[ this is message 3 of 3 ] this morning my buddy christa (she's one of the people going to roswell with me) drove me out to burlington to my dealer, maxwell vw. the Spacepod was parked right in front with a fresh red carnation in its vase, polished to high heaven. christa and i hovered around it, sqealing in delight. suddenly the alarm went off! before i can figure out just how i could have possibly set it off without touching the car, elliott comes walking out of the dealership, grinning, holding the keys. he turns off the alarm (which of course he had turned on, to mess with me a little ;) and he looks like he's just about the happiest man alive. all the guys at the dealership are standing around grinning like fools-- they all know the story. they proceed to treat my like royalty, holding doors, offering drinks, introducing me to the service manager and explaining the car in exhaustive detail (basically-- everything they're supposed to do ;). As I am leaving, elliott hands me a white carnation wrapped in tissue paper with a thank you card attached. He thanks me a third time for being so patient and nice to work with. We get a picture of me and elliott and the spacepod in the parking lot. despite the difficulty he had in getting me the car, i think elliott really is one of the good ones. even my insurance agent commented on how nice he was. and christa said that she could see that he was genuinely happy for me-- not just happy to make a sale or get a difficult case off his desk. i'm so pleased that i wound up getting my car there after all. well, i really didn't mean to write such a lengthy post. if you made it this far then thank you. i've been driving all day and also made an excuse to do some night driving cause i wanted to see the beautiful violet glow and let the night air and the stars in through the sunroof. with brian eno on the fabulous sound system it's really transcendental. once i finish that roll of film i'll get pictures up on the web for all to see! lisa & spacepod, silver/blk tdi. top