2022. It’s surreal, living 22 years into the 21st century, everything literally changing around you and as you look at it. We spent the day at home and abed, getting up in the late afternoon to do a couple of chores and flirt with the idea of driving somewhere before the Winter sun set at 1630 hours or so. We didn’t, having a dinner of baked ziti and salad, the ziti kindly provided by our friends across the street, Jenny and I sending them home with the empty container of persimmon cookies that was brought over a couple of days prior and a half-dozen tamales that I’d bought from a woman who was selling them from a truck in the parking lot of the Smart & Final that we were getting the food for the evening’s festivities at. Us and the remainder of Rancho Cordova, apparently.
Dinner was at the Craine’s, where we’ve done our socializing for the last few years now. Spacious and tidy with a very modern kitchen, two boxer dogs and a spacious back yard where Scott can puff his cigars to his heart’s content while we bench race, it’s a gracious spot for all six of us.
Last night while Scotty held forth about fantasy garages full of Singers or Gunther Werk 911’s, Matt tossed out an interesting question: “Price no object, same with maintenance costs, what would you drive if you had to daily it?”
Scott and I both fell silent in thought for a moment, Scott alternating between a 911 and Audis of various sorts before settling on an RS6 Avant, wincing at the cost of tire replacement every 4k miles. Matt stayed with his Ford E-350 van, the one parked in his drive, citing its ability to carry two derpy yet adorable boxers and his time in the car’s chair- He’s had it for over a decade. I first said my G37S, but then moved to a Lexus LS Hybrid- Spacious, quick enough and room for 4 galoot sized humans. After a certain age, which I’ve passed about five years ago, it becomes more about comfort than speed.
We also touched on electric cars over the course of the night, me realizing that another component of aging is not going too many places because your in-laws house has sold, your parents are either dead or living in another country and there’s still a pandemic going on, though it appears that the virus will become endemic, like a few other things and our normal will readjust itself, never going back to the before times and maybe an electric car /hybrid two car garage is a very good solution for these changing times.
There’s a new world here, and no one has the correct answers anymore. We’re figuring it out as we go along.
Have a good year, I’ll see you very soon.
The Department Of Past Issues 