This Is NOT My New Car

"What's it going to take to get you into this car today?"

Cars are a societal barometer for success and I can’t figure out why. Driving around lately I’ve been paying close attention to the people behind the wheel of cars. What do they do? How does SHE afford THAT? Why did that woman feel it necessary to have a license plate that says “PEGS BMW” on it? I’ve yet to see someone with a plate that says “BOBS CHVY.”

Incredibly superficial judgments. And, that’s my point. The car you drive should have nothing to do with the level of success you’ve achieved. But, it does. And, why is that?

Sam Walton drove an old red pickup. Most of us have read that and, of course, he died a billionaire. On the other hand, I also read once that more than 70 percent of all Lexus cars (I don’t know how to write the plural of Lexus. Lexee? Lexi?) are leased. For the life of me, I can’t find a source but I ran across it in a trade journal a few years ago. My point on that is that a lot of us could probably afford a $399 per month Lexus lease that would allow us to drive a nice status symbol and announce to the world that “Hey, I’m successful. I’m driving a Lexus.”

It seems our cars have become mobile billboards for how well we’re doing, yet it’s horribly inaccurate in light of most statistical information on the economy. “Look at me, I’m driving a Lexus!” someone shouts. And, in a whisper, the same person should be saying “I’m also leveraged to the eyeballs and my mortgage is about to reset!”

We drive a 12-year-old Honda Civic with 199,000 miles. My goal for the last several years has been to get that thing to 200K and it looks like we’re going to make it. I’ve been anal retentive with the maintenance, have an incredible mechanic who has no problem telling me “you don’t need that fixed quite yet” and I’ve treated the car well, hence its long life.

Our other car is a six-year-old Nissan Pathfinder with only 55,000 miles on it. It’s a gas-guzzling SUV that was purchased when fuel was at least $1.50 cheaper than it is now. It’s functional for the size and activity level of our family. It’s paid for. We use it for travel, not for running errands down the street, and I make no apologies for it. We knew what we were getting into when we bought it and we plan to drive it into the ground.

Why is it, then, that I feel so much “better” sometimes, when I drive around in the Nissan than the Honda? I don’t feel like someone is looking at the rust spots thinking “nice beater.” I feel like, yeah, my dress shirt and power tie match the PF a little better than the Civic. But, then, there are days when I like the mixed message that I’m sending. “Hey, I’m gainfully employed, yet I’m still driving this ‘beater.’”

It’s crazy, I guess. Another one of those things about our society that I just don’t understand.

Surfing is Hard

We really do. . .

Day 2 of our surfing safari dawned bright and beautiful and we headed down to the beach at Huntington, er, Beach, to find a place to learn how to surf. Found Zach's Surf Shop and had a great lesson from a very cool guy named Chris.

Let me tell you that I've gained a lot more respect for people like Laird Hamilton and other big-wave surfers who make it look incredibly easy. Had expected it to be tough and, big surprise, it was.

To begin, we pulled on our wetsuits, necessary in the 58-degree water, and headed down to the water for our lesson. Began with a little work on the sand, learning how to hop up from your stomach to a standing position. Oh sure, it worked great on land. Sadly, it's a different story once you're on your stomach riding a wave.

It's exhausting, difficult, exhilarating, frustrating, wet, salty, exciting and tranquil, all at the same time. Jen and I were both able to "get up" a couple of times for a short second or two, before eating the Pacific. After the hour of instruction, our teacher left us with good wishes and headed back up, while we took a break.

We rested for a while and then got back at it. About 10 minutes into our second session, I took a major, Greg Brady-style, wipeout that left me shaken and stirred at the same time. I came off the board face first, churned by the wave behind me, and then got slammed by a wave breaking from the side at the same time. Went down once, came back up, gulped air before being slammed down again, and then went down again. At this point, I raised up my hand, hoping Jen had seen me, as I prepared to go down again. Popped up this time instead, not too much worse for the wear, but feeling a little trashed.

Despite all that, it was a great experience and I think we're going to hit it again on Friday. We'll most likely try Newport Beach after we got a tip that it might be a little easier wave than what we found at Huntington Beach. All in all, we're sunburned, a little sore, but feeling pretty cool that we've tried something new that we've wanted to do for a long while.

On Friday, I'll make sure I'm not wearing that tiki idol that I found at the construction site. . .

California Dreaming

Only in California. . .

Actually, it's not a dream. We're here. Day 1 of Surfing Safari 2008. Jen and I have ventured to California to try out surfing. Been on our To Do list for a long time and we finally pulled the trigger on the plan about six weeks ago when we realized that it'd been about a year since we'd been anywhere of significance.

Good flight out of ORD today, though we had a bit of an incident in midair. About halfway into the 4.5 hour flight, there was a little commotion up near the front of the coach section. Woman had passed out, apparently, and the flight attendants had mobilized, asked on the intercom if there was a doctor on board, which there was, and attempted to help the lady. Calm was restored fairly quickly and the rest of the flight passed without incident. The captain even dipped the wing of our Boeing 757 to give the passengers a better view as we passed over the Grand Canyon.

While it's not exactly the warmest time to be in Cali, temps are in the high 60s to low 70s, it beats the hell out of the Midwest, which is still firmly locked into winter. We're staying in Huntington Beach, which has some fairly good surfing, we've found out, though it's not the high season for that activity. But, we're going to give it a whirl tomorrow and see what we can learn. This is Jen's first trip to the land of the Governator, my fourth, and it's nice for us to be able to get away for a while, if only for a few days.