Moving Day!

A friend is staying with me for a couple of weeks so I picked her up with most of her belongings — two giant suitcases, a piece of rolling luggage, a small backpack, two other bags stuffed full, a laptop bag and a big purse. We loaded everything into the Smart while still allowing room for the two of us! The passenger had two bags on her lap in addition to the back area piled high to the roofline. The convertible top had to be opened to load everything in, and the canvas roof couldn't be lowered at the back. The seats had to be moved forward a bit to accomodate the large cases — of course I couldn't see out the back window at all. Felt a lot like we were moving third-world style. It worked without a hitch — the Smart car has an amazing amount of carrying capacity.


That the smaller of the teo giant suitcases visible.

Napa River Delta

Spent the day tooling around Napa valley today — the vineyards all have their plants pruned way back. Still a beautiful drive. Paused by the Napa River delta for the sunset — a little off the beaten track down Milton Road.

Garage Space

My house in Berkeley has a separate one car garage of such diminutive proportions that even a compact car would fill it completely. So I haven't been able to park any of my cars in there for many years because of the accumulated junk I have piled up in there. It's taken years to sort through the clutter and gradually whittle down the mess to a minimum. Further consolidation would mean making some tough choices, but with the Smart there's so much room left over that the stockpile can remain. I can keep my junk and keep the car. Hard decisions avoided.