As Nicole mentioned the other day, we just bought a new car. I would have blogged about it that very night, but apparently Nicole didn't want to interrupt her "flow" and made me wait for her. So now that she's all done, here we go.
Things I miss about Merlin (our old Passat):
1. He was paid for.
2. We went on our honeymoon in Merlin, and despite what Nicole says, even I develop some sentimental attachment sometimes.
3. He was a tank. I could have done with a much lighter car when he rolled over a pipe on my foot a couple of years ago, but hey, how much less smashed could 500 or 1000 pounds lighter of a car have made my foot when that would still leave 2000 pounds on it?
4. He was paid for.
5. Nicole loved him. Lots.
6. On cool-ish (between 45 and 70 degrees) days the turbo made a nice little whistle. Turbo whistle is one of my favorite sounds in the whole world.
7. Dark-tinted windows made it hard for people to see inside... ;)
Things I won't miss about Merlin:
1. Although he was pretty fast once he got going, he was a _very_ sluggish starter. He didn't go much of anywhere anytime soon when you stepped on the gas until about 3000 RPM when the turbo started making boost.
2. Sweaty can leather seat syndrome.
3. Cost of parts and repairs. Being that he was the first Volkswagen that I've even touched in more than 20 years, I didn't dare tinker on/try to fix him. German engineering is spelled p-a-r-t-$
4. Flimsy cup-holders that wouldn't hold a bottle of Mountain Dew (a road trip essential).
5. Less-than-stellar gas mileage. You would have thought that a 4-cylinder engine with a turbo would have gotten decent mileage. Think again. 20 was a usual average around town, and sometimes we got almost 30 on the freeway.
6. Dim headlights.
All in all, Merlin was a great car except when paying for parts/repairs. We went on our honeymoon in him, went to Newport Beach and Disneyland in him, and numerous other road trips. He had a very comfortable ride, handled very well, and once he got going he was pretty darn fast for a 4 cylinder in that heavy of a car. Although I'm not much for tears (Nicole shed my share when we traded him in) I will honestly look back on our time with Merlin as a good time. I'm glad that he'll get fixed back up nice and shiny with some new parts. He deserves it.
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
Cars Part 1: A fond, but sad farewell.
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11 comments:
yeah, i definitely loved that car. hopefully he'll be fixed up and sold to an owner with...dare i say it...a garage. merlin would be in heaven.
ah Merlin - gonna miss that car. but am anxious to ride in yeti!
my favorite part about merlin were the seat warmers. so nice and toasty on a cold winter day.
This is not about your car...though the new one looks cool.
You don't know me, but I'm a friend of Nicole's from school, and also, coincidentally, a geek. (Or, at least, I was her friend. Hopefully I still am, now that I am conspiring behind her back. Or, well, in front of her face, since she's bound to see this eventually.)
Anyway, Nicole insists that she doesn't want to play "that stupid game", but I think secretly, deep down, she has an inner geek that is dying to come out. So I think we should conspire against her and get a game together. I might be able to come up with more players, if I had a game to invite them to. What do you think?
Janci, I'm totally in. She has a pretty wild imagination, and therefore doesn't know how good she'd be at "that stupid game".
I've got dice and rulebooks (except I haven't upgraded my Player's Handbook to v3.5 yet).
my wife and i love tsg!! we might find some time to come up and play...
yes, there are great things about driving an older car, and some about a new one. about the dim headlights: i heard a trick from a guy who restores cars. he told me not to wax over the lights. apparently over time that causes them to show more yellow and less bright.
Such a sad day when Merlin "went the way"....but such a happy day when Yeti "came to stay"...
Can you believe that rhyming?
I don't feel competent to run a D&D game. I play D&D (3.5...though I'm not sure how big a difference there is with 3.0) but the only system I know well enough to run is Orpheus, which is a White Wolf World of Darkness ghost story game. It's fun, but only if you like White Wolf mechanics. Otherwise, someone else would have to GM.
I could DM if I had to, but it's been a long time since I've actually got to play a character.
i am not amused by this plotting. not one bit amused.
You forgot another disadvantage of Merlin, especially important in this day of expensive gas. He not only used more, but required the premo kind at an extra $0.20 per gallon.
I am surprised that an inanimate object could be the subject of tears though, especially in light of all the disadvantages of Merlin as compared to Yeti.
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