early evening dino-Rooster Drives New car Mistake
“Actually, Dan,” Nazy interrupts. “Melika is in the process of replacing her car.”
“Ah, yes.” I replied. “She sold the Porsche, but the replacement..”
“She is buying an SUV, Dan. From a Porsche to an SUV. Can you believe that?”
“She is over-reacting to the ‘Mother’ thing, Nazy. Tiger can’t even play soccer yet.”
“Worse, her SUV hasn’t arrived yet. She’s been driving a rental car for a month.”
“A rental Chevrolet, my dear. It’s not exactly the image Melika normally conveys. In fact, I’m shocked.” I thought about our time in Hanover…
Flashbacks
Hanover, NH
It was a typical New Hampshire winter day. The temperature was hovering in the single digits (Fahrenheit), there was snow on the ground and the wind was howling. I was driving Melika to school in VAN-GO the purple mini-van, pride of The Martin Family’s motor transport fleet.
“Drop me here,” Melika said frantically.
“But, Melika, I haven’t gotten to the school.”
“I don’t want my friends to see me getting out of a van. I’ll walk the rest of the way.”
“It’s a mini-van, Melika. And you wanted this color when we bought it. You liked the four captain’s seats. You..”
“Dad! Stop the car. I need to walk the rest of the way.”
I pulled the (mini)van to the side of the street. But Melika didn’t get out.
“Well?” I said.
“I’m waiting for Beth to turn the corner, Dad. Why didn’t we take the real car?”
The “real car”, ‘my’ Eagle Talon, was a two-seat, All-Wheel-Drive sports car. It was being repaired. In fact, ‘being repaired’ was its normal state.
A few years later, Melika, going to college at UCSB in California, was in Hanover for The Martin Family Christmas. The van was gone, but the sports car remained. Melika was on a mission.
“You don’t need the Talon, Dad. Besides, everyone at UCSB has a car. I need a car.”
“You are wrong, Melika.”
“Everyone has a car, Dad.”
“You are at UCSB and you don’t have a car. So, everyone doesn’t have a car.”
“Daaad..”
“But I am impressed that you like a car that I bought.”
In the end, we shipped the 100,000+ mile sports car to Melika in California. It lasted longer than Darius’ brand new car. (Melika believed me when I said you had to regularly change the oil.)
End Flashback
But..back to Melika’s current car situation. She came by this week in the bare-bones, red(ish), very basic Chevrolet sedan to drop the baby off before she headed to the office.
“So, Melika,” I asked. “Where do you park the Chevy?”
“I can park at the Grenada lot by the office.”
“I know that. But aren’t you afraid your colleagues will see you driving that…?”
“Dad!” Melika replied. “Of course not,” Melika thought. “I park in the basement away from everyone.”
Melika’s rental car, which she actually drove for about a month, was minimally equipped. It was sans air conditioning and used little lever-like things to move the windows up and down. As I compose this letter, she is on the way to LA to pick up her Escalade.
Meanwhile, Nazy and I moved from 4 doors to 2 doors, from larger to smaller and from blue to red. it’s possible that we’ve all made a mistake.
This week we also completed our adjustment to the end of daily savings time. (Or, as they call it in Europe, ‘Summer Time’.) This quaint twice-a-year exercise is the government’s way of letting even non-flyers experience jet-lag. It’s also..
“ .. a typical idea from government, Nazy.” I explained. “In summer, they want us to believe that they’ve created an extra hour during the summer. That’s like believing you can make a bigger blanket if you cut 12 inches off the top and sew it onto the bottom. It’s..”
“Even worse, Dan, they do it at the wrong time of the year. Why change the time so that the sun sets later during the summer when it already sets later? We need the longer light during the winter. In fact, because of this stupid change, now it’s dark in the early evening.”
“Before the change, Nazy, it was dark in the early morning.”
“Really!?” Nazy, who hasn’t experienced early morning in decades, was shocked.
As regular readers know, Nazy likes to collect..
“Roosters! I have porcelain roosters, dishes with roosters, a pewter rooster. And guess what?”
“You want to get a live rooster?”
“Of course not! Live roosters are loud.”
“Well, if it’s not live…”
“It is a teak rooster. It’s huge.”
“Life size?”
“No, Dan. Dinosaur size.”
“Dinosaur? Like pterodactyl?”
“No, Dinosaur like gigantasaurous.”
Finally, our young grand(est)son is growing hair. I realize that may not sound impressive. However, in spite of the fact that I’m trying hard (and am much more experienced than him), I haven’t been able to replicate this feat of a pre-toddler. And to rub it in, Nazy suggested:
“You need a Mohawk, Dan.”
“Look at me, Nazy.” I replied.
“A horizontal Mohawk.”
Last Week’s Letter click here
Tiger.. November 2014
5 Months 