The Auto Wars, Pt. II

I don’t know what it is. I don’t run over blue-haired old ladies, don’t cheat on girlfriends, don’t lie to my friends, or kick homeless people on the street.
Despite my many positive values, it appears my karma has taken a turn for the negative. Once again, my car has decided to cost me muchas dinero, bringing the tally in the past two months to a wallet-burning $3,100. So no tropical vacation for me this year; I’m going to Taco Bell instead of Mexico.
In an ironic twist of fate, or maybe just the Almighty’s idea of amusement, the fuel pump in my 4Runner decided to pack it on on Jan. 24, which is, as it’s been much-publicized, the most depressing day of the year. Some IB nerd (Hey Ilka and Hedy ;) calculated some complex formula, taking into account weather, credit card bills, and other esoteric information, to come up with Jan. 24.
Well, I can’t exactly disagree with him.
I wasn’t in the most cheerful of moods, as I had just watched — for the second time — Schindler’s List. And, ironically, I watched it the day before the 60th anniversary of the Auschwitz death camp liberation by allied forces.
Now, being of jewish descent, I have some sensitivity to the subject, and yes, I even got a little teary-eyed at the end of the movie.
And today, I learned some interesting things about Oskar Schindler, the German industrialist who spent his fortune to save more than 1,000 jews from death at the hands of the Nazis. He actually spied on the Czechs for Germany, and never actually wrote the famous ‘list’ that was in the movie. He was in jail at the time, and only made a suggestion as to who should be on there.
After the war ended, Schindler became an alcoholic, and pawned the gold ring the Jews gave him after the war, which was inscribed with a verse from the Talmud: “He who saves a single life saves the entire world.”
But in the end equation, he was still the man who sacrificed everything he had to save the lives of people he had no allegiance to.
Anyways, enough of that.
Nothing else is happening here in Crackerville, except for the snow melting slowly, and temperatures (gasp) climbing above zero on a regular basis. I thought I would post another Gratuitous Antler Hat pic, though if you can believe it, it’s actually from a different day than my Xmas pic.
My girlfriend (My dad calls her Harvey, for some convoluted reason I still don’t understand), isn’t much for pictures. If you look at my left hand, I’m actually holding her neck in a white-knuckle grip to make sure she doesn’t take off.
Naw, just kidding.
Maybe.

ImPregnant
Originally uploaded by smoove_J.

You see the red eyes? That's not camera flash ... she's evil... ;)