Personal Stimulation

I have a new ride that I'm struggling to get a handle on. Big cars are a bit unwieldy and not very responsive so I feel weird driving it. This is what it looks like:

Here's what my old car looked like:

Just kidding, it looks like an old, dirty version of this, except VR6 rather than TDI and a broken antenna:

And everyone who knows me well is instantly curious why I would now have this boat of a car. I've been planning a car purchase for quite a while now, and here I am driving around something that is the last car I would add to my list of consideration.

So why the land yacht? Well, on my drive home last night I noticed the temperature gauge in my car creeping up beyond the its position halfway up the dial.  And by the time I got home it was in the red and steam was beginning to billow out of the engine. Fortunately it at least waited until I was home to blow up on me. This morning I located the nearest autoshop, drove it over, and luckily arrived just about the time Mr Jetta was about to overheat again. 

Being unsure what the prognosis would be and thinking it might cost nearly as much as the car's worth and adding in the fact that I am planning to buy a new car very very soon, I figured I'd rent a car for today and maybe through the weekend for some shopping. A quick call to the enterprise just down the street provided me with a positive response and they drove over to pick me up... in the land yacht pictured above. 

Apparently the prolonged sub-zero temps we've been suffering through lately has put a lot of people in the situation I find myself in, and this was the only car they had left so I got it at a bargain basement price. 

I also found myself in a similar situation earlier this week. I had a plumber out to do some work that I've been putting off for quite some time. In chatting with him it turns out that they're also incredibly busy repairing all sorts of busted and frozen pipes. 

There are a ton of depressing ways to look at our current cold snap, mostly involving personal discomfort.  But apparently the tiny silver lining to this massive thunderhead of doom is a forced economic stimulus. Plenty of people are being forced to shell out extra unplanned cash for bare necessities they (I) took for granted. You're welcome economy. I'm glad to have participated in your stimulation.

Now can I get my money back through massive economic growth next year and a gargantuan raise, please? Tit for tat, you know.