Friday, June 16, 2006

Another one down...

First Marko, now Les Jones...

That's two friends now that have posted happy reviews of their swell new vehicles, rambling on about cubic feet of storage instead of cubic inches of displacement; waxing eloquent about how well it'll hold a child seat instead of how well it'll hold your face against the window glass on a cloverleaf on-ramp; enthusing about getting third-row seating rather than getting rubber in third gear.

For the record, the cupholders in my ride absolutely suck.

Then again, if I'm doing my job, my passenger won't be worried about holding onto their drink; they'll be worried about holding onto their lunch.


Of course, what's illustrated here is the dichotomy between the family life and the wild, free, and irresponsible life of the single & childless thirtysomething. I love all my friends' kids, and there's nothing cuter than spending time with miniature humans and having them think you're really cool for paying attention to them, but at the end of the day I have to be able to hand them back because I know I have my hands full trying to pay attention to the kid whose picture is on the upper right corner of this page. Some folks just aren't cut out for the parenting gig, but if it keeps me out of minivans, it can't be all bad. ;)

7 comments:

AnarchAngel said...

There's a solution, two cars.

I recently acquired a step family, and I'd give up all the wild thirtysomethingess you describe in a heartbeat for the; but I don't have to.

I drive a customized five series. I'm doing a motor swap on it for a supercharged 3.8, because I know what I like, and its name is TORQUE.

My wife loves the car too; but she knows we need something for two kids, a dog, and costco. She's lobbyoing for an X5, but we're probably going to pick up a real truck.

We will NEVER give up having a play/fun vehicle though.

Oh and she wants a motorccle too; actually a ;pair, one for me one for her.

Yes, yes I know I'm a lucky bastard.

theirritablearchitect said...

Tam,

While this car probably doesn't invoke the visual "oh, my" you are looking for, the Kraut thinks it's just dandy for the dogs and eventual brat, and it has decent performance to boot. Even more so with the turbo version.

Of course, when I really want to go fast, I just start the 5.0 liter powered '66 Mustang in the garage.

Us family schleps do have good performance alternatives these days. Too bad about Les and Marko with the mini-van thing. Good thing they don't seem to mind.

Anonymous said...

I guess I'll never have to worry about this problem. I'm 43 and still single ( mostly for lack of trying and also not seeing somebody that would be right ) and pretty much buy and do what I want to. A friend of mine has a daugther that was as close as I would get to having a kid myself. ( She still gets embarrased by some of the stuff she did when younger!) It was nice to be able to have them share her with me but it did feel nice when I left! I guess I'm not cut out for this stuff.

On a lighter note, it's nice to have a Subaru WRX when your same friend drove up in a Ford Taurus or a minivan! :)

Les Jones said...

Chris: two cars gets to be a pain, and doesn't give you the combination of passenger carrying and cargo carrying you get with a three-row van or SUV.

The other huge benefit of three rows is that you can separate the kids so they don't pick on each other for the length of Florida.

Granted, a mini-van ain't fun personified. We're promising ourselves that when we replace our other car we'll get something sporty.

AnarchAngel said...

Les, I'm not sayign two sedans, a car and a minivan will do just fine as well. One for practicality and one for fun.

Les Jones said...

Ah, OK. My bad.

phlegmfatale said...

Ya know, I really wanted kids, but the fates had other plans. I have a great niece and nephew and delight in sending them home when I want to watch dvds with potty-language or lewdness/anything on HBO. As it is, I resolve to spoil myself rotten, and I do. That will be my consolation, and I am resolved to prefer it my way. At least they take pains to drive something that makes them easily identifiable on the road, yeah?