In honor of Theodore Roosevelt as a great Captain of Destiny and to his conception and execution of building the Panama Canal --
The longest palindrome I know:
A man a plan a canal panama
Anyway. Not quite on the same scale as taking over small Central American Countries through intrigue and literally moving mountains to connect the Pacific Ocean with the Caribbean & Atlantic waters; never-the-less, putting two kids through college in these times takes a bit of planning.
Our son Grant, at the University of Missouri, Columbia has the fortune of being enrolled in an institution that as a matter of policy makes it somewhat easy to be granted in-state tuition once one can demonstrate residency by obtaining Missouri voting registration, a Missouri address and driver's license, swear that you intend to be a loyal and life-long resident of the Show Me State and prove that your have a job and make a minimal annual wage and pay your local and state taxes. This generous policy can save out-of-state students like Grant (actually his parents) thousands of dollars per semester. Showing proper adulation for Mark Twain and saying "I Dis-Like Ike" in favor of Harry S. Truman may also get you points.
The kicker in the above formula, is getting a paying job. His applications are in at grocery stores, pizza and sub-sandwich shops to Wal*Mart. Getting to a from work likely requires transportation, and the most convenient option would be to have a car available. To mkae the in-state tuition and job thing mesh -- this therefore requires a plan.
****************
For Christmas, Grant had to buy a last minute plane ticket out of St. Louis to get back to Dallas. To get from Dallas back to school, he paid gas money to Ali (his suite mate's girlfriend) to pick him up on her way from Austin to Columbia. But, with a car he would not be beholden to other people's schedule and it would work out nicely in providing flexibility for any employment (and thus tuition reduction) in the Columbia area.
For Spring Break: The plan for Grant was, once we removed Grant and his dirty laundry from Ali's Volvo, we had a week to get another car and send Grant back to Mizzou in the 2003 Toyota Camry that Sue was currently driving. Spring Break for Grant would not be a life on the beach this year [see: Spring Break Broke, April 2012], but the plan was to get him a practical set of wheels. Not too bad by all's estimation.
Before handing off the old 2003 Camry to Grant, I had to find out what that pesky "check engine" light on the dash meant. It was about a bad catalytic converter, which without replacement would not pass Texas emissions standards. So I ordered a new catalytic converter from the internet, had AAA Muffler install it and then run the car through their machine and then give me a passing emissions grade and the coveted official windshield sticker of compliance for the 129,000 mile Toyota. A visit with the insurance agent and then Grant was ready. Good to go.
A man a plan a camry pandemonium
Maybe not quite the nerdy symmetry of the afore mentioned palindrome, but it'll have to do.
The longest palindrome I know:
A man a plan a canal panama
Anyway. Not quite on the same scale as taking over small Central American Countries through intrigue and literally moving mountains to connect the Pacific Ocean with the Caribbean & Atlantic waters; never-the-less, putting two kids through college in these times takes a bit of planning.
Our son Grant, at the University of Missouri, Columbia has the fortune of being enrolled in an institution that as a matter of policy makes it somewhat easy to be granted in-state tuition once one can demonstrate residency by obtaining Missouri voting registration, a Missouri address and driver's license, swear that you intend to be a loyal and life-long resident of the Show Me State and prove that your have a job and make a minimal annual wage and pay your local and state taxes. This generous policy can save out-of-state students like Grant (actually his parents) thousands of dollars per semester. Showing proper adulation for Mark Twain and saying "I Dis-Like Ike" in favor of Harry S. Truman may also get you points.
The kicker in the above formula, is getting a paying job. His applications are in at grocery stores, pizza and sub-sandwich shops to Wal*Mart. Getting to a from work likely requires transportation, and the most convenient option would be to have a car available. To mkae the in-state tuition and job thing mesh -- this therefore requires a plan.
****************
For Christmas, Grant had to buy a last minute plane ticket out of St. Louis to get back to Dallas. To get from Dallas back to school, he paid gas money to Ali (his suite mate's girlfriend) to pick him up on her way from Austin to Columbia. But, with a car he would not be beholden to other people's schedule and it would work out nicely in providing flexibility for any employment (and thus tuition reduction) in the Columbia area.
For Spring Break: The plan for Grant was, once we removed Grant and his dirty laundry from Ali's Volvo, we had a week to get another car and send Grant back to Mizzou in the 2003 Toyota Camry that Sue was currently driving. Spring Break for Grant would not be a life on the beach this year [see: Spring Break Broke, April 2012], but the plan was to get him a practical set of wheels. Not too bad by all's estimation.
Before handing off the old 2003 Camry to Grant, I had to find out what that pesky "check engine" light on the dash meant. It was about a bad catalytic converter, which without replacement would not pass Texas emissions standards. So I ordered a new catalytic converter from the internet, had AAA Muffler install it and then run the car through their machine and then give me a passing emissions grade and the coveted official windshield sticker of compliance for the 129,000 mile Toyota. A visit with the insurance agent and then Grant was ready. Good to go.
A man a plan a camry pandemonium
Maybe not quite the nerdy symmetry of the afore mentioned palindrome, but it'll have to do.
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