I justified to to myself by saying "Hey, you've been "diligently" at your job for 20 years, your kid just turned 21 so you're theoretically done there, you took the plunge and went back to school....you've been Mr. Responsible, you deserve a toy....."
I thought about building an old truck or a street rod.
I thought about buying something stupid-fast.
I thought heavily about another motorcycle.
I still felt guilty and irresponsible. I have a Honda Element that's paid for, everything works and it does what I need it to do: haul people and "stuff". But still.....
I said to myself "What would I do with an old truck or street rod?" and the answer came back "Drive it to "car nights", park it and stand around and BS...." Not exactly my idea of a good time, and not very practical.
I thought about buying something stupid-fast, but thought "Where the hell would I actually USE such a thing?....and Jesus, at damned near four bucks a gallon, how practical would THAT be?"
Okay, so I started looking around at smaller, but sporty cars. One of my buddies just bought a Subaru STI. I thought a lot about that -it's pretty sweet - but the price tag (30K) just made me ill - and yowzer! The gas mileage he's getting is worse than what I already have!
Apparently if I was going to be irresponsible, I wanted to at least be responsible about it.
A motorcycle would seem to be the ticket, then. I looked around at what's available and came back empty-handed. All it seems that's out there are cruisers - which I despise - and stupid sport bikes -ungodly fast, but uncomfortable. Another GoldWing would be OK, but the price tag on those is stupid expensive and I don't really do the type of riding to justify a long-haul bike anymore.
Then I found the brand-new Honda VFR1200:
Sporty? Check! Comfortable? Check! Practical? If I got the optional hard bags - Check! Gas mileage? Well....lousy for a bike, but still better than every car I looked at.
Still, the price tag kind of had me hesitating. It was twice what I'd ever paid for a bike, and it would sit in the garage all winter. How practical was that?
Somehow - and I'm not even sure how- I heard about the new Honda CR-Z. I went and looked at it, and test drove it. Hmmm....
Sporty? Well, it wouldn't exactly mash you into the upholstery, but it had a definite "fun quotient". Comfortable? Check. Practical? At around 40 MPG, yes, definitely. I could certainly at least pretend to justify the purchase by saying "It's gets almost twice the mileage of The Dumpster, and with going back and forth to school two nights a week, that's important..."
Okay, so now I'm really on the fence. I absolutely hate being in the throes of indecision.
One night, on my way to school in 90 degree heat, I realized how glad I was to be in an air-conditioned car and not on a motorcycle. I am a firm believer in "all the gear, all the time" and 90 degrees on a motorcycle is just no fun. Been there, done that, didn't like it. Okay, so a motorcycle wouldn't get ridden in extremely hot weather or extremely cold weather. (I'm OK with rain). There's a demerit.
Another night - again on my way to school - I was threading my way through a couple of miles of stop-and-go traffic alongside an Audi R8.
That thing was BADASS. For a few moments, I thought: "WANT....."
Then I realized he wasn't going any faster than I was in The Dumpster and was probably frustrated as hell.
The CR-Z was starting to look better and better.
I stopped in at a couple of other dealers. One made me a better offer than the others and I kind of just threw in the towel and put a deposit down. (Of course, I bought the cheapest model).
Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the MCMAWG Responsibly Irresponsible Midlife-Mobile:
