NO MPG

Los Angeles, California

The eaglet has landed. Late last week, Joel and I lyfted to Tesla in Marina del Rey to pick up my Model 3. It is white with black upholstery and it is a pistol. The process was crazy-easy. I handed over my check; they handed me my keycard, and I downloaded the app which allows me to tap in multiple functions, including unlocking and driving! A brief orientation, and my 3 was brought around. I looped it once around the parking lot, before hitting the street. My first electric, after three and-a-half years with a hybrid.

The day before, we stopped at Costco on our way home from Joel's treatment for carpal tunnel syndrome. He was in a lot of pain, so I got out and pumped gas. Suddenly it dawned on me that this would be the last time I purchased gas for my own vehicle -- like my world was changing big time! The next day, I pulled into the public parking lot in Santa Monica. We hooked up my spiffy 3, already named Trace, to a charging station, and went to eat oysters and drink beer at Enterprise Fish Company. Joel drove it home from there, across Mulholland so he could let it out a bit. Again, it's a pistol.

I am selling the hybrid, finishing up my mom's trust, and addressing another minor trust issue with Tom's family, but all-in-all, winding down from all of the responsibility I have had over the past three years. I have sold two properties, and a business and a car. I've completed a bathroom remodel, paved a driveway, and administered my mom's trust including the transfer of stocks. I've fired and hired a gardener, and successfully sued Anthem Blue Cross. And now, I've bought a new car, a Tesla, and just a mere forty years after my first new car ever, a convertable VW bug, white with a black top and black upholstery, purchased from Volkswagon Santa Monica. 

My friend, Diana, has told me that she is in awe of all that I have accomplished and at the strength displayed in doing so. But, truth be told, it's just what you do when you are faced with a mountain of things that must be done. And climbing any mountain cannot be done if you look up to the height of it. You just have to keep your head down and take the first necessary steps. Just because you haven't done any of it before, and you are now alone, doesn't mean you can't do it.

I have joked that my life has been like a Sally Field movie over the past few years. I am thinking of the roles where she is the plucky heroine or survivor. But I also often think of her in the comedic film Soapdish, where she goes to bed with a bottle of Cuervo Gold and a straw. You can do that (I haven't, but I've come close). But as I said to Diana, eventually you're going to have to get up. You're going to have to pee. And you're going to get hungry. And, once upright, you will face what needs to be done, and take your first tentative steps.

A lot of steps follow those first ones. But, workwise, I now have a lot more in my rearview mirror than I do ahead of me. And as I step on the gas (ok, that's not right) or, rather, on the accelerator of my new Tesla, I relish what is, and will be, on the roads ahead of me. Thanks for joining me here. Now, fasten your seatbelt, for it will hopefully be a most amazing ride!