeling of freedom.

I drive a Cavalier these days, and I'm back in my home state, but Mantua road from the exit off 75 to the Elementary School, reminds me an awful lot of B660. I keep it at 40mph, but if you see my little white car with the black bra hugging the turns, you know why.

Comments

[ehowton.livejournal.com]

Why thank you. And it sounds like you've got it all planned out. Hell man, I don't know what I'm doing tomorrow! Best of luck on reaching your goals. The Jag was nice.

[schpydurx.livejournal.com]

How you make it out of your front door and back home without killing yourself is one of the seven wonders of the world.

[ehowton.livejournal.com]

Just wait until you get here. We'll go for a ride you'll never forget. Ask danzigfried if you're unsure.

[schpydurx.livejournal.com]

d00d, I'm straight. That means that I don't fuck or get fucked by other d00ds.

Thank you for your patience concerning this issue.

[ehowton.livejournal.com]

Thank you for that information. I'll take it under advisement.

[leonardii.livejournal.com]

Nice!? Hell man, that luxurious motor vehicle was not nice.

It was heavenly, stellar, and ultimately sensational! At least through mine own eyes.

[ehowton.livejournal.com]

From Crazy People:
Jaguar: Like getting a hand job from a beautiful woman you hardly know.

[leonardii.livejournal.com]

Yeah, well... that does sound quite nice.

[leonardii.livejournal.com]

Plans are great. They keep us from just aimlessly wandering the earth.

Unless of course, you're Kane from "Kung-Fu," then you really don't have any business just wandering the earth.

Plans give us goals. Goals give us benchmarks. Reaching a benchmark brings us happiness that our plans are working.

When a certain amount of benchmarks are reached - then those step by step goals are accomplished, which again... bring us even more happiness.

If I've learned anything from living - it's that life moves fast. So fast in fact, that we find ourselves at ages that we didn't dream of ages ago... but suddenly we've arrived. If we don't plan for our future, nobody else is going to do it for us.

That is why in my posts, I keep harping about the new changing economy and how it will affect us. I would like for us all to really help each other - in all ways possible. This way, when that benchmark age suddenly hits you - and you realize that your savings account is not as fat as you would have liked it to be... it's not too late to take measures to start making a residual income that could fatten our treasuries for not only our own future - but more importantly, for our children.

I hope you've heard of Upromise. If not, it's another program that should raise your interest. It's free to enroll, and you just buy certain things... like groceries with a clearly marked blue label on the product that says "Upromise Certified." There is also a toolbar that you can download (unfortunately, it only works on IE) that you can use as a starting point for making online purchases. From that starting point, Upromise will tell you how much percentage you will get that will be put into your Upromise account, which then you can open up a College Savings 529 plan (again, for free) to dump these small collections of monies and you can pick and choose the mutual funds, or individual stocks that you want to put in your 529 portfolio. You can manage it directly online, changing it at will. Jessica has already made over $56 in growth from the mutual funds that I selected for her account (from just two quarters).

If you don't know what I'm talking about - research it... for your children's sake, please research it. You can register your visa and/or mastercards and/or Discover cards, and along with your banking visa checkcards and your grocery shopping "reward" cards - the funds automatically are put into your Upromise account each time you purchase groceries, or gas (from certain stations like Exxon), or when you dine out at certain restaurants. Again, we are talking about free money. You can also get your parents (or other friends/family members) to sign up their own Upromise account and set it up to where their funds go straight into your account. I've got Mom and all her credit cards and grocery cards enrolled, and I get about .50 cents to $3 dollars per quarter forwarded to my Upromise account. Right now Jessica is my only child, so she is the only beneficiary. But if you have more than one child - you can split the funds evenly or however you choose among all of your children or just one child in particular.

And of course, you can setup monthly allotments (I think the minimum is $50 per month) to go directly to the 529 college savings account. We've got that setup as well, so each month her account just grows and grows... and we're letting the power of compound interest work its magic on her savings - so whcn she does become of the age to attend college, she can use all the funds tax free... as long as they are used for legitimate college expenses. These expenses of course can be books, tuition, lodging, meals, etc. Anything college related.

It's just a great way to start saving money for your children to get into college. If you've already got a 529 account already established... it only takes a few keystrokes to link your Upromise account to the 529 account. I love it. Free money. I love free money.

So - let's help each other. If you've got info you want to share, please do. You know I have no problem sharing my financial endeavors. It's nothing secret. It's all out there on the internet.