Come on and have some lemonade

[austin_dern]

The car again: Toyota had a few models of the Something which offered heated seats but no navigation console, so the question came to what colors they had, and were there any suiting my parents' taste? If this could be worked out, we'd be buying a car that day. If not, not. I figured my mother would go for a blue car, and my father would refuse to offer an alternate choice however much he hated it. In fact, my father was mostly worried that they'd get the light green car which they'd test-driven the day before, which he thought looked like the color of vomit, although I didn't think it's that bad. The car sales person said if we wanted a light blue car, like the one we test-drove that morning, it was available. This lead to controversy: we may not know everything, but one thing we did know was the car we test-drove that morning was grey.

So I was left behind to watch my mother's purse and such accoutrements while my parents went out to examine very closely what Toyota's Great Big Book Of EveryCar says is light blue compared to what it says is grey, and after some examination in the direct sunlight they came to agree that yes, indeed, this was more of a light blue than it was a grey. Meanwhile, my father was supportive of pretty much any color that wasn't light green; and my mother wanted any light color except absolutely not white. (I note that my sometimes-troubled car is white.) So light blue was judged suitable. It was, in principle, a deal.

The car guy needed paperwork from the old car -- most importantly, the insurance card, so I made the first of several trips out to get paperwork from the glove compartment. He also needed the registration, and later on the financing paperwork from it. So I gave in and brought in the whole book, including such things of no interest to anyone as receipts from ancient oil changes. But this left me free to try emptying out the old car. Fortunately, my father had a couple of extra plastic bags -- of course he had -- and I was able to put stuff in. I also discovered how much of the loose change in the cupholder was actually grit (more than you'd think), various little bolts or doohickeys, a single glove (the other had worn out), and even a tube of Chapstik which had previously shocked a couple in the Grand Canyon. There's kind of a story behind that.

Trivia: Reuters lost £675/8s/9d through its Berlin Agency in the first half of 1870. Source: The Power of News: The History of Reuters, Donald Read.

Currently Reading: A Ball, A Dog, and a Monkey: 1957 - The Space Race Begins, Michael D'Antonio.

Comments

[chefmongoose.livejournal.com]

Ahhh. The car is Bugs Bunny Blue-Grey.

And I am, naturally, curious to hear the story behind the Chapstik.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

It's a touch more blue than Bugs Bunny, but, yeah, it's kind of near that on the color wheel.

The Chapstik, well, it's actually some moderately upscale thing in a fancier tube. My parents and one of my mother's college friends went on a tour of the Grand Canyon; they often go on package tours together. It's an interesting dynamic as my mother and her friend have been friends for, well, decades and they fall instantly into the sort of intimacy that old roommates who loved the experience will have. And my father gets along very well with the friend since they've got neatly compatible personalities.

So, throughout the tour, other folks noticed my father and these two women of about the same age with whom he was travelling and all of whom were clearly close in some fashion.

Finally, while riding a boat down the Grand Canyon, my mother broke out the Fancy Chapstik. She was delighted with the (taste? Feel? Whatever it is that makes a superior Chapstik experience), and immediately told her friend that she simply had to try it, and she did, and she was also delighted with the Fancy Chapstik.

So finally one of the other men, who'd been prodding around everyone's business the entire tour, leaned over to my father and asked, you know, just what is the relationship between you all?

And my father lighted up and instantly said, ``Oh! We're Mormons!''

The man and (they assumed) his wife looked shocked and never asked them another question the rest of the trip. My mother's friend laughed appreciatively. My mother glared at my father.

It was after getting back that my mother lost the Fancy Chapstik, though.

[chefmongoose.livejournal.com]

Ahhh. Burt's Bees, most likely. And it is a nice upgraded Chapstik, which I don't feel necessary to purchase. It is a small but important macho point for me to use only basic Chapstick. (Plus, the mint tube I tried once makes my lips overly tingle.)

Also, my compliments to your father for a snappy answer.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

This was more upscale than that, and lacked any brand identifier on the casing by the time I saw it. I think it was probably sold through a makeup counter.

In Singapore I relied on Lip-Ice, which I can't find in the United States even though it was made in New York state. In particular, its lemon flavor was so delicious that I'm still licking my lips from it, which probably was part of the sales strategy.

I don't care for jokes about Mormon Polygamy -- I think the premise is tired, not to mention cliche -- but, well, sometimes the world sets up one logical joke and you have to embrace it.

[billfl.livejournal.com]

The Toyota Something is a good car - not as relaible as the Chevy Whatsit, but with better mileage and suspension than either the Ford Doodad or the Nissan Thingamabob.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Curiously, we never got to a Ford or Nissan dealership, at least in the parts of this saga to which I was privy. Although the Toyota dealership did, nearly twenty years ago, used to be a Nissan dealership, and at that one my mother finally put her foot down and insisted on buying a new car instead of used cars which my father swore he could fix. This gradually convinced him that there were pleasures to be had in a car for which he could go years without having to crawl underneath the engine on a cold, rainy winter morning.