Wheels within wheels

Welcome to this week's Reno News & Review.

I've probably written a dozen times about standing here at my desk on Friday afternoon, waiting to go have a glass or 10 of red with Georgette on St. James Infirmary's deck.

But the semester started, and running a newspaper, doing two master's degrees, teaching a class, working on my national project, and keeping the kid out of jail is too much work to have much of a nightlife. Or weekends for that matter.

No, today I can't wait to get out of here because my new car is waiting for me. I just have to go sign the papers and drive the thing home. It's a blue 2013 Nissan Leaf, an electric car. I think I've mentioned my holistic plan to foster my personal green economy, and this is the first step, although I also signed papers and wrote a check out for my new solar modules today, too. That was like 7,000 bucks to get the work started.

But, I'm sure you guys know an electric car in the hand is worth a solar power system in the bush any day of the week. I just know it's going to have that new car smell, which I should point out smells exactly like skunky marijuana to me.

Wait until you hear the whole story about this car lease. I'm just one of those people weird things happen to. It's just the way things are. In fact, the Nissan Leaf hit a U.S. sales record in August, 2,420 of them sold for 253.3 percent increase over last year, and I'll bet mine was the only one that got sold to someone else after I purchased it but before I picked it up.

But hey, shit happens, and the guys at Nissan were kind enough to throw in a charging package, a back-up camera and satelite radio. I was more than satisfied with the make-good, but things got tense for a second there. If you've ever told me I can't have something you've promised me, you can probably imagine what that initial phone call sounded like.

So, you know the sacrifice I'm making to still be standing here at 4:55 p.m. on Friday afternoon, when the only thing standing between me and the door is the final 20 words on this column.