One car

I added up the cost of our Smart Car in 2024 and it came out to $7,362.34.

There is no reason to think that something else major might happen. Clearly the parts are deteriorating. We have two cars with about the same mileage, 90ish thousand miles.

The Smart Car has four new tires and the wheels are aligned. So that should last a couple or three years. I really only use the Smart Car to go to the store (1 mile away), to pickleball (21 miles), and to the Ranch (32 miles). That works out to about 250 miles a week, one thousand a month.

Probably a bit more.

I've always thought that we might go down to one car if one of them dies. It would have to be the Rav 4 which seems to me to be such a huge hunk of metal. But it is better on the highway and for longer distances so it has to be the default vehicle, or one like it.

So the big q is how much to spend on the Smart Car? Having just spent $7k I'd like to keep it on the road for a couple of more years, amortize the repairs. I'm still getting 40 mpg or so which would work out to under $900 in gas. If I don't have to spend anything else for two years that would be about right for average cost of operating a vehicle.

We could do one car. I do most everything before 10 and only on Tuesdays would there be a morning conflict. Dana has a standing appointment in Austin for 10. Not sure how that would work. I might have to change up my volunteer day and drop PB for one day.


Could be worse. My car could be in Spain:

Pickleball of the Flies

I played today.  I've been playing four times a week.  Two hour slots, so eight hours total.  Playing time is actually more like 7 and a half.  I do not run much for the ball.  I do not dive at all.  If the ball is lobbed over my head I wave at it as it goes by.  The object for all of us is to:

1 - Have fun
2 - Get in some steps
3 - Do not get injured

Probably reverse those three. 

On Sunday I play with a small group and we usually have 8 people.  Two courts of four.  There is a complex system that some programmer figured out to mix the people so your partner and opposition change every game and are never the same.  This is kind of the PB standard at our level.  If you have permanent partners, it raises the competitive level.  Mixing partners and opposition lowers the level of play but makes it more fun. 

I sometimes would like to have the same partner for a while so we could get better, more coordinated.  But that won't happen unless I find someone to join a league with me.  That's a whole 'nother level.  If my son, Matt, were here we'd do that in a minute.  We used to play tennis together and loved it.

On weekdays, the competition is maybe a bit less.  It is better than it used to be.  It used to be like the duffers in Caddie Shack but the group as a whole has gotten a bit better.

We've gone through  a couple of different leaders.  The one we have now is a nice lady who I get along with well.  She schedules with the Tennis Center and coordinates with the group.  We use an App called TeamReach that works pretty well and is free.  

On the week day mornings the leader schedules four court.  Sixteen people.  I am frequently the only male or one of two.  The rest are women.  I stay pretty quiet and do not play to my limit.  I back off and play so the points keep going even when I can end them.  I'm always concerned that they might send me away for being over powering.  I also help some of the new people learn to serve so I build up some good will that way.

The leader has been pulled away by work some so we now have fifteen or so women with no appointed leader.  I make a point of:

1 - Ducking every possible opportunity to lead the group.
2 - Maintain a fairly passive aggressive attitude by occasionally ignoring commands by the queen of the moment
3 - Watching the swirling social experiment that is a large group of women getting something done

It is really interesting to see who thinks they should be in charge (loudest voice) and who people actually pay attention to (one of the quietest ones). 

The way the group decides who will play whom on which court is to take a deck of cards.  Pull the aces, twos, threes, and fours and have people pick a card.  The red aces play together on court one against the black aces.  Etc.

We play a game and then do it again.  Or play a game and rotate players on the court and play another if the other teams are still playing.  NOW it gets dicey.  If the others get done and we're in the second game THEN commands start flying from the side lines for us to change the scoring so we'll be done quicker or to abandon the game and come back to draw cards.

BUT there is no leader so it is usually the loudest voice that is giving the commands and we may or may not do what she says.  There is no real authority.  No penalty.  

A social psychologist would have a field day with it.

The true leader asked me by message who she should pick to lead.  I told her not to pick anyone.  Not to spoil my fun.  Not to ruin the Lord of the Flies game.

She said she'd watch for the vultures.