There’s forward progress on several fronts at Lockardugan Industries, much of which I’ll be keeping under wraps until the contracts are signed and the checks are cashed. As I’ve gotten older, I find I’m more superstitious about good news until long after it’s proven itself out, for fear of someone or something suddenly snatching it away from me with no advance warning. I think overall I’ve had a very lucky experience on this earth, but I’m still careful not to tempt fate, spit in the eye of karma, or bring bad juju on myself by jinxing good fortune before it arrives. At the risk of fucking things up, I’ll share the following with you:

The hot, sticky weather has lifted itself from the Baltimore region, leaving a balmy 81° sunshine in its place, which demanded a ride in the beast this morning. Plans are afoot to go on a recovery mission with several Scout friends to salvage a derelict and a huge cache of parts this Sunday; there will be trailering, jacking, lifting, and towing involved, and it should be loads of fun. I will, hopefully, walk away with a clean rear bench seat, a clean windshield frame, salvageable inner fenders, and a few other assorted goodies, which makes me happy.

In other vehicle news, we did some further research into the Cash for Clunkers program, comparing it with buying a comparable used vehicle off the lot at Carmax, and found that buying used was indeed cheaper, even factoring in a $4500 check from the gub’mint. Because I have an account with USAA (thanks, baby), we can get a great loan rate, and in addition to a chunk of money at signing, I think we can finagle a monthly payment of around $200 for a slightly used four-door 4WD baby-hauling vehicle. My new target is the CRX/RAV4-sized class, where we can fit more than a breadbasket in the cargo hold and have two (that’s right, two) children in the rear seats. Gas mileage won’t be on par with the Fit, but maybe we can get one of those as a replacement for the Saturn. Saturday afternoon, we’re planning to do some test driving to see how we like the available choices.