Ed Icionsub

Someone asked me today about my first car. That’s a complicated question. Do you mean the first car that I ever drove or the first car that I bought with my own money?

When I was learning to drive at 15 and 16 years old, I was given exclusive use of an old, three speed SAAB by my dad. I was allowed to drive the SAAB anywhere I wanted, as long as I put gas in it before bringing it home. Under no circumstances was I to ever allow the gas tank to get below half full. I took good care of that car and never let the tank get even less than 3/4 full.

But the first car that I bought on my own was 4 years later. I went to a Lincoln Mercury dealership and shopped the lot. I decided I wanted a new little sports car, called the Capri. It was really sharp and was mechanically sound. I kept that car for 4 years, until it was paid off, and then I sold it to get a bigger car. Sure wish I still had that little car – it would be a classic antique.

These day, when you are talking about a clean car, you aren’t talking about your recent trip to the full service car wash. You are talking about Hybrids. The buzz words are now green and clean when you are talking about cars and trucks.

I was amazed to find out that my mother, at her age, has bought a new Honda because she has been wanting to get a hybrid. I would have thought she would be more concerned about comfort than the environment. Just goes to show!

My brother has a honda accord and he loves it. I guess when it is time to do car shopping, I’ll have to go drive his for a day and see if I like it enough to buy one for our household.

I guess I will find out shortly if the wife reads my blog. If you see a nuclear cloud erupt over Nashville tonight, that might be my house following the discussion.

I’m seriously thinking about buying this HD 2009 Softail. A sweet ride and I’m perfectly willing and eager to take the wife on rides with me. Honey. Sweetie.

My daughter just called from the side of the road in Houston. Her car has broken down and she needed me to help her find someplace to fix it. Of course, this has to be the holiday weekend and everyone is going to be going out of town or closed.

Her Acura Integra won’t start. She’s at the mall, so that’s good. At least she isn’t stranded on the side of the highway. She can go back into the mall and have a frappacino and make calls on her cell phone in air conditioned comfort while Dad deals with the problem for her.

I did a quick search for Houston auto repair and found a place to call. I hope that calling on a Friday afternoon isn’t going to be a problem. I know most of the places around here will be closed Saturday and Sunday, as usual, but will also be closed on Monday for the Fourth of July holiday.

Hopefully it is something simple, like a  tune up or minor repair. That’s the problem of having the kids grow up and move out of the house and try to be all independent. They don’t do things like simple auto maintenance, and next thing you now, they didn’t do a tune up when needed and then the car won’t start and they call on Dad to help them out.

Ever since the Super Bowl we have been subjected to this awful commercial featuring a sock monkey and a couple other odd characters with an annoying repetitive song. I don’t care if they want to sell me a car for two hundred bucks. For making me watch and hear this awful sock monkey commercial ten thousand times, I will never ever buy one of those cars.

Rated by the numbers of tickets per number of residents, the Top 10 states that gave out the most speeding tickets last year are:

10. Massachusetts

9. Delaware

8. South Carolina

7. New Mexico

6. Maryland

5. Mississippi

4. North Dakota

3. Vermont

2. Wyoming

1. Washington, D.C.

When we first got married, we celebrated the blending of our two families by moving to a new, bigger house and changing out all the family vehicles. At the time, I had been driving a Jeep Cherokee and my fiance was driving a little Toyota Corolla. So we went car shopping and traded in the Corolla for a new minivan and a convertible. We had compared toyota corolla prices for a newer model, and it was hard to make a decision. The Corolla is a well made, durable car that gets great gas mileage and can last for years if you take care of it properly. We wanted to buy something that would last longer than the monthly car payments, and Toyotas always manage to do that.

Years later, we find ourselves at another crossroads – we will soon be empty nesters. It looks like we are about to have a good reason to trade in our current vehicles and make a big switch again. As our lives change, so should our vehicles.

So I’ve been checking ford mustang prices and my wife has been comparing  toyota venza prices. I’m excited about car shopping again after all these years – it’s a big investment and the decision will impact our lives for at least 5 years, so we want to be smart about thee next cars that we buy.

This afternoon our mail carrier was mad that my houseguest had, in all her innocence, parked a little too close to me curbside mailbox and he drove off without leaving my mail. I know I will get it tomorrow and there was more than likely nothing time sensitive in my mail. But I had no idea it would be too much trouble to get out of the mail truck and walk a couple steps to do his job. Out here in the suburbs, house mailboxes are at the curb, mounted on a post, and sometimes people park in front of the mailbox, blocking easy access from the street.

When we lived downtown our mail was delivered by a postal worker who parked a mailtruck at the top of the hill and walked down to our condo building with a huge sack of mail. I had a beautiful wall mount mailbox on the condo’s exterior wall by my front door. The postal worker walked the condo walkways and elevators to deliver my mail and that of my neighbors directly to the wall mounted mailboxes throughout our condo development.

I always thought it was smart of the mail carrier to park at the top of the hill and walk down with a full sack of mail. Then, after the mail had been delivered and the sack was empty, his trek up the hill was much easier than if he had parked at the bottom of the hill and had to climb up with a full, heavy load of mail.

Although I had to miss the SXSW festival and conference in Austin this year, I had the chance to go to Houston for a short business trip. It was on the condition that I drive my own car, to deliver a special laser machine to one of the owners in Houston, and then I drove over to Austin to catch a show. It was a whirlwind trip, but a ton of fun.

Before I could leave I had to get an oil change for my Tahoe and when I found out from my boss that I could put that expense on my expense report, I decided to go ahead and get a tune up, too. The only reason they are being so generous to me is that they really need to get this laser delivered right away, and they cannot ship it on an airplane without a lot of trouble and extra expense for crating and insuring it. So paying me to drive it and covering my vehicle expenses are still a bargain for them.

Last time I was in Houston was right after Hurricane Katrina had wiped out New Orleans. I had car trouble while I was in Houston – helping the same business owner, as a matter of fact. I was staying in a nice hotel out near the Woodlands and needed to find a Houston auto repair shop without the benefit of a yellow pages or the internet. Thankfully, the desk clerk at the hotel was able to give me good directions and I got it taken care of.

My step daughter was on her way to work when a deer ran out of the woods and hit the front end of her car. Thankfully, she was not hurt. The deer apparently was able to get up and run off, so it looks like the car got the short end of the deal.