Quickly

I've worked hard before, but never with so much determined focus.  The degree to which the car distracted me was made clear by how much I've been able to buckle down, even though I frequently take longer to read things than I would like to, longer to chimp out a paper than I feel I need to.  The next couple of weeks will see a mountain of work that I've already scaled significant parts of, and I'll be grateful to see Friday, December 17th, at which time all of my finals will be done, and (with luck) my economics paper will be nearly finished, if not already completed.

I've made peace with the financial stress of school, but in so doing it has revealed another unexpected feeling: I am reluctantly spending loaned money and feel much better with the idea that I actually created some of my still-small surplus by selling the car.  I didn't actually create any wealth; I merely converted the durable good into income at a price less than its market value, feeling that the extra $1000 that might have resulted from higher pricing or a delay would not have been worth repeated trips to Buffalo (which I didn't and don't have time for) or the prospect of a snowstorm undoing the proper testing of the car (which still hasn't hit - a twenty-minute snow flurry yesterday is all that's really happened yet this year and even that melted away to reveal the still-green grass).  I was able to trust my gut, and again have it work - even letting the father of the buyer take the car for a spin while I waited in their home, talking on the phone to his son, who agreed to buy the car sight unseen on his father's recommendation.  The driver could have vanished, but he didn't, just like so many people that we trust could betray it, but don't.  It's a big small thing.

I woke up seven hours ago and with this writing exception, all that I've done is research for a group accounting project, get my portion of a paper completed for a group information-systems project, and have begun plowing through readings for tomorrow's classes, with a quick resume review needed as I have a strategy session at 5:30pm tomorrow for that.  I've never stared at a computer screen so much in my life, but I'm doing much more than staring: though the research, the note-taking that has resulted in an incredible pile of used scratch paper in the "den", I've had great focus, so much so that when I looked to my right and out the window a few minutes ago, I was again reminded that yes, I'm in a new city in a new country.

The view has become very familiar, but I think I'll always be an outsider, or rather, will never forget where I came from.  And that's a very, very good thing.

Fare thee well, fair Sally!

Though the prospect saddened me yesterday, I gratefully sold Sally the Subaru today (so named by Jen) to her first suitor in the greater Buffalo area.  I met with Bill, whose son Tim was intersted in it, and everything went far better than I could have expected.  Bill is the kind of conservative you don't see on television these days, someone eminently sensible and simply great to chew the fat with. He even drove me to the bus station and gave me a rundown of the run-down that is much of Buffalo, as "our recession hit about 30 years ago" when giants such as Bethlehem Steel saw their fortunes undone by global competition.

When I pulled up to their sleepy hamlet and saw another silver Subaru in the driveway, the good sense I had about it was reinforced.  It's good to know that yes, there are still limitless opportunities to find good people, no matter how brief the meeting may be, for a particular extended moment in time.

I'm on the Greyhound bus as I type, as yet another innovation takes hold, that of onboard WiFi.  I hope they're turning a profit with it, but regardless, I am a current beneficiary, and I only spent 20 dollars (!) on a one-way ticket from Buffalo to Toronto.  The things I've had to spend that much on in my new home for something that only provides a fraction of the utility...then again, maybe this is another reminder that yes, utility abounds for those who know where to find it.

I was apprehensive in a big-picture way yesterday: with the car now in the care of a new owner, my family is now fully committed to T.O. residence, come what may.  No "screw this, we're taking the cats and high-tailing it out of here" is an option now, like it would have been even if we might have been down to our last dollar at some point.  That last dollar is now a good distance further away with the sale of the car, though, and the freedom from gas that costs nearly $1.10 a liter, car payments of over $400 a month, car insurance that would have likely exceeded $400 a month - all of that is officially a thing of the past.

Amazing how car culture seeps into your pores, makes you think that you're at a disadvantage without one.  The car was wonderful, did everything I asked it to, and more; after all, the main reason I got it was to be able to court my girl, who at that time was a 30-40 minute drive away with scant public transportation options.  Now, of course, we live under the same roof, and without a car, I can focus that much more on my family and the challenge of my MBA responsibilities.

Back to work, onto the next challenge... and as the QEW traffic clog reminds me that I'm once again close to home, I again give thanks for the blessings I've been given, which I live every day.