Wheels and Feet

Dearest Rachel –

So, yesterday had me bringing in the car to the dealership to have it looked at. Officially, I was only overdue for an oil change, but there are places I can go where that can be done quicker and more efficiently, in my opinion (although I can’t necessarily speak for ‘cheaper’; even the quick-lube places seem determined to upsell me on this or that thing I can’t always be convinced that my car actually needs in the moment). At this point, though, there’s more going on with that car that I’d prefer the experts look at, and see what can be done about it.

Lately, for instance, when I pull out into traffic, the tachometer goes… well, I guess I wouldn’t say ‘crazy,’ but certainly harder than even I think it ought to. Once I get it moving past 40mph, it settles down, but since I’m only driving it in town, that doesn’t happen often or for long. Now, I’m no hypochondriac when it comes to my car, but if this is something I’m noticing, it’s probably a problem. So I asked them to look into the transmission, as well as do whatever other inspection work they might need to, in order to keep it in its best running order. The thing is, while they have several transmission specialists, their schedules have been on the spotty side recently – this is spring break week, and everyone should have the opportunity to enjoy it, after all. So this was not the sort of thing I could just sit around waiting for them to take care of; I would need to leave it in their care for a day or two.

With that being said, I decided that, since I hadn’t been to the gym since Sunday (and it wasn’t looking likely that I’d be able to get there yesterday, either), I might as well get in a less formal workout by seeing how far I could walk toward the ‘office.’ Dad had offered to pick me up, but I was curious as to whether I might be able to get there on my own two feet. As it turned out, I had enough in me – even without having had the opportunity to grab breakfast beforehand – to make the entire five-plus mile trek (which was a lot shorter than I expected it to me; I assumed that it would be at least seven miles, roughly comparable to the usual walk with Lars. For what it’s worth, though, I made up for the difference by also hiking back home once I was done with any real ‘work’ at the ‘office’ – although I made the concession of picking up a sandwich en route to eat once I made it home)

Of course, you might remember that certain businesses congregate in certain locations. It’s like fishermen looking for a certain spot where the fish are biting – once one of them finds such a place, everyone tries to congregate there, hoping to get a bite. With that avocation, the successful fisherman tries to keep “his” (or “her” – I’ll give you the credit you deserve) spot a secret, the same can’t be said for salespeople, since the whole idea of retail marketing is to make sure everybody knows who and where you are. This leads to certain corners with multiple gas stations, various “restaurant rows” on the outskirts of many towns we’ve traveled through (not to mention its interior counterpart, the food court)… and acres of car lots, one right after another for me to pass on my way as I headed out.

Now, I wouldn’t say that I’m necessarily “in the market” for a new set of wheels, but when both mine and Daniel’s (and I have trouble thinking of the PT Cruiser as his because everything about it screams “you” – which is just one more reason to leave it in the garage as a relic, and get him something that’s more “him”) both have well over a hundred thousand miles on them, you start to wonder how much more they have left in them. While I would expect the mechanical aspects of these vehicles to be functional for as long as they’re taken care of, the fact that the electronic components are pushing (and in your case, exceeding) twenty years of age is a reasonable concern.

Then again, maybe it’s just a matter of me being on my feet and not enjoying it, combined with the fact that I’m passing dealership after dealership on my way.

It’s gotten me thinking about looking into something for the both of us. Now granted, I’ve still got that down payment made on the Twike I’d seen in Basel, but they haven’t even started production on their Model 5s, let alone the Model 6s I’m first in line for. At this point, I’m starting to wonder if my car will surrender to time and the elements before it becomes available. Besides, I may still want to go on road trips in the future, especially if Megumi shows up and is keen on them, and I doubt that thing is really amenable for long-haul highway travel.

Now, it’s entirely possible that this is just another case of me applying retail therapy to myself. On the other hand, unlike so many of those things that I’ve been looking at recently, this is actually something that Daniel and I could use, even if they could just as easily be considered frivolous purchases (especially since I haven’t made any effort to determine what, exactly, either of us truly needs or wants from a car). And let’s face it; eventually, we will need to bite the bullet and replace both vehicles that we have. We might as well consider it while they still function, rather than having to make an emergency decision when one or the other suddenly stops working.

To that end, honey, I’d appreciate it if you could keep an eye on us, and wish us luck. We’re going to need it.