Temporary Exile

The Miata is our daily driver, which is both a blessing and a curse. The really good part is that a fun car makes the most mundane drive enjoyable, even the one to work. The curse part occurs after spending the weekend, like we did this last one, driving the windy, twisty roads in the mountains, because when you return home it makes those mundane drives mundane again.

When driving in the mountains you spend a lot of time in 2nd and 3rd gear, winding the engine out close to the redline as the g-forces through you from side to side in the car. As you turn the wheel, the engine is singing and the car goes right where it is aimed. Occasionally you approach the limits of adhesion and the tires start to complain, but then you ease off the wheel and give it bit more gas and you swoop through the curve. Barely time to enjoy your accomplishment when you see which way the road bends next and set up for it.

Then you are home. Shifting gears returns to a more sedate 4,000 RPM level. All the curves are 90 degree bends on city streets taken at 20 MPH so as to not land in the back seat of the minivan in front of you. Sigh. I have said it before (I could have sworn I’ve said it here, but a search turns up nothing) this must be how women feel after giving birth, a sort of post partum depression.

I saw a commercial the other day on TV for Celebrity Cruise Lines. This older couple return from their cruise and all they can do is remember their “celebrity” treatment. “My butler knew just how I took my tea,” he says. “I had fresh cut flowers everyday,” says she. My favorite part is the man is obviously back in his office and is trying to open some vertical blinds that aren’t acting right, “I like to think of this as a temporary exile,” he moans. That is what it is like for me to come back from a weekend driving in the mountains…