Seflsih and self centered, he roamed the city

My dream car has always been a Mustang. I would rather have a Mustang than a Ferrari, a Cadillac, a Jaguar, or even, hard as this is to believe, a moped.
Oh, no doubt mopeds are cool. How can a 250 pound man wearing a helmet three sizes too small for his head, a business suit and tie, and tires that squish way out to the side in an attempt to hold his weight...how, I ask you, can that NOT be cool? You know it's cool!

Sorry about that pause. I had a sudden craving for an orange cream soda. And since I happen to have 6...well, 5 now...in my fridge, I decided to snag one. Ahhhh...refreshing. (Drew, you are an idiot. Just tell your pointless little anecdote so the people can get back to important stuff. Okay.)
Well, the other day I was randomly surfing the internet and sent off a thing to carquote. This had external inspiration, but we won;t go there. Sure enough, they answered back. Today I went to test drive a Mustang.
Most of them they had on the lot were automatics. I, being the hard-headed moron I so truly am, do not like atuomatics. I do not like them Sam I am, I do not like them her nor there I do not like them anywhere. I do not like them on a boat, I do not like them on a goat, I do not like them on a bike, I do not like them on a trike. I do not like them on a truck, I simply simply think they suck. I do not like them Sam I am, I do not like auotmatics. from Siam.
(had to make it rhyme)
SO he took me across the street to look at a Saleen Cobra. I told him it was more than I wanted to spend. He wanted me to take it for a test drive. It was a 5 or 6 speed, don't actually remember.
We took it for a test drive. They are next to I-5, so we took it on the highway. He told me to punch it. I thought I did...he thought not. He wanted me to run that bad-smurf car up to 6000 rmps and I was quite uncomfortable at more than 4. I guess I am just not comfortable with performance engines.
I suspect it goes back to the cars I have driven. An Isuzu I-mark diesel. I don;t want to say it was slightly deficient in the power department...but I was beaten in a race by a businessman on a moped. Moped had four tires. Well, 2, but they way they sqashed out it looked like 4. Anyway, that was my first car. It may have been slow but it looked good. I think because of the racing stripe.
Well, not exactly a racing stripe...the car was initially all white. The guy I bought it from worked in auto repair. One day he decided to put a gold pinstripe on it. He did not like the way it looked so he expanded it. Then he expanded it a little more. Then a little more. When I had it, the "pinstripe" actually covered 1/3 of the car...the center third.
My second was a Toyota Tercel. Loved that car. Still, it was probably a 4 banger but it ran with all the power of a clown on stilts. I had no complaints, it got me there. I traded it in to make another person happy.
We got a Nissan...Sentra, I believe. Definitely more juice than either the I-Mark or the Tercel. Then again, reconstituted Lemonade has more juice than those had. But again....it got me there.
Later we bought a pick-up. Pickups are built for power, not speed. 'Nuff said. (Nellie Rooke just turned over in her (?) grave)
The Eclipse of course was an automatic. It could get up and go a bit.
When I took the Cobra and ran it up...I remembered the joy of shifting. The pure joy. The feeling, the....man, I LOVE shifting. For the first time in years, I enjoyed driving. It was cool. it was awesome. What a rush. It didn;t hurt that that thing went zero to 60 faster than the Isuzu went 0 to 10, but that is beside the point.
I love shifting. I would not say it makes me feel alive...I think that is a horrendous analogy. How exactly does one feel dead? Do you lay in a random casket, look at a flower basket, fold your hands and close your eyes? I am not sure. So while I won;t say it made me feel alive, I will say I felt a thrill, a zest for an activity I have not felt in a while.
Anyway, as I suggested before the test drive, it was a hair too expensive. A really, really long hair. I hope my other fond selfish dream is realized and Dreamcatchers sells like Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (and I know it is not that powerful or interesting in comparison, but I can dream) and I earn enough coin to live comfortably. I also hope I never get to the point where I own a car that would need a nice house payment to pay for it. I hope I do not lose that reality that a car, at the root, is simply something to take me from point a to point b. And paying the debt of a small 3rd world nation for my vanity of driving a supercharged autombile will never be a good idea, no matter how little or how much money I earn.
Oh, I did fulfill my car dream, though. I bought a Mustang. And yes, it is about as selfish, self-centered, and pointless as anything I have done in a long time. I did not need it. Not in the least. It helped noone. It does not make me smarter, more attractive, cooler, etc...it simply gets me from point a to point b. But man...I missed shifting. I missed driving. Now if you will excuse me, it is time to go play with the gears.