It has been a relatively quiet week from me and my site. I blame the weather more than the current AHL season (the Stars will be on a five-game road trip after tonight). The weather? Austin has had it rather good compared to my friends out East but cold temperatures still make me sluggish, tired and unmotivated. I practically want to hibernate. It wouldn’t be a bad idea here; short bursts of sleeping for three to four days instead of a whole quarter because our climate recovers quickly.
I digress, what a shock.
As many of you know, we put down 500 clams on a new Honda Fit about a month ago. Our sales guy, a nice fellow named Sam, couldn’t find one that matched in the area, therefore we’re going through all the trouble to get it built at the factory…over in Japan. According to Same, the order was started on January 27 and the bulk of the downtime is having it shipped over. Cars are manufactured quickly which is the only good thing I can say about Henry Ford’s legacy. By now I think it’s on a cargo vessel traveling across the Pacific to be unloaded on to a train near Long Beach, CA (where most Asian goods are handled). From the train to some nearby stop, it will be on a truck to Round Rock. The whole process can take up to 45-90 days. We’re rooting for the latter. Somara is still going through the annoyance on getting the title on her truck to trade it in. I am juggling our finances to have a larger down payment ready on the day we sign all the papers to drive it off the lot. I don’t want to even think about the insurance changes.
We are getting pretty excited over this major purchase. Last night, the Stars’ deal of the night was a license-plate frame. Trivial? Yeah. However, we agreed on no bumper stickers on this car. The next acquisition will be a new iPod to reside in it, I think it can remain in the glove box (this compartment needs a new name, driving gauntlets haven’t been necessary once windshields were perfected by the Thirties). No more Austin radio! No gouging from XM-Sirius! We get to control the tunes. The passenger can check her/his iPhone for the traffic via Google Maps yet our commute to work is brief, less than 10 miles compared to the 25-plus most co-workers have.
This week though, my friend Bryant (who also channels the contrarians Maureen Dowd and Thomas Friedman) purchased a new VW GTI. It’s a type of Golf or Rabbit. Despite his litany over diesel, he went with the gas-driven, automatic model which I think he paid too much for. Firstly, any car in which the driver doesn’t do the shifting on is an automatic no matter how the Germans spin it. Secondly, it’s a hatchback with numerous extraneous features: seat warmers, leather interior, BlueTooth communication, etc. Lastly, my 13-year old Golf gets around the same mileage as the specifications on Bryant’s GTI state. I will concede the final criticism since my car’s mileage has deteriorated after Halloween (it has been around 24 mpg when 26.5 was the norm). His new car is nice to ride in yet I don’t plan on owning another VW unless I suddenly inherit deeper pockets. Our new Fit will be the better bargain in the long haul and I will even take a turn driving us to lunch with it!