Kathleen McCall:
Occasional�� Muse�

2002-09-27 - 8:14 p.m.

Temporarily Irradiated

I have secret bourgeois leanings. I've thought that before, at various times, but this morning it is very clear, and I can't escape it.

I am driving a rental car again. This one is a 2003 Bonneville, fer Chrissake. I reserved an economy car, but they messed up and had to give me this at the same rate. I didn't really want it; it isn't an upgrade from my point of view. I prefer to drive a smaller car. But this is what I got.

And I like it. God help me, I like it.

I don't like it in the way that I wish I owned one, or that if I hit the lottery I would buy one; I'm not that far gone. It's a ridiculous car. It hardly fits in the garage.* Plus, there is something just ludicrous about driving a Bonneville because my POS Colt Wagon is in the radiator shop.

But still...

Damn, this car is quiet. "Is it a hybrid?" asks Younger Daughter, because she's used to riding in Leo's hybrid Prius, and she knows how quiet an electric car can be. The Bonneville is damn near silent. Just whooosh. The Colt, of course, has engine noise and a symphonic assortment of squeaks and rattles and that godawful front axle thumpthump that I have to have repaired next.

This car is extremely automatic. Not just the transmission (man, I hate an automatic transmission) but EVERYTHING. I couldn't slide the seat up so I could reach the pedals - couldn't find the lever. Well, of course it ISN'T a lever, it's a BUTTON. Windows and door locks and seat controls and mirrors...it's all buttons. Power living. It's scary.

Each button has a light, so one can find it in the dark. Last night (as we went to the non-bourgeois laundromat to dry our non-bourgeois laundry) the thing lit up like the cockpit of a Boeing 707. I wanted to yell, "Switch ON!"

But really I just like the way it whooshes down the road, with just the barest toe-pressure on the accelerator. Cruising. Driving the Colt is definitely driving, an engaging occupation. Driving the Bonneville is more like riding than driving - oh, is it me piloting this thing? Smoooooth.

Hand me my cell phone.

I have a whole lot about cars on my mind again these days, cars and money and decisions and whatnot. I'm hoping to have the Bonneville back with the rental people in less than 24 hours, so I won't have to battle my bourgeois leanings for too long. And if I can't do that, I know where there are a couple Westfalias and I can go peer in windows and re-orient myself to my true path.

But a little won't hurt. Every life needs a little. I'm going to go find some cd's to take in the car.

Whoosh.

* not only is it wayyy longer than the Colt, it's also amusing to be piloting it carefully into a garage filled with old wading pools, a burnt up refrigerator, a rusty push-mower...and I really did need a guy in overalls with two orange flags.

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