On Friday, June 28, I left the office on my last day of work with a more-or-less full tank of gas.  Since that time, I have run the usual errands (grocery shopping, occasional meals out, etc.), been to several music shows at Little Five Points, East Atlanta Village and the Westside, and even had my car towed to the repair shop one day after the battery died.  

Fun retirement fact: I didn't refill my gas tank or otherwise buy any fuel until last Friday, August 23, and even then I still had an eighth of a tank left to go. When I was commuting to and from the office, I was filling her up at least once a week, sometimes more.

Also, I need to correct something I said yesterday.  Discussing the behavior of chimpanzees, I said that the lower-level male wants to be dominant, with the mating privileges and other benefits that entails, which implies that a chimp understands the reasons for its instinctual behavior.  According to authors Wrangham and Peterson, "The motivation of a male chimpanzee who challenges another's rank is not that he foresees more  matings or better food or a longer life.  Those rewards explain why sexual selection has favored the desire for power, but the immediate reason he vies for status is simpler, deeper, and less subject to the vagaries of context.  It is simply to dominate his peers."

That's even more depressing, as it implies that our human DNA is hardwired for males to seek dominance. Wrangham and Peterson go on, stating, "In the same way, the motivation of male chimpanzees on a border patrol is not to gain land or win females.  The temperamental goal is to intimidate the opposition, to beat them to a pulp, to erode their ability to challenge.  Winning has become an end in itself."

"It looks the same with men," they conclude.