Car Insurance

Dillard's shoe sale started yesterday and I went looking just in case I need a 2nd suit with un-mangled shoes for that 2nd interview and gee, women in Idaho must have big feet. There were hardly any size 7s, but lots of size 9s and 10s. I always thought I had big feet for such a short person, but oh well, no sale shoes for me.

I checked out jobs on-line and found a few to apply for and then decided to finish changing addresses and everything became really complicated. I tried to change my address for AAA, but AAA regions appear to be autonomous. I could not change my address on the So Cal AAA site to anything but CA, then I try to log on to the Washington/Idaho site and it tells me my card belongs to another region and won't let me log on. I thought AAA was more national. So, I gave up on that for now and went on to car insurance, that expires 9/19.

I have 21st Century car insurance and they are in Idaho, too, but I had to sign up with an Idaho rep, get a new policy, and there are some things that are different like under-insured coverage, then pay for it, listen to a mandatory recording for the state of Idaho, then call back California 21st Century and cancel my old policy. Both calls to 21st Century included being on hold for a long time. The Idaho recording was about 10 minutes. After I went through all this, I really had enough chores for the day.

6 months car insurance in California, $497.
6 months car insurance in Idaho, $304.

Monthly rent in Thousand Oaks, California, for a large one bedroom apartment, $1700.
Monthly rent in Boise, Idaho, for a small house with yard and garage, $775.

Money saved in Idaho, so far, $957/month. Rent in Thousand Oaks was $1645, but it was going up to $1700 if I renewed my lease for a year.

I got a twinge in my back, so after getting car insurance I sat down and watched a Top Chef marathon and let myself be lazy and enjoy having TV for a few hours. It seems like a silly show, but I enjoy watching regular people be able to do something creative and difficult while on the spot. I know I couldn't do it.

I think I better get back to enlightenment. Next topic is Truth/Beauty with a poem by John Keats,

O Attic shape! fair attitude! with brede
Of marble men and maidens overwrought,
With forest branches and the trodden weed;
Thou, silent form! dost tease us out of thought
As doth eternity: Cold Pastoral!
When old age shall this generation waste,
Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe
Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say'st,
'Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.'

More significant than the poem or the topic, John Keats gave up a medical practice to write poetry and then died at the age of 26. You never know when you will run out of time to do what you love. The poem is about a Grecian urn, Keats wrote about truth and beauty while looking at art. I think our ideas today of what is beautiful have become distorted, or mangled like my shoes. In Idaho, without too much pavement and fake boobs, it should be easier to see and appreciate timeless beauty, at least natural beauty that will be here long after I am gone.