Cars

[bertine]

As a lot of you know, my car is old and falling apart. It only has 120k on it but it has been in a couple accidents, one where it was hit by a bus while parked, and so it just doesn't drive that great. However, I hate the idea of buying a new car when I have one that still works, gets 28 miles to the gallon and is paid for.

In 68 days my boyfriend, gwangi, won't be needing his car, since he will be in boot camp. After he gets out of boot camp he will be in OCS then some sort of training. His plan is to buy a new car (a Mustang since he has wanted one since he was 6). We have been discussing selling my car and then transferring the title of his car to me since it is much newer and hasn't been hit by a bus.

It seems like a good solution but I am oddly attached to my car.

Comments

[gwangi.livejournal.com]

The V6 version of the Mustang gets 31 on the highway. The V8, which is probably what I'd go with because hey, 420bph is pretty awesome, does 25. My current car, a Neon, gets about 36, but that's because it has a little teeny engine. I want to be able to accelerate from 65 to 75 in a short enough time to get around somebody on a two lane road. The Neon just can't do that.

[sterlingphoenix.livejournal.com]

25mph, sure, if you ONLY drive on the highway and ONLY in ideal conditions. It gets 16 city, again, in IDEAL conditions. No revving up and peeling out of stop signs, no passing like a maniac on freeways, no driving in the winter, etc. You'll be lucky if you average 18.

And oh yeah, 420 bph, why didn't you say so. You totally need that for... uh... wait, don't tell me... hmmm... Ok, why don't you actually tell me what anyone needs that for?

[gwangi.livejournal.com]

It's because I have testicles, mostly.

[sterlingphoenix.livejournal.com]

Sounds more like you're compensating for the lack of them.

[gwangi.livejournal.com]

Look man, I'm sorry that you're never going to be an astronaut or a cowboy or whatever, but that doesn't mean you should rag on other people's childhood dreams. I was rather under the impression that working hard for something you want and thus obtaining it was what life was all about. I want a Mustang. Ain't so hard, innit?

[sterlingphoenix.livejournal.com]

You make a convincing argument. No, wait, the other thing. Just go ahead and say "Hey I know no normal person needs this car, and in getting it I'm contributing to one of the biggest problem American society and mankind in general suffer from, but fuck it, my childhood dreams, while not grounded in any kind of sensible reality, are, in fact, the most important thing in the world." Don't try and make this about your alledged genitalia.

[gwangi.livejournal.com]

If I was to follow your line of logic, I'd have to go live in a yurt somewhere while eating nothing but goat cheese and sugarbeets. We live in a first world country, and I'm not about to apologize for having first world things. The laptop I'm typing on right now cost more than the average Burmese dude makes in a year. Should I have bought one half as expensive and sent the rest of the money to them? Should I not have gotten one at all and instead just written paper letters to anybody I want to communicate with? No, because it's not my fault that they have a shitty government. I am not responsible for the problems of the rest of the world, and so feel no guilt about them.

(...although there's a pretty decent chance that at some time in the next couple of years I'll be fighting to free the people of Afghanistan from an oppressive regime and look forward to helping. Ironic, that. If you want to lend a hand, I know a recruiter you can talk to.)

The idea that we should only have things that we need, and not what we want, has been tried before. As an economic system, it fails every time. Who are you to decide what's reasonable for me? I will be working hard, and so will be rewarded for that work. The form of the reward is a personal decision, just as it should be. Sorry, but them's the breaks.

[sterlingphoenix.livejournal.com]

I'd like to hope you're being this funny on purpose, because then you could surely find a career as a comedian, but I somehow get the impression you're being serious.

Which actually makes this all even MORE funny.

[gwangi.livejournal.com]

So am I to assume that you left this comment just to have the last word? Because it doesn't really add anything to the discussion. If so, it's fine, but you probably oughta at least say that.

[bertine.livejournal.com]

Ok, seriously, can you stop this? I don't care if you two have this discussion but I don't want this in my email. Seriously, Yaron, you are being a jerk, it is annoying me because Zach is my boyfriend and I want to defend him (even though he is an adult and capable of standing up for himself).

So, for our friendship, please knock it off.


Thank you.