Home away from home

 "If you can cut yourself - your mind - free of what other people do and say, of what you've said or done, of the things that you're afraid will happen, the impositions of the body that contains you and the breath within, and what the whirling chaos sweeps in from outside, so that the mind is freed from fate, brought to clarity, and lives life on its own recognizance - doing what's right, accepting what happens, and speaking the truth - If you can cut free of impressions that cling to the mind, free of the future and the past - can make yourself, as Empedocles says, 'a sphere rejoicing in its perfect stillness' and concentrate on living what can be lived (which means the present)...then you can spend the time you have in tranquility.  And in kindness.  And at peace with the spirit within you." - Marcus Aurelius

My English teacher would have called that stoic quote a run-on sentence, and likely would have split it up into a couple of paragraphs.  Good thing ol' Marcus was a Roman.

Had an absolutely gorgeous drive to work today.  It was clear for the first time in a few days, and we've had some snow up in the mountains.  The temperatures and weather forecasts are calling for the snow level to drop down into the valleys, so it's about time to put up the snow marker stakes and swap tires.

I didn't get any pictures of the mountains half-covered in snow, but I did get a couple of the sunset, and the steam plume off the cooling tower at work!

 In other news, I've made arrangements to purchase a mid-2000's era car in the near future.  It won't be my daily driver - that will still be the Subaru.  It *will* be my retirement car though.  I'll be picking it up in a week or two.

One of the things I really like about this model is that it looks pretty mundane - like an older generic four-door Buick, Toyota or Ford.

In reality, it's a Mercedes S600 with a twin-turbo V-12 engine that makes over 600 horsepower and has about 730 ft-lb of torque. 0-60 is a respectable 4.2 seconds, similar to what a Porsche of the same era would do - but it *looks* like a grandpa car.  The one I'm buying has the "V12 BiTurbo" badges removed from the front fenders, so it's even less obvious that it's fast.  There were a lot of V12 upmarket Mercedes imported back in the day, but not a lot of the 600 hp ones.  Around 400 per year, I think.

 Manufacturers are all going green, and we are nearing the end of an era of high-output gasoline engines - and the price is right.

This vehicle will be replacing the old Honda Repsol Edition CBR1000RR (aka Fireblade) to meet my go-fast needs.  I'm getting a bit old to be riding around in the jockey position - it's really hard on the knees and wrist joints.  Also the riding season here isn't very long, so a bike that was semi-practical in southern California doesn't work so well, living within spitting distance of Canada.  The Honda will get sold in the springtime.  I will still be hanging on to the old Kawasaki Triple - the one I've owned since high school.  It's been my baby forever, and I simply couldn't bring myself to part with it - even though the riding season is short.