Drawing together some catchup threads...first of all, Glenn has requested a photo of the new 'old' car. It is a 1997 Volvo 850 SE, purchased from the second owner of 12 years at 168,000 kilometres or 104,000 miles. It is very comfortable to drive and extremely quiet on the road.
I will attempt two shots, one of me and the car in my great nephew's front yard in Canberra and the other taken on the way to Jugiong (to give you as sense of the countryside along the Hume Highway). However, this might have to wait until I have access to more download capacity at the end of this week. Here is one at least. The only problem with the Volvo is that the 'Check Engine' light comes on, indicating a fault with the oxygen sensor system. I am studying up on this and will get a scanner to ascertain the problem's nature. It costs $45 to have this service done and I can get the scanner for about $60 and access diagnostics via the Internet. 
Mechanics seem not to have much of a clue about this so I may as well get all boned up. My other car, with my daughter in Colorado, has a similar problem, but with the knock sensor, so a scanner will be a handy tool. Oh...the scanner can turn off the light!Knees: Today is Monday, October 25, so my right partial knee has now been in place for three months and the left for six months. I am pleased to report a very high level of satisfaction with progress. On Friday, one way or another, I walked about seven miles without so much as a thought about whether I could do it! Compare this with my situation in April when I had to plan carefully just where I would park in the supermarket parking lot so as to be able to walk to the store, go around doing my shopping, and make it back to the car. The second knee was slower in recovery and the rehabilitation has been conflicted by so much travelling. Nonetheless, I am riding Man Friday and managing the hilly terrain amazingly well. Also, I have enrolled in a local gym and did my first work out this morning.
I am now enrolled in Medicare Australia (my US plan only covers emergency treatment while out of the US) and have applied for a Seniors Card to get transport concessions and the like. Once I have the latter, I will be able to make greater use of public transport as this is free for card holders for a good part of weekdays and entirely so over the weekends.
Just a block or so away from my daughter's home (where I am Fridays and over the weekend) is the local Alliance Francaise, so I plan to enroll in a conversation class there. I have a written test to do and also, on Friday next, an oral test. This will crank the old brain up a tad or so, as will getting to know engine management fault codes and how to fix them.
As part of the celebration of my son-in-law's birthday last week, on Friday night I went with family to the Soccer game between the Adelaide and Wellington (NZ) teams. That day's sporting section in the local paper (Adelaide Advertiser) assured us that the local team had a game plan. This must have been to convince the other side they were inferior in the first half, when the teams were tied at 0:0) and then to fire off three goals in quick succession the in the second! This completely rattled the 'Kiwis' (as Aussies call folk from New Zealand) who failed to make a score.
A more serious take on the continuing story of passing through the eye the needle next time.
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