A Boy and His BMW

I’ve been going through the cedar chests, pulling out a few things to use at the wedding and organizing what’s inside of them, and I ran across this picture:

This is the husband, sometime in 1988-ish, with his 5-series BMW. To say that he loved that car more than anything else is an understatement. His best friend, Michael—who had been his college roommate all four years and was a gifted writer—once penned a story about the husband and his BMW. A copy of that story is also in the cedar chest. Reading it makes me laugh. because it’s so accurate. (Michael is no longer with us, which also makes that story bittersweet.) There is a line in the story where Michael notes that the husband said to him that if he ever got hurt and needed to go to the hospital, Michael should let him die rather than try to drive the BMW. (It was a manual.) We were all allowed to ride in it, but no one else—not even me, the girlfriend or Michael, the best friend—was allowed to drive it.

The husband worked for a while as the parts manager for a body shop in Baltimore that specialized in foreign cars. He knows cars (and trucks) inside and out, but I am sure that my BMW is quite different from the one in this picture. Mine has a computer, and the computer told me this week that it is time for service. When the supplies he ordered get here, he’s going to change the oil and do scheduled maintenance on it.

We also had to order a new wheel badge for one of the hubcaps on my station wagon, because I either lost one or—more likely—someone pried one off as a souvenir. (One of the hazards of driving a car like that in a big city.) They come in packs of four, so I’ll have a spare if it happens again.

I need to pick up a frame for this picture and hang it up here in my office. He has my “senior pic” photo from college hanging downstairs in his office.

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I found a 60% off coupon in my Joanns e-mail yesterday, so I ordered more of that insulated curtain fabric, enough to do the rest of the windows, but just before bedtime, I got a notification that the order had been canceled. Joann Fabrics’ entire computer system has some serious glitches. It’s possible the store didn’t have as much in stock as the website said they did. I’ll have to stop in there today and see what happened. Unfortunately, the coupon is only valid if you order online and pick up in the store.

We dug up the potatoes yesterday afternoon and got a respectable haul, mostly Classic Russets. There were only a few Butter Reds, which are my favorites. We’ll have to get fresh seed potatoes next spring. Elysian has been coming by every day to get tomatoes. I have a nice tray of lettuce in the greenhouse; I transplanted some to the garden but it was getting munched on by turkeys and/or ground squirrels, so I gave up.

We’re right on schedule for pre-wedding preps. Now I just need to clean the house from top to bottom.