Things are so much easier . . .

. . . when you take care of your credit.

Today I had to buy a new vehicle. When I say "had to," as if it were an unpleasant duty rather than a treat, I mean it. I had to buy a new vehicle because my old one has a zillion miles on it, and modern-day vehicles are really only meant to go 100,000 miles or so before they turn into junk.

So I had to run the gantlet of applying for the car loan, signing all the various papers, and so on. This was a source of anxiety for me. You see, when I was young and irresponsible, I was young and irresponsible. I neglected my financial duties, so to speak, and pretty soon I had a TRW chock-full of charge-offs and other unpleasantness. I guess I never expected to live past thirty.

In the mid-1990s, after I had been married a couple of years, I started to work on cleaning up my credit reports. In addition to the truth, which was bad enough, there was also loads of false information. It took me two years, but eventually I paid back what I owed, and it was all better. Nevertheless, whenever I put in a credit app, I get that fugitive feeling, as if I didn't really deserve an approval.

So today, I had to make phone calls to the credit union and the insurance company, and everyone was very pleasant. The young woman who called me back on my loan app was extra-nice. I couldn't help recalling how I had been treated there when my credit was less wonderful -- though I didn't mention it to her!

What's the point of all this? Well, I guess it's mainly that I have managed to outlive my misdeeds. As the Psalmist says: "Happy is he whose sin is hidden, whose fault is covered." And elsewhere: "If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, Lord, who should stand?"

EDITED TO ADD: When I write "outlived my misdeeds," I am only talking about the financial ones! The rest of them stick with you for life.

And another thing . . .

Also food. That goes along with the Southern stuff, and it doesn't go badly with opera either. After all, you can't trust a skinny opera singer *or* a skinny cook!

Kudos to the first person who gets the reference in the Blog title!

Erste Botschaft

Well, I have finally taken the plunge and decided to get my own blog. One gets frustrated when one is restricted to comment boxes to sound off!

My interests, in no particular order save one: Catholicism, liturgical music, choral music, opera, German, Russian, French (gasp! -- but they make wonderful pipe organs), and Tolkien. Not to mention poetry, literature, Southern-ness, etc. etc.

Catholicism comes first. The others are in no particular order.

I own Father Bryce, Cacciaguida, the Old Oligarch, Eve Tushnet, and the Queen of Saint Blog's, Amy Welborn, as Blogmothers and Blogfathers. Success has many fathers, they say in Russia! Let's hope I don't wind up an orphan.