How to get financing for a car

We recently heard this story from a friend who knows something about the financial crisis this country is undergoing.

A couple of years ago, a guy went from bank to bank to try and get a loan to buy a new car. His credit rating was lousy, and he was turned down each time.

He then decided to buy a house, and even with no down payment and his terrible credit record, he nevertheless got the financing to go ahead and become a homeowner. This was, of course, when home prices were sky-rocketing. Now, he could use the equity from his house, and go back and buy his car. And so he did. Instead of a Honda Civic, he went for a Lexus.

Ridiculous? Makes you wonder how many others with abysmal credit histories did the same sort of thing before the house of cards collapsed.

La Viuda Alegre

For those of us who are romantically inclined, 'Vilja' from Franz Lehar's "The Merry Widow" sung by an attractive young couple.

Dinner Dance

This past weekend we attended a dinner dance organized by our social club. There were over eighty people there, of which better than seven-eighths were seniors. The music was provided by a two-man group which I thought did a remarkable job.

The dance tunes were familiar ones from the years of our youth, stirring nostalgic responses as we filled the dance floor after dinner. The fact that the music makers were in our age group gave their performance an added fillip, for they interspersed the numbers with an occasional quiz about the music — which performer made the piece famous, in what film did it make its first appearance, in which year — and the audience participated with enthusiasm.

Considering that there were only two people making music, one with an amplified accordion and synthesizer, and the other on percussion (a third, the vocalist, was indisposed with a strep throat), the sounds that emerged in that large hall were full-bodied and varied. Clearly the advances in electronic audio enhancement have added a richer layer to two-man bands.

We shared a table with friends old and new. True to the solid manners of our generation, the ladies did not lack for dancing partners, however much their menfolk's aging joints may have preferred sitting to dancing. For, as we all know, it is the fairer sex that prefers that particular activity, and what can the guys do but surrender to that preference. Exercise is good, don't you know?

It was an evening warm with shared memories, which will likely increase in frequency as we enter the last quarter of our year.

Items of Interest

Several close friends have remarked upon the diversity of material that I have accumulated in three years of maintaining this blog. I feel honored and pleased that they took the trouble to comment. (They did not do so via the 'comment' feature at the foot of each entry, but that's fine.)

At inopportune moments when I can't jot them down, ideas may occur to me as possible subjects for blog postings. The old memory being less reliable than it was a few years ago, if I don't write the thoughts down right away, it's likely I won't recall them later.

But enough may slip randomly through when I am at the computer, as I am now, and these tidbits may suggest a Google search or two. One thing will lead to another, and soon, with a bit of effort and a touch of luck, the tiny thought could grow into something worth posting.

The Internet can be a marvelous resource to help overcome writer's block.

Just think about it.

Rachmaninov Prelude Opus 32 No.5

A beautiful piece beautifully played

Tough shopping

Shopping at the local supermarket this morning, I overheard the following conversation between two men, presumably strangers, who looked to be about seventy years old:

First Man - "I can never remember which of these brands I'm supposed to get for the wife."

Second Man - "Yeah, it's always tough doing the shopping for a woman, even if it's your own mother. There's always a fifty-fifty chance you're gonna get it wrong."

Hard to disagree with that gem of wisdom.

Siempre en mi corazón

A familiar tune from when we were young, played to an appreciative audience.

Anniversary

It's been five years almost to the day that I have posted tidbits on this blog. Starting out as "The Daily Muse", perhaps an overly optimistic name, it morphed subsequently into its current form as "The Occasional Muse."

Tried to keep my entries as mostly original ones, but I have resorted to linking to other blogs or websites when appropriate, and quoted the works of others as well. More recently the links have been to musical pieces which are now so abundant on YouTube, and which are often so charmingly performed by little known individuals or groups. Providing the pleasure of a musical interlude now and then, when I can't seem to offer up any original words or images.

Photos of the places to which we have traveled have made their appearance, either in the blog itself, or linked to a photo-hosting site. Some early photos were lost when one such site shut down. Maybe one day I'll repost them. Maybe.

The subject of this stream of reminiscences is of course Time, as stated in the masthead. For those of us who watch calendars and clocks (and this means everybody), Time becomes ever shorter with age. (References to this sad fact appear frequently in this blog, don't you know?)

Projects that had been set for myself, as outlined in some of the earlier postings, have yet to be completed. There are many reels of old movies, scores of video-cassettes, hundreds, perhaps thousands, of old photos, that await digitizing and converting to DVD. A catalog of all my oil paintings will have to be prepared if one day I am to have a retrospective exhibition (I'm not even sure the names of the people who bought my early work are still known).

My camera collection has also to be catalogued and appraised. A big task. And the biggest of all is my library. There are books all over our house, including in the garage. Many of these need to be boxed and given away.

There would, should, could be Time to do all that stuff. Maybe next month. Or next year.

The warm weather has given way in these parts to a balmy Fall. The leaves are beginning to turn.

And seven years ago tomorrow, on just such a day as this, America was attacked by Islamic religious fanatics. We will not forget. Never forget.

O soave fanciulla

Siegfried Horn Call

This is an impressive young musician with a big sound.

Photo Album

Here's a link to some of my photo albums on Webshots.com

gentilhombre

A Home Run

The Vice-Presidential nominee for the Republican Party, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, spoke at the convention tonight (September 3) , and made a wonderful impression on the conventioneers, and likely on the voters as well. Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who made the keynote speech just before Governor Palin's, was also very effective in his own inimitable way. (By contrast, the Democratic campaign's rejoinder sounded a mite ill-humored.)

Tomorrow it will be Senator John McCain's turn to speak at the convention.

(P.S. I said before that I have been trying to keep politics out of this blog. But really it's quite difficult not to get caught up in the excitement of it. After all, that's what this country is all about, and there's such a lot at stake.)

Late Afternoon

Possible subjects for painting

A Place in the Country

In the hot stillness of a September morning, in the hills not far from the thriving community of Walnut Creek in California, a man in a red shirt and straw hat tends his vegetable garden. Oh, you can't see him? Click on the photo to enlarge it. He's there in that fenced-in area in the lower left. The fence is to keep out the deer and the raccoons, and the occasional mountain lion.