Preston: So the car dealership is running a sale over Memorial Day weekend. (TOTALLY OUT OF THE BLUE:) How would you feel about a new car?
EDIT: Preston maintains that this post misrepresents him, and that, rather, he said we should "maybe, possibly, think about getting a new car."
MF (thinking): OOH SOMETHING SHINY!
MF (actually speaking): Do we need a new car?
**Fast-forward while Preston leads me through a logical list of pros and cons related to getting a new car. We are fast-forwarding partially to reach the heart of the story, and partially because I have absolutely no idea what he said. But I DID nod in agreement a lot. You're welcome, Preston.**
MF: So we would just trade in the one we have now (a 1998) for a newer model.
Preston: Yes, something like that. We'd upgrade to maybe a 2005. Probably stick with a sedan (what we have now).
MF: OK, well, within five years, I'd like to start having children, and a sedan with a car seat and two seventy-pound dogs in the back is going to be pretty snug.
Preston: Nah, it'll be fine.
Pause: I don't know why neither of us, during this whole conversation, ever considered the possibility that maybe, one day, we can own TWO cars. Anyways, back to it.
MF: Preston, there's barely enough room for the dogs back there as it is. And car seats are bulky, NOT sleek and streamlined. There will hardly be enough room for the dogs.
Preston: It'll be fine! We'll just stick the dogs on either side of the baby. They can give it licks. [This, gentle reader, I offer up to you as proof that Preston doesn't actually believe that we're going to have kids. "When we have kids" is, to Preston, some mythical time in the future when we will have a baseball field in our backyard full of beefy pro baseball players who sprung from my womb fully formed. To which my inner thighs say ABSOLUTELY ONE THOUSAND TIMES NO. But anyways. I digress.]
MF: Plus, think about how much stuff we take on trips for the dogs. Multiply that times five, and that's how much stuff we'll have to pack for a baby.
Preston: Well we could just keep this car for six or seven years and then we could get a bigger car, before the second one [child] came.
The conversation kind of petered out there, but I did call my Mom later, and she confirmed that on my first car trip, when I weighed 15 pounds, she probably brought 400 pounds of BABY STUFF with her (also, see! my number inflation is totally genetic!). However, obviously Preston's adult pro baseball player children will have their own cars, thus rendering the car seat/sedan conflict moot.
As someone with a now 30 pound almost two year old and THAT'S IT, I have to say that thanks be to the Land Rover. While I loooove my tried and true mini ford focus, it simply does not cut it for real trips. And when Lyd was little...let's just say it frequently looked like we were moving to another country...for a month every time we left the house. Also consider what a bear it is to lift a car seat UP from a sedan--it blows...actually having to wrestle a car seat blows either way.
ReplyDeleteThat wasn't helpful. Except I'd go for the wagon. Any day. Wagon wins, hands down.