The engine warning light is coming on in my new car. My father-in-law, who is a retired mechanic, offered to take it in to the dealer for a checkup. So I took the train into town with Beta this morning. We happened to get to the station early (Alpha rushed us in before returning home to finish packing for a business trip this week) and got an earlier train that, although it stops at every station on the way, got us into Vienna earlier than the later but faster train. That means we had more time to sit there and talk. Coincidentally, Beta prefers, like her father, to sit on the fold-down seat near the doors of the train, which is colder and noisier but 1)closer to the doors when it’s time to get off and 2) you don’t usually have to sit with or otherwise deal with other people. No idea why she prefers sitting there, her father prefers it because of both 1) and 2). So we sat there and talked about stuff. It was very nice. I enjoyed it. She is a pretty girl, and smart, with an appealing, intelligent sense of humor and I am awfully fond of her.

Then she got off, and I got off at the next station and walked to the office. It is about a half-hour walk, nice exercise and time to think. It was a little drizzly and quite cold, and there was slush on the ground from a recent snowfall, but I was bundled up. I get all sorts of good ideas while I walk. This time, I decided I ought to write down stories I told Beta when she was little, and stories I have recently told Gamma. And I also decided I really ought to get going on the new Bgu comix in my head, and pick out the best old ones and make a book and sell them to people.

So all in all, so far, good thing my engine light came on.