Because I have to go to the dentist in
a few and get the permanent cap cemented onto on my back tooth (which
means I can finally drink tea again!), I'm gonna leave you with
something I wrote four years ago, when I was trying to sell my car.
(And as an aside, I haven't had a car
for four years now? Geez!)
Back tomorrow with a fully capped tooth
and the story of a VCR tape I came across this past weekend.
*****
(as originally posted 3/12/2013):
Really? That’s the thing that makes
you say “no”?
As I wrote yesterday, we’re in the
process of selling my current car before Loraine gets her brand-new
one. Even before putting an ad
on Craig’s List we had a couple of people express interest in it,
but that interest soured once they learned what is apparently a dark,
deep, disturbing secret about the vehicle.
It’s a stick--a manual transmission.
Scary, huh?
I don’t get what the big deal is;
every car both Loraine and I have ever had have been sticks. They
get great gas mileage, they give you better control over your
driving, and, in all honesty, it’s a lot more fun driving a stick
than it is an automatic. Yet so many people out there are either
afraid of them or don’t even know how to drive them (something
that’s quite funny if you ever watch “The Amazing Race”) that
it seems a bit astounding.
Driving a car with a manual
transmission isn’t scary. Really, it isn’t. Yet either because
they don’t teach people how to drive them, or because they require
concentration while behind the wheel, or (perhaps) because you can’t
talk on a phone easily while driving a stick, most people resemble
the figures in an Edvard Munch painting when presented with the
possibility of driving a car with a manual transmission. It’s not
that scary. Trust me on this; I’ve driven them for 3 decades, and
on those rare occasions I get into a car with an automatic something
just doesn’t feel right. I know that’s weird, but that’s how
it feels.
And it must be something that’s an
American phenomenon; every time we rent a car over in Europe, it
comes with a big bold warning--in English--that the car has a manual
transmission. In fact, if you want one with an automatic
transmission, you have to pay a hefty surcharge.
Needless to say, we’ve never had to
pay the surcharge!
I have no doubt that we’ll sell the
car, even though it is tainted with the Scarlet Stick. In fact,
there are several messages on my phone from people interested in the
vehicle, even though they’re aware it has a manual transmission. I
guess it’s just another one of those (many) ways in which I’m
outside the mainstream. Who knew you could learn so much just by
trying to sell a car?
8-)
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