Author Archive for Paul

Moving forward and moving on

Published
by
Paul
on November 26, 2008
in Indiana, auto service, home improvement, transportation and vehicles
. 0 Comments

With this past weekend, and the purchase of a new minivan, my little family has put nearly all of our recent car accident behind us. Everyone’s (mostly) healed up, and after some searching around, we were able to get a loan for a nifty new dark red Dodge Grand Caravan. Well, new to us, anyway; it’s a 2002 with 89,000 miles, but oddly enough that’s exactly what our last car was when we bought it.

We don’t know what this car’s name will be yet. Usually they just seem to name themselves. Our late, lamented night-blue Kia Sportage was named “Shadow,” and the old Saturn we’ve been tooling around in picked up the nickname “Shifty” since it’s a stick-shift and Kat is only just now learning how to run one. (I never claimed the names were clever.) We’ll see what develops with our new steed.

Funny how vehicles reflect what you’re doing. When Kat and I were jet-setting newlyweds, the Kia was an ideal sporty little car to get us around. But once you add a car seat and baby bags, it sure gets crowded in a hurry. The minivan is what one of my old friends would have derisively turned up his nose as a “suburban grocery-getter,” but hey, even though I’m very much an urban child, you’ve gotta get the groceries somehow. (Now I would tell my old friend “YOU try fitting two weeks of food for three into a sedan trunk right next to the stroller.”)

Now that we’re squared away, it’s off to the List again — my mechanic to do an overall checkup, a report on the car sales place we bought it from, and now that life has calmed down enough to think more than five minutes ahead, making plans for next spring, fixes to the house and the long-term future.

Paul is senior staff writer at Angie's List magazine. His favorite album is Blondie's "Parallel Lines," he's more obsessed with Doctor Who than any American has a right to be, and his desk at Angie's List is guarded by (toy) robots.

Perspective and who you can count on

Published
by
Paul
on November 6, 2008
in Uncategorized
. 1 Comment

I should be more careful with what I blog about. Last time around I talked about car trouble and getting out of close scrapes, not to mention my nice shiny new and newly aligned tires after a close call on the highway.

Perhaps I shouldn’t double-dog-dare karma like that. The latest call was somewhat less close. I was riding with my family in the car — home from the pumpkin patch, no less — when a series of events involving the highway, someone zooming into our lane at 90 miles an hour, and an oncoming semi led to our car being totaled, my wife with whiplash, my toddler son with a broken leg, and me with a concussion.

Guardian angel was working overtime on that one, though. If the semi had hit us at any other angle, one or more of us probably wouldn’t be here, and Kat and I are healing pretty quickly. Even little Armand Zefram Pogue turned out remarkably well — his car seat held through the whole ordeal, so he didn’t even have any muscle soreness or bruises. His leg was fractured by the back seat being crushed up against the front. But it’s a clean break, they tell us, and he should have his cast off in a week or so. Which says a lot about the healing power of little kids, I guess!

On the upside, he still loves his toy cars and very much likes his new car seat, so at least he wasn’t automobile-traumatized by the event.

You learn a whole lot about perspective when you wake up in an ambulance, on a backboard, with your little boy crying, your wife in the next ambulance, and your car looking like origami on the highway. It’s amazing who comes through when things really do go to hell like that — the insurance company that gets on the ball, the primary care family doctor who drops everything the next day to follow up on your issues, the friends who help you find an old car that, even if it’s got 189,000 miles on it, will at least get you around town while you work on getting a new one, and the trusty mechanic who’ll confirm that the car really is in as good shape as you’ve been told. Lots of people will be getting some good reports on the List after this one.

Paul is senior staff writer at Angie's List magazine. His favorite album is Blondie's "Parallel Lines," he's more obsessed with Doctor Who than any American has a right to be, and his desk at Angie's List is guarded by (toy) robots.

Adventure’s waiting just ahead

Published
by
Paul
on October 17, 2008
in Uncategorized and auto service
. 0 Comments

My little boy loves cars. LOOOOVES cars. Pretty much anything with wheels, actually. If a Barbie doll had wheels, he’d play with that. He’ll grab a toy car, any size, and roll it around the room and be the happiest kid ever. Nothing hypnotizes him more than the animated “Cars” movie on the DVD player.

Speed Racer Mach 6Meanwhile, this little nerd-in-training’s father is borderline obsessed with “Speed Racer.” (See where this is going?) So I have to confess a tremendous burst of pride when Armand was sitting on his little Lightning McQueen couch while the live-action “Speed Racer” DVD was on and he got excited during the racing scenes, picked up his toy Mach 6 and Racer-X cars and started banging them together while he made crashing sounds. I swear, it puts a tear in my eye. (He’s got the whole collection of Speed Racer toy cars. Except the Mach 4 – I have to claim at least one for me, right? But I let him play with it all the time anyway.)

In real life, however, it does not pay to crank the “Speed Racer” soundtrack too loud on the highway. A few days ago, I was driving home on the highway and heard a weird flapping sound, which quickly ceased. I stopped to check my tires, because it sounded like I’d gotten a flat, but found nothing wrong. My driving wasn’t affected, so I kept on going. I heard the sound again, louder this time, just as I was pulling off the highway two blocks from home. I figured it was probably a mudflap coming apart.

Not so lucky. A closer examination of the tires revealed that the tread on my passenger side tire had come completely apart – and since it was on the inner area, it was hard to find on my cursory roadside check. In fact, a short time after I stopped, the tire went completely flat, as if whatever force holding it together had breathed its last just as I pulled in.

My mechanic told me it was nothing short of a miracle that this thing made it home. (My mechanic’s great, by the way – he makes house calls, usually does the work right in the driveway, and is probably the most honest contractor I’ve ever had. Check him out on the List if you live in Indianapolis – the highly rated “My Car Doc.”)

Anyway, he diagnosed alignment problems and brought it in for realignment. “You must have some guardian angel, all right!” he remarked in the process. He’s more right than he knows.

I seem to have a knack for surviving tough scrapes; I usually just BARELY make it, giving new meaning to “skin of my teeth,” but I always make it home at the end of the day. So I put a lot of stock in my guardian angel. I’ve given it a name and everything. (Incidentally, it turns out I’m not alone – 55 percent of Americans in a recent survey, including one-fifth of those who claim no religion at all, say they believe they’ve been literally aided by a guardian angel in tough times.) But the scrapes are close enough to remind me that one’s luck only goes so far.

So in the meantime, I’m driving a lot more carefully and keeping a closer eye on the alignment, and when Armand and I watch “Speed Racer” together, I take a bit of comfort in at least one fantasy world where cars bang into each other all the time and never seem to take damage — at least, not until they’ve safely crossed the finish line.

Paul is senior staff writer at Angie's List magazine. His favorite album is Blondie's "Parallel Lines," he's more obsessed with Doctor Who than any American has a right to be, and his desk at Angie's List is guarded by (toy) robots.

Trusting the doctors

Published
by
Paul
on September 25, 2008
in fitness training, obstetrics & gynecology, orthopedics, parenting, pediatrics and physicians
. 0 Comments

Child with clubfootI took Armand Z. Pogue, also known as Mini-Me, also known as Son-of-Mine, to the orthopedist yesterday for what we all hope will be the last time. You may recall that he wore full leg casts for a while to correct a case of clubfoot, which ultimately required surgery. It was a minor surgery, but of course, when you’re a parent of a seven-month old heading into the operating room, no surgery is “minor.” Continue reading ‘Trusting the doctors’

Paul is senior staff writer at Angie's List magazine. His favorite album is Blondie's "Parallel Lines," he's more obsessed with Doctor Who than any American has a right to be, and his desk at Angie's List is guarded by (toy) robots.

A fine line between neighborliness and nosiness

Published
by
Paul
on September 4, 2008
in apartment rental, homeownership and safety
. 0 Comments

All this talk of nosy neighbors has me thinking about safety. I live on the near east side of Indianapolis, a mile from downtown, and while it’s not exactly Crime Alley, it’s not the kind of place I’d recommend you keep your doors open and unlocked all night, either.

There’s a fine line between nosiness and neighborliness. Continue reading ‘A fine line between neighborliness and nosiness’

Paul is senior staff writer at Angie's List magazine. His favorite album is Blondie's "Parallel Lines," he's more obsessed with Doctor Who than any American has a right to be, and his desk at Angie's List is guarded by (toy) robots.

A cat-shaped hole in the heart

Published
by
Paul
on August 13, 2008
in pets
. 2 Comments

Gwenhyvar Pixie-Bob Trouble PogueAs I was once told by the proprietor of a pet funeral home, “Animals break your heart just once.” Gwenhyvar Pixie-Bob Trouble Pogue never broke my heart until the day she died. (Her name is like that because we nicknamed her “Pixie-Bob” despite not actually being that breed; Trouble is there because any cat owner will tell you that “trouble” is ALWAYS a cat’s middle name.)

It came rather suddenly a month ago. Continue reading ‘A cat-shaped hole in the heart’

Paul is senior staff writer at Angie's List magazine. His favorite album is Blondie's "Parallel Lines," he's more obsessed with Doctor Who than any American has a right to be, and his desk at Angie's List is guarded by (toy) robots.

Knowledge is power

Published
by
Paul
on July 24, 2008
in safety
. 0 Comments

The world can be a scary place. You don’t have to go looking very far in the newspaper to find out about the latest toxin, plague, or general crisis that’s going to keep you up with night terrors for a few days. (Worse still is if you hear about it on TV — c’mon, how many times have you heard the anchor intone “Is there a poison in your home that could be killing you RIGHT NOW? Check out our report at 11!” And you just want to yell, “11? I might be DEAD by then! Feed me information!”) And if you work IN the media business, you hear about it pretty much nonstop. Mold in the basement. Lead in toys or your home’s paint. Horrible side effects from children’s cold medicine.

Sarge toyAnd of course, this all multiplies exponentially if you’re a parent. Continue reading ‘Knowledge is power’

Paul is senior staff writer at Angie's List magazine. His favorite album is Blondie's "Parallel Lines," he's more obsessed with Doctor Who than any American has a right to be, and his desk at Angie's List is guarded by (toy) robots.

Simple is better

Published
by
Paul
on July 3, 2008
in parenting
. 0 Comments

I have seen many things and people in my life, but I have never – NEVER – seen such an expression of pure naked avarice as I did last week from my one-year-old son Armand. We were running by Toys R Us, as I was in the mood to get him something new. I was figuring a car would be nice – he likes pushing around plastic cars, and I was all set to get him something nifty and appropriately nerd-friendly like a toddler-friendly Batmobile or Mach 5 or some such. Armand had other ideas. Continue reading ‘Simple is better’

Paul is senior staff writer at Angie's List magazine. His favorite album is Blondie's "Parallel Lines," he's more obsessed with Doctor Who than any American has a right to be, and his desk at Angie's List is guarded by (toy) robots.

“Whatever you do, DON’T BLINK.”

Published
by
Paul
on June 12, 2008
in Blue House
. 1 Comment

nutrition labelWarning: This post contains 50 percent of your recommended daily parental chitchat as well as 200 percent of your recommended daily nerd content!

Once your kid starts walking, finding ways to burn off all that excess energy tends to take a very high priority. Doubly so for my little Armand Z. Pogue, who at 14 months is a shaky walker but a highly athletic climber. He can’t walk unaided more than four or five steps at a time, but he climbs out of his crib if given half a chance. This, from a kid who was in full leg casts five months ago. Continue reading ‘“Whatever you do, DON’T BLINK.”’

Paul is senior staff writer at Angie's List magazine. His favorite album is Blondie's "Parallel Lines," he's more obsessed with Doctor Who than any American has a right to be, and his desk at Angie's List is guarded by (toy) robots.

Location, location, location

Published
by
Paul
on May 23, 2008
in Angie's List campus
. 0 Comments

Probably the best thing about my new house is the view of the Indianapolis skyline, right across the split of I-65 and I-70 at the heart of downtown. It’s an underrated view; not many places really consider the Indy skyline to be a classic view, but to me it’s a gem.

If a city can be said to have a heart, those highways are most certainly its arteries. And I feel a special connection to this area as well, just a stone’s throw away from Pogue’s Run – where my great-great-great-great-grandfather, George Pogue, was the first European man to settle in Marion County, first establishing his cabin in 1820 or so.

Ever since moving here I’ve become deeply invested in the local community – partially as the community liaison for Angie’s List, but also because I’m deeply interested in doing everything I can to improve the quality of life in my immediate neighborhood, the Holy Cross neighborhood, and the overall Near East Side. Particularly now that we’re the subject of literally national media attention, as revitalizing this area was a key part of Indianapolis’ bid to land the 2012 Super Bowl. Continue reading ‘Location, location, location’

Paul is senior staff writer at Angie's List magazine. His favorite album is Blondie's "Parallel Lines," he's more obsessed with Doctor Who than any American has a right to be, and his desk at Angie's List is guarded by (toy) robots.

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