Musings

Something I’ve been thinking about lately…

I really don’t like when it is raining and the temperature gauge in the car reads 42 degrees at eight o’clock in the morning when I am headed to the gym. Especially when I have dragged myself out of my warm bed to do this. Especially when it is 42 degrees and it is still EARLY fall. It makes me shiver just to think about it. I have found that what I DO like (a lot) is heated seats. Granted this is a feature in the Routan that I was hoping not to try out until at least mid-November, I am nonetheless very, very pleased. It is a treat. From my years as a runner, I know that if you can keep your feet dry and wear a hat to keep the heat from escaping your head, you can manage to keep yourself reasonably warm. I had no idea that you could warm your entire body through starting in your bottom.

Another thing that’s been on my mind while driving around in the Routan…

For the past few months, I have been driving the same route at about the same time every day to and from soccer practice at the high school where I coach. Certainly there are other people driving the same roads to and from their own daily activities at the same time each day. It would seem probable that our routes are intersecting at some point on a regular basis. In fact, there could be quite a few of these occurrences with different vehicles en route. However, I am terrible at noticing and remembering cars in this way unless they have a very distinguishable characteristic (like, say, the name of their blog plastered down the side of the car). I wonder how many of the drivers who see me on the road every day have been curious enough about what I might be doing to check out my Routan blog. Further, I wonder how many of these drivers might see me on the road every day and wonder about my travels in the Routan, but have never looked at the blog to find out. What about all the people who see the Routan parked at the school where I coach? If it were me, I’m pretty sure I would check out the blog. Maybe not the first time I noticed the Routan, but certainly if a pattern developed in the sightings of the blog-emblazoned vehicle.

And then there is this game I play with myself…

I invented this little pastime on a road trip this summer. On the satellite radio in the Routan, we have some of the station presets set to the ‘90’s channel, the ‘80’s, ‘70’s and ‘60’s channel. To play my game, all you do is select one of these decade stations and then guess what year within that decade the song that is playing was released. When you push the “info” button on the radio, the artist, song title and year are displayed revealing the correct answer. This activity proved very entertaining on our trips. It provided plenty of opportunities for nostalgic reflection as Dan and I worked chapters of our lives like puzzle pieces trying to figure out the exact year a song was released. This method worked fairly reliably for the ‘90’s and ‘80’s songs. We both rot at the ‘70’s. And I alone pretty much rock the ‘60’s…only because 1. I did grow up with a juke box in my basement and 2. This game, I admit, is a total rip-off of a game my dad used to play (and probably still does play) on car rides. He would turn on the oldies radio station in the car and at the start of each song would call out “The Dave Clark Five, 1964”, or “The Four Tops, 1966, or my favorite, “Anyone know this one? The Beach Boys, 1963”. The modern technology we are lucky enough to have on board the Routan simply adds a dimension to the game by making the verification of the year simple and immediate (though my brothers and I never doubted the validity of my dad’s confident declarations even without a resource on board our family station wagon for checking the info). So now, I find myself playing this game solo as I drive around town running errands with the kids in the backseat. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.