Bucket List Item #5

Bucket List Item #5

#5. I will acquire a classic muscle car.  (I cleared it with my wife).   

 This post is an update to: Making A Bucket List (posted Monday, February 11, 2013 http://www.being50.com/2013/02/making-bucket-list.html ).  I have many friends that still have their favorite muscle cars, but I finally took a close look and noticed that the ownership is not like the first time (around) ownership.  The cars are either in the garage or otherwise in storage.  They only come out for car shows or car rallies.  They are definitely kept out of sight during the winter months (at least in my neck of the woods).  I thought I would be a different kind of owner, I would use mine for every day shopping, or just plain old pleasure driving year round.

So I drove around for the most part of a week around Southern California in a new bright Yellow Camaro SS.  The most powerful engine they make for Camaro, every available option from sunroof, to special wheels, the information you need as a driver is projected on the windshield, extreme quality sound system, and more power than an old hotrod like me should ever be able to get his hands on.  One time too many I remember telling my passenger, "I feel like an astronaut getting into a space capsule," even than it didn't sink in.  The car is a challenge waiting to be made to anyone on the freeway trying to prove that his car is better.  Maybe you can imagine the restraint that it takes not to accept the challenge.

At this point I have proven all I have to prove.  After all not only am I driving a very powerful car but I know how to handle it.  I will vow down to this car in the area of notices and good looks.  Every where we went people took notice and actually talked about it.  I had one young man about 9 years old, step out of his fathers pickup truck at a gas station to tell me that I was driving a very nice Camaro and that he had seen it in the movie Transformers.  I was so proud that a young child would go out of his way to compliment my ride.  Other than the compliment the majority of notices were on the freeway, where drivers would pull up and rev their engines to challenge me.  I would just nod my head to acknowledge them, and wave at them.  The Highway Patrol also noticed me and would give a glance my way on the freeway.

Somehow I felt like an old gunslinger that has changed his life and doesn't want to be tested anymore, but I am not sure that I wouldn't react to a challenge down the road and take on the young whipper snappers, and their effort to take on the great Kahuna.

Of course I am being silly, my resolve is strong not to misbehave as I did when I was young.  However, my thoughts of how I would handle my future muscle car is defective, my original plan never took in consideration the three young granddaughters that accompany me everywhere.  I am more like a butler to three princesses.  I can't predict the future but If I could, I might predict a new minivan loaded with all the bells and whistles maybe even a built in vacuum cleaner.  The best is yet to come….