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August 11, 2004
safe and sound
so now in my beautifully manicured front lawn sits my westy, purring like a kitten. it's all i can do not to take her to work today, but i'm oncall, and i fear i'll be paged while travelling slowly down highway 54, and be unable to get in to work quickly enough.
i did take her to the station last night for my show where leesh was appropriately excited by her presence in the parking lot. and i swear, more people-- guys mostly-- stare at me driving the van than do the bug. i kind of dig it. just imagine when she's a gorgeous dark blue and covered with shoes!
i feel very safe driving her-- i feel like she's not going to let me down, and like she's not going to have any self-damaging catastrophic failures. perhaps i've simply transferred responsibility in my mind from me to mark, which is... incorrect. in a car like this, the owner is definitely responsible for knowing just what is going on, i think.
i definitely expect to be driving her around town in the evenings and on the weekends now. and to work sometimes, starting next week. it would be great if i could prolong the time until spacepod needs his next timing belt change, which will be in 2k miles. that's a big service, and i want to put my car money into the westy for the next two months, probably.
they didn't have the bill ready for me yesterday, but they let me take her home anyway. which is one of the many cool things about a place like lonnie's. or, well, about lonnie. so i don't find out until today what the damage is. i'm a little nervous!
Posted by lisa at August 11, 2004 08:04 AM | TrackBack
Comments
welcome home 9 Westy!!!!
You know, ever since you got her I see Westies all the time. I'm sure they were there before but I just didn't notice them.
Posted by: Sarah on August 11, 2004 09:05 AM
i do, too. the shape is so distinctive that once you become attuned to it, they really pop out at you.
Posted by: lisa on August 11, 2004 09:40 AM
I hate to be a spoilsport, but if you feel safer in 9 westy than spacepod, maybe you should read "Big and Bad": http://www.gladwell.com/2004/2004_01_12_a_suv.html It's mostly about SUV safety. The writer says most people feel safer in larger, taller vehicles because they're higher up and feel more substantial. Unfortunately, we're not actually safer in those cases -- usually the opposite is true. I comfort myself with that when I'm driving my Mustang GT at 135 mph down Highway 147 at 3 in the morning in the rain. ;)
Posted by: Joseph H Vilas on August 11, 2004 08:11 PM
well, i never said i felt safer in the westy. given the way that it handles, i generally feel less safe in it, and never plan to take it on an interstate (or 147) or take it over 55mph.
however, it should be noted that in the case of a head-on collision, a vw vanagon will tend to climb on top of the vehicle it's run into, crushing the occupants of said vehicle. i'm actually not too enthused about this, to be honest.
but never play chicken with a vanagon.
Posted by: spacegrrl on August 11, 2004 10:33 PM
ah. when i said, "i feel safe driving her", i meant that i felt like mechanically, she's safe to drive-- she's not going to have a breakdown that puts me or others at risk, or that will ruin the engine.
Posted by: spacegrrl on August 11, 2004 10:40 PM
ok, so a) your comment won't post right away because i have to approve it first and b) you might get a server error but your comment probably posted anyway and c) previewing doesn't work so i've removed the preview button.