Cars, kitties and computers
I have a thing for cars. I love them. I think it started when my Mom came home with an aqua 1964/5 Mustang, fastback with a white interior. She even had the spoked wheel locking hubcaps. Although it may have started when my Dad acquired a lemon yellow bullet nosed Studebaker. That was a cool car too.
Who knows exactly when it happened. All I can say for sure is that I was bit by the bug and it's never left me alone. Curiously enough I was afraid to drive and didn't learn until I was 24 years old.
Even then there wasn't anything for me to actually drive and no money to buy a car either, really. Through some crazy stuff, I ended up with my sister's roadster, a Fiat 850 Spyder, two-seater, standard shift, convertible, in green. Through some more crazy stuff, the Fiat died right after she gave it to me, threw a rod. By then she really needed a car and was using "my car", formally her car to get to work. third shift and nowhere near public transit. I still wasn't driving regularly and had access to public transportation to work so rather than repair the Fiat I used it as a down payment on a brand new 1979 Mustang. My sister put the first five thousand miles on that car and when her own 1967 (or 68?) Mustang got out of the shop I got it back.
After a time I got used to driving it back and forth to work, a hundred miles a day trek. By then my Mustang obsession was securely in place. Mom went on to own lots of cars over time but the last car she would own was an '86 Mustang hatchback in white that I would inherit.
By the time that car came to me, I was a married mom of two teenagers and the car was used to get me back and forth to work. It was never my favorite version of the famed Mustang and I'd thought my love affair was over.
The early 2000s brought back some of the nicer Mustang lines and I started thinking about getting back into my obsession. Unfortunately, the Mustang isn't really a family car. There are no back windows, to speak of. The husband wasn't exactly on board with the idea either, siting that I was now too old and too fat to drive such a car. I wasn't, and just to prove that point when I was planning my divorced life I punctuated that with the purchase of a screaming blue Mustang fastback. This car became my mechanical familiar. I loved her so much. Yes, I have since moved on, my familiar has gone to fill someone else's Mustang obsession but I put another iconic breed in my driveway, a Jaguar.
I have heard all the stories of Jaguars famously going nowhere but the garage but it called to me.
A Jaguar sedan somehow became affordable, with Mustang-like swagger and all-wheel drive. It seemed to be a perfect marriage.
Now my love life came into play and I suddenly had an old flame getting in and out of my brand new kitty but with much discomfort. I am short, he is not. As luck would have it I was able to trade upwards to a small SUV type Jaguar that both of us can get in and out of in comfort. It is a pretty nice car, no Mustang and no familiar but a nice car.
A few days ago Microsoft announced that they would no longer support Microsoft 7. Everyone now would have to upgrade to the latest version or buy new equipment. You're thinking what this has to do with cars? Well, yesterday my pretty nice Jaguar had a little glitch. It is just a little glitch so I called the service department to inquire about my tiny little issue and I was informed that my software needed to be upgraded. The Service Manager and I had a good laugh over trying to find the answer to my glitch in the Manual and then she informed me that some upgrades take as much as five hours! I might need a loaner car. Who doesn't love new software? Oh, I do, true confessions, a new look, new abilities, who knows what my very nice car will do. So I planned my trip for service to get my upgrade and I planned for a loaner car, just in case and as I was hanging up the phone there was the news story about Microsoft and Windows 7 and it suddenly occurred to me that my very nice, very expensive car might never get the chance to become a classic car due to software concerns. What happens when your $40,000+ car needs a software upgrade or sports a computer that is no longer supported by the manufacturer? Suddenly that 1964/5 Mustang started to look a whole lot better. It's an actual machine, not a rolling computer. Oh, I love fancy software, lots of bells and whistles but I think I really want an actual machine in my driveway.
It's probably too late to turn back that trend but I can dream.....
Who knows exactly when it happened. All I can say for sure is that I was bit by the bug and it's never left me alone. Curiously enough I was afraid to drive and didn't learn until I was 24 years old.
Even then there wasn't anything for me to actually drive and no money to buy a car either, really. Through some crazy stuff, I ended up with my sister's roadster, a Fiat 850 Spyder, two-seater, standard shift, convertible, in green. Through some more crazy stuff, the Fiat died right after she gave it to me, threw a rod. By then she really needed a car and was using "my car", formally her car to get to work. third shift and nowhere near public transit. I still wasn't driving regularly and had access to public transportation to work so rather than repair the Fiat I used it as a down payment on a brand new 1979 Mustang. My sister put the first five thousand miles on that car and when her own 1967 (or 68?) Mustang got out of the shop I got it back.
After a time I got used to driving it back and forth to work, a hundred miles a day trek. By then my Mustang obsession was securely in place. Mom went on to own lots of cars over time but the last car she would own was an '86 Mustang hatchback in white that I would inherit.
By the time that car came to me, I was a married mom of two teenagers and the car was used to get me back and forth to work. It was never my favorite version of the famed Mustang and I'd thought my love affair was over.
The early 2000s brought back some of the nicer Mustang lines and I started thinking about getting back into my obsession. Unfortunately, the Mustang isn't really a family car. There are no back windows, to speak of. The husband wasn't exactly on board with the idea either, siting that I was now too old and too fat to drive such a car. I wasn't, and just to prove that point when I was planning my divorced life I punctuated that with the purchase of a screaming blue Mustang fastback. This car became my mechanical familiar. I loved her so much. Yes, I have since moved on, my familiar has gone to fill someone else's Mustang obsession but I put another iconic breed in my driveway, a Jaguar.
I have heard all the stories of Jaguars famously going nowhere but the garage but it called to me.
A Jaguar sedan somehow became affordable, with Mustang-like swagger and all-wheel drive. It seemed to be a perfect marriage.
Now my love life came into play and I suddenly had an old flame getting in and out of my brand new kitty but with much discomfort. I am short, he is not. As luck would have it I was able to trade upwards to a small SUV type Jaguar that both of us can get in and out of in comfort. It is a pretty nice car, no Mustang and no familiar but a nice car.
A few days ago Microsoft announced that they would no longer support Microsoft 7. Everyone now would have to upgrade to the latest version or buy new equipment. You're thinking what this has to do with cars? Well, yesterday my pretty nice Jaguar had a little glitch. It is just a little glitch so I called the service department to inquire about my tiny little issue and I was informed that my software needed to be upgraded. The Service Manager and I had a good laugh over trying to find the answer to my glitch in the Manual and then she informed me that some upgrades take as much as five hours! I might need a loaner car. Who doesn't love new software? Oh, I do, true confessions, a new look, new abilities, who knows what my very nice car will do. So I planned my trip for service to get my upgrade and I planned for a loaner car, just in case and as I was hanging up the phone there was the news story about Microsoft and Windows 7 and it suddenly occurred to me that my very nice, very expensive car might never get the chance to become a classic car due to software concerns. What happens when your $40,000+ car needs a software upgrade or sports a computer that is no longer supported by the manufacturer? Suddenly that 1964/5 Mustang started to look a whole lot better. It's an actual machine, not a rolling computer. Oh, I love fancy software, lots of bells and whistles but I think I really want an actual machine in my driveway.
It's probably too late to turn back that trend but I can dream.....
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