Here is Gary pondering breakfast out:
"What should I get...hmm...eggs? No, I feel like waffles. No! Oatmeal! Oatmeal sounds great."
Then the waitress arrives.
"The Light Egg white omelet with sausage and a side of bacon. And a bowl of cheese. And a side of salt pork."
It's divergent decision-making in action. I mention this because Gary is shopping for a new car. He has narrowed it down to:
A Prius
A Nissan Z
A Hummer
A Honda Si
(And he's still considering the Honda Grand Mal, but they are hard to find.)
So we trolled the car lots tonight. There were no Hummers to test drive. I think he was just saying that to test the level of dickishness I will tolerate. I said nothing, so he sat in a red Mazda Miata. He crawled in and took the Boulevard of Broken Ribs off to East Cliche, on a direct route to his Midlife Crisis. Thankfully, he got out and realized Miatas are red because then the blood doesn't show.
But then, we realized that since we tend to keep cars until they invent new car audio systems, we need to get a sports car this time around if we want to drive it to work instead of the nursing home. That's when the Z came in. It felt good. It was two years old with 20,000 miles. It was in our price range.
But, we didn't buy it. Given the number of two-year old Zs on that lot, we can take our time. We still have to test a Prius ("Huge behemoth car!") and drive an Si. And then he will buy a Suburban or some other off-the-wall thing.
If they put Suburbans by the cash registers at Bob Evans I bet we'd have one.
Not to be a crazy car owner, but I really and truly can not say enough good things about my Prius. It is the love of my life. Do not tell my boyfriend.
Posted by: ariel | October 09, 2007 at 02:36 AM
I have always called this decision making process 'the waffle' and my husband is the king of the waffle. He will go back and forth on a decision so many times and talk himself into it and out of it until he makes me want to wring his neck, only to come to the decision he made at the very beginning. Someday I may have to kill him during this process. But don't tell him I said so.
Posted by: sue | October 09, 2007 at 12:39 PM
I gots me a Mazda 3 in May. I loves it. LOVES IT. sooooo much loves it.
Posted by: Sherri | October 09, 2007 at 05:15 PM
Soul Sistah Ariel has got it right. I totally heart my Prius. Best decision I've made in years (and given some of those other decisions, that's saying something.)
PLUS, you're doing a good thing environmentally AND helping to lessen our dependency on foreign oil.
Come on, Gary. Do the right thing! ;-)
Posted by: Friend #3 | October 09, 2007 at 05:45 PM
volkswagon, fuken grooven!
Posted by: judith | October 09, 2007 at 09:45 PM
ariel - Okay, duly noted. You get points for objectivity, unlike Friend #3 who has named her greenish Prius "Shrek."
sue - The thing they need to learn is to be quiet during the debate. Make it an internal debate. They call it "bouncing ideas" off you.
Sherri - Oh, we tried a Mazda 3. It wasn't the car I hated, but they oily salesguy. Now we've seen an RX-8 in a parking lot and I might have to face oily salesguy again.
Friend #3 - But aren't you cluttering the landfills with batteries?
judith - We sat in a VW bug. I liked it. Gary wasn't impressed enough to drive it.
By the way, today's list is: Honda Si, Prius, Mazda Rx8, Honda Fit.
Posted by: TheQueen | October 09, 2007 at 11:09 PM
Only every 70,000 miles.
Posted by: Friend #3 | October 10, 2007 at 10:54 PM
Friend #3 - and, how much is a new battery? Because we slap 70K on our cars every three-four years.
Posted by: TheQueen | October 10, 2007 at 11:40 PM
http://www.hybridcars.com/faq.html#maintain
This makes me very happy. :-)
Posted by: Friend #3 | October 11, 2007 at 09:42 AM
Hey, I just noticed the car pictures on the right. I want to give a shout-out for the Civic - that's what I have and Honda parts last forever. Mine's a 10 year old car with 160,000 miles on it and all I've ever done is replace the timing belt at 90k (because you have to) and the brakes (because you have to). But otherwise, maybe it's a little boring. You can add purple lights to the undercarriage and spinning hubcaps, but that's about it.
But do the Mazda doors open in two directions?? That's hott.
Everyone I know who has a Prius loves it. They say every time you get in it becomes a game to see how good you can get your mileage. Which either makes you a very conservative driver, or a very distracted one.
Adding one more to the mix: my b/f loves his Subaru WRX wagon. It's definitely sportier looking as a wagon rather than a sedan, I think it's really cute. It's got the hott factor with the turbo engine intake thing in the front, and he keeps reminding me that it has a more powerful engine than a Porsche. It also gets 30-35 mpg, which isn't too bad for a sports car.
Posted by: tasterspoon | October 11, 2007 at 01:01 PM
Friend #3 - That's good to know, but the Mazda has a Rotary engine! I don't know what that means for the environment. All I know is Dave had a Wankel rotary engine model in high school.
tasterspoon - Ironically, the car Gary has to part with is a '95 Honda Civic. It's a cool little red sporty car. 170+ miles, though, and it's averaged one car payment a month in repairs this year.
Posted by: TheQueen | October 11, 2007 at 10:05 PM
I'm not THAT objective, my car's name is Priscilla.
Posted by: ariel | October 12, 2007 at 01:04 AM
And my Prius' name is Ripley (as you well know), named for the great Ellen Ripley of the "Alien" movie franchise. I LOVE my Prius, by the way. She is the bestest.
Posted by: Catherine | October 12, 2007 at 03:14 AM
Ariel and Catherine - I don't think I've ever named a car. My right breast Daphne waves hi at Priscilla and Ripley, though.
Posted by: TheQueen | October 13, 2007 at 12:19 AM