Yet another new transmission.

Our beloved 2003 Honda Pilot needs a new transmission. Another new transmission. The torque converter is apparently toast, it only got 36k on the last one -they're after-market parts with non-reliable life spans. Ugh.

It'll be expensive, but in the engine is still good and we love that car so we'll do it.

The new Pilots look like squashed mini-vans. One of the reasons we bought the Pilot back in 03 was the fact that the windshields were so nice and big. The new ones have stingy windshields, front and back.

Plus all new cars, as soon as you move beyond the base model, have either evil moonroofs or those idiotic glass ceilings.

I don't want the sun beating on my head while I'm driving. The sun beating down on me is actually a panic trigger for me, and the thought of being in a car with a clear, even if darkened, roof is just a no no no.

As for a moonroof. Could someone please tell me why I'd want to cut a hole in the roof of my vehicle for water to get into? I don't trust water.

Ideally, I be able to special order a mid-range vehicle, with leather seats and the other better things off the base model, in the base model body with the un-mutilated roof. But since I don't know if that's possible, and I'm not sure I want to deal with buying a new car right away, a new transmission it is.

I keep on thinking about Kamala Harris who talks about the $400 expense that most Americans can't deal with. This will be a lot more than $400, and we can deal with it, but the fact remains. Why do you do when the car repair is too much, and when you don't have a backup car during the repair, if you can afford to have it done?

Calendars

How do Americans cope with calendars that split the weekend in two? HOW?

I need a calendar for next year, and I guess I'm just going to have to print out pages from timeanddate.com because I can't seem to find any normal calendars, that start with a freaking MONDAY.

It's a freaking weekEND, and it's SATURDAY AND SUNDAY. So why the idiotic insistence on putting one at the END of the week and the other at the beginning, where any weekend plans are visually separated from each other?

Between the lack of the metric system, the AM/PM thing, and calendars that start with Sunday, I'm not sure how this county managed to crawl out of the morass of the 18th century, let along prosper. Imagine how great we could have been, all the things we could have accomplished if we weren't busy calculating in sixteenths of an inch and trying to visualize a month of projects and weekEND trips and plans split over two weeks!

Maybe I'll buy some random pretty calendar and just print out pages from timeanddate and glue them over the stupid Sunday on the left Saturday on the right pages.