Elena has a new car, a Honda CRV 2011, I think.

We're half way through the month of January. The weather hasn't really decided what the time of year is. We got some snow in mid December, but it was gone by Christmas. Christmas zoomed by so quickly that New Years wasn't even over. I'm not complaining about the quick exit of the Covid holidays. Well it was going to happen one way or the other. Both danger girls are back on the road. Nastia killed the Ford Escape finally back in September. She crashed her car into a guard rail to provent a killer bee from savagely attacking her. She was without a car until almost Christmas. Elena killed her Ford Taurus one night in the middle of a tempertantrum, passing a guy who pulled out in front of her from Snake Hill Road. She tried to pass him on Old Mill Road and didn't make it. Her car's rear passenger door got hit by his bumper spinning her around and she hit a telephone pole with her trunk, luck to be alive. Nastia got a Mazada 6 sometime in December and finally Elena got her car this past week. With Covid, used car prices have gone through the roof. Teri found a Honda CRV at a Bill Kolb dealership down Route 303 in Orangeburg. It had 96,000 miles on it. I was tired of buying cars from private individuals and then having to repair them. So the dealership car checked all of the boxes. Elena was even going to take out her first loan. We went down to Bill Kolb Subaru on Route 303, near the walking bridge that crosses 303. It was a cold day and we were all wearing our masks. I rarley see anyone not wearing ond these days which makes me happy. I really don't want to yell at people. THe dealership was Covid crowded. All desks were socially distanced and a partition was errected between the desk and the chairs i front. We asked for the salesmen we made the appointment with and got another gentlmen named Juan. We sat down and he showed us the limited supply of cars he had for less then $10,000 and less then 100,000 miles. During his speel I'm thinking back to 1979 when I bought my first new car for $9,800.00, a Jeep CJ5 and then I remembered my parents bought their house in about 1952 for %9,000.00. We go out to look at the car. We go all through it and Juan asks if we want to take it for a test ride. We do, but Elena doesn't want to drive it, so I do. We head out to 303, make a right going south and enter the Palisades Parkway north for a quick trip. I notice the CRV has no pickup. It's a doggy 4 cyclinder. I tell Elena. I exit the Palisades at teh next exit and turn off onto some side roads to try out the brakes to make sure it doesn't pull. I ask Elena again if she want to drive it. With her courage up more, she says yes. She starts out slowly on the back

roads. After a minute or two she asks how to get back to the dealership. I hesitate for a moment, then remember she is a fully licensed driver and this may become her car. I tell her and she brings the car back with no problem. We take a quick drive of a Subaru Forester. Elena takes it from the get go and doesn't like the heavy wheel. She has settled on the Honda CRV. Now all there is to do is the paperwork. Teri was going to cosigh, but I think there was an issue about something that Elena became the cosigner. Either way she gets some credit history and a car. She is set to pick it up on Wednesday after we get insurance on it and with a little effort to track down the registration for the Taurus by Teri Elena is now back on the road. GOD KEEP HER SAFE AND NOT ANGRY

Starting the New Year

It the first Monday of the new year and it is also Teri's first day back at the job she really doesn't like. The girls are up in bed right now sleeping.Elena starts work today at twelve. Nastia stgarts at one and will drive Elena to work before sahe goes in freeing Teri from having to stop work and drive them. Ever since Elena wreaked her car back around November we have been looking for another car for her. She doesn't seem to put much effort into helping. When asked whatg she wants she says maybe red, a red car. We were having dinner last night. Teri was upstairs in the bathroom and it was just the three of us. We were talking. I don't know if it was out of the blue or if we were talking about cars, but Elena says, "When I get my car, I'm not going to wear my contacts at night, the doctor says I don't have to." When I heard it I knew she was baiting me. Maybe she didn't know she was, but she was. Baiting someone, my definatioln is when you say something to get a reaction from someone else. It is also baiting when you are talking about doing something in the future that you can't do now. So I'm sitting there saying out loud, "i'm not going to take the bait." She continues on and after a few moments I say, "I'm taking the the bait and I tell her, "If you insist on driving without your contacts at night, you're getting your own insurance." I regreated it the moment I said it. She didn't react to it and she said something else that I was going to respond to when I decided to get up from the table and eat the last few bites of my dinner in the kitchen. I knew if I stayed, she'd get me angry and Elena only has off and intense anger toward me it seems and I'm not sure if I lose my temper with her what will happen. Elena is still dating Matt. I was with Nastia one night recently and I asked her about the two of them. She said it is really not like dating. Nothing is going on. Which I can understand. Elena is very private and as I have said she is the ultimate closed book. If she doesn't want you to know something, you won't. She hands out with him mostly on facetime. They talk most every night until past midnight. Sometimes I have seem her talking to them after one in the morning.She hangs out with him, I think most every Wednesday, except recently when a co-worker of her's was exposed to someone with Covid. To be on the safe side, she stayed away from him. There turned out to be no Covid. Nastia is in the same boat as Elena, as far as see her boyfriend. He works second or third shift at an office building in the city. She sees him on Wednesdays in the morning into the early afternoon. OUt of the blue, recently she asked me when do you know it is time to have sex with someone. I thought for a second, no really I did. I do want both of them to have a healthy and happy sex life, but not today. Had tomorrow finally come? My therapist once said and I don't remember the context completely, but I thought it fit for this question. I asked her has she farted infront of him? She said no, I then asked if she has burped in front of him? She said not on purpose. My third question, I thought of myself. Could you imagine yourself naked infront of him? I don't think I got an answer. My therapist, I think was referencing levels of comfort around your siginificant other. The first two questions are basic body functions that everybody does, but do you do them infront of others? I don't know if I slowed her down or gave her the green light to have sex. It is very easy for it to happen with her and him. He is home during the day when his parents are at work. Nastia and him go over his house to 'hang out'. I hung out with my first significant girl friend at her house during the day when we both weren't in college. I loved those times with her. She know about birth control and the drawbacks of condumns (only 98% effective) and to never have sex without both. I know there is nothing I can do to stop either of them from having sex. I just hope that they have listened and learned, and will be safe. /