where's the ghost coon when you need him?
why is it that something bright and shiny turns me into a blithering idiot? we are incredulous that the american indians sold manhattan island for the original "few trinkets and beads", but i often think many of us are not far behind them in the national raccoon-obsessed-with-a-shiny-new-object sweepstakes. the raccoon just gets stuck with the insult because we're doing the writing, and he can't reflect accusation back to us.
last week charlotte decided we needed a new car. i didn't agree with her assessment. our 8 year-old car seems to be doing just fine. sure, it needs a new radiator, and it has a tiny oil leak; but ,old cars are supposed to have some character and a few idiosyncrasies. my whole life we have had less-than-new vehicles. dad's favorite past-time (for a while) was the sonny gold special. when our current beater had taken its last beating, dad would drive/push it down to sonny gold's used car lot. the "used" in this sentence doesn't indicate previous ownership - it means this car had been USED. we would run out to the driveway to see dad drive up in a new stud-mobile, or water-bottle, or gunner, or, whatever. these cars never got us the right kind of second looks; but, they usually got the job done for a longer period of time than we had the right to expect.
fortunately for us, my dad had several friends who were -by trade- mechanics. we spent plenty of time under the shade trees of two -in particular- who seemed to get us out of some good jams. i'll never forget the time dad and i left the laytham's house after "fixing" the fuel pump(?). just before we reached bobcat stadium, one of us noticed some healthy flames sneaking their way out from under the hood. what a thrill it is for a young teenager to stand on the side of the road waiting for the fire department to arrive and extinguish your engine fire. after stopping the car, i guess one of us had opened the hood. not too swift, if we did. fire tends to get really excited in the company of unlimited oxygen, and this one should have been a harbinger of coming attractions.
i used to be able to identify the major areas of austin (and surrounding areas) by my having been broken-down there. i am lumping "out-of-gas" into this geographical fubar even though that is the fault of the driver, not the vehicle. i want to tell you that i have been broken-down everywhere, man. it is a bit like a wimberley white trash version of the song johnny cash made so famous. i realize that you have -by now- noticed that "wimberley white trash" is more than a little redundant. get over it.
charlotte's history is similar, if not as dangerous, to mine. she outdoes me though , in that she was once the proud owner of a 1960's era orange volkswagen bus. what a beaut.
in our zeal to leave car trouble behind us, we have bought two brand-new right-off-the-lot vehicles since we got married. they both were excellent cars and we have no regrets over their purchases; but, we have changed our ways. it is a beautiful thing to drive off the lot in a car that only you have owned. our first car had 6 miles on the odometer. i checked the oil, and the dip-stick was covered in a glorious, golden elixir of clean oil. you'll never see that if you don't buy new. nonetheless, we are pre-owned buyers from now on. there are very clean, well looked-after cars available with enormous savings if you are willing to buy last year's model, or the one from two years ago. anyway, it works for us.
charlotte found a two year old model for sale in fort worth. good car, good history, good luck. we drove up to pick it up yesterday. it is not perfect. there are a couple of dings, and scratches; but, no where near enough to diminish the 10,000 dollars in savings. even so, it is a lovely car. we also bought jackson a new dvd player for long car trips. he watched "herbie the love bug" on the way home.
in an effort to come full-circle: both the car and the disc-player are beautiful, and new, and shiny. i didn't even want this car, and i haven't been allowed to drive it, yet either. it doesn't matter though, it's shiny and i want it. i can't stop looking at it long enough to let go and pull my paw back out of the trap.
last week charlotte decided we needed a new car. i didn't agree with her assessment. our 8 year-old car seems to be doing just fine. sure, it needs a new radiator, and it has a tiny oil leak; but ,old cars are supposed to have some character and a few idiosyncrasies. my whole life we have had less-than-new vehicles. dad's favorite past-time (for a while) was the sonny gold special. when our current beater had taken its last beating, dad would drive/push it down to sonny gold's used car lot. the "used" in this sentence doesn't indicate previous ownership - it means this car had been USED. we would run out to the driveway to see dad drive up in a new stud-mobile, or water-bottle, or gunner, or, whatever. these cars never got us the right kind of second looks; but, they usually got the job done for a longer period of time than we had the right to expect.
fortunately for us, my dad had several friends who were -by trade- mechanics. we spent plenty of time under the shade trees of two -in particular- who seemed to get us out of some good jams. i'll never forget the time dad and i left the laytham's house after "fixing" the fuel pump(?). just before we reached bobcat stadium, one of us noticed some healthy flames sneaking their way out from under the hood. what a thrill it is for a young teenager to stand on the side of the road waiting for the fire department to arrive and extinguish your engine fire. after stopping the car, i guess one of us had opened the hood. not too swift, if we did. fire tends to get really excited in the company of unlimited oxygen, and this one should have been a harbinger of coming attractions.
i used to be able to identify the major areas of austin (and surrounding areas) by my having been broken-down there. i am lumping "out-of-gas" into this geographical fubar even though that is the fault of the driver, not the vehicle. i want to tell you that i have been broken-down everywhere, man. it is a bit like a wimberley white trash version of the song johnny cash made so famous. i realize that you have -by now- noticed that "wimberley white trash" is more than a little redundant. get over it.
charlotte's history is similar, if not as dangerous, to mine. she outdoes me though , in that she was once the proud owner of a 1960's era orange volkswagen bus. what a beaut.
in our zeal to leave car trouble behind us, we have bought two brand-new right-off-the-lot vehicles since we got married. they both were excellent cars and we have no regrets over their purchases; but, we have changed our ways. it is a beautiful thing to drive off the lot in a car that only you have owned. our first car had 6 miles on the odometer. i checked the oil, and the dip-stick was covered in a glorious, golden elixir of clean oil. you'll never see that if you don't buy new. nonetheless, we are pre-owned buyers from now on. there are very clean, well looked-after cars available with enormous savings if you are willing to buy last year's model, or the one from two years ago. anyway, it works for us.
charlotte found a two year old model for sale in fort worth. good car, good history, good luck. we drove up to pick it up yesterday. it is not perfect. there are a couple of dings, and scratches; but, no where near enough to diminish the 10,000 dollars in savings. even so, it is a lovely car. we also bought jackson a new dvd player for long car trips. he watched "herbie the love bug" on the way home.
in an effort to come full-circle: both the car and the disc-player are beautiful, and new, and shiny. i didn't even want this car, and i haven't been allowed to drive it, yet either. it doesn't matter though, it's shiny and i want it. i can't stop looking at it long enough to let go and pull my paw back out of the trap.
posted by cm at 12/05/2005
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