My husband is always trying to get me to give up my car for a newer model, and lately he’s had me test driving used, yet newer, cars in the hope that I’ll fall in love with one. I haven’t yet.
I’ve been driving a pearlized white Mercedes ML350 for the past six years, and I love it. It was used when we bought it, so it does have a few quirks. For instance, only the driver can control the radio volume from the steering wheel, and the air conditioner has only two speeds: low and super high. Other than that and the fact that it’s about 10 years old, it’s perfect. It drives like a dream, doesn’t turn off when I come to a stop, and it can hold a huge canvas with the backseat down.
Before this car, I drove a Honda Odyssey. I had driven Odysseys for years. I think our family has had three Odysseys. When my middle child got his driver’s license, I gave him the minivan, complete with Star Wars family stickers on the back and a Children’s Museum license plate, to drive. He actually loved it and still does even as a sophomore at Ole Miss. I think he’s truly an old man in a teenager’s body.
One day, my Mercedes was getting its annual checkup, and I had to borrow the Odyssey to pick up a curbside order from Home Depot. My daughter was with me, and we were running several errands. She was talking to me and needing me to respond. At the same time, I was having two different text message conversations. You get the picture, right? I was multitasking, and I think I’m rather good at it most days.
Anyway, I pull up to the curbside parking spaces at Home Depot and let them know that I’m there through the app. The app requests the color, make, and model of my car. I respond with “White Mercedes ML350.” We wait.
After about 10 or maybe 15 minutes, I go through the app again to let them know I’m there in spot #1. The automatic response is a request for color, make and model of my vehicle. I enter “White Mercedes ML350” again, and we wait again.
Finally, I give up and march into the store, knowing I just don’t have time to sit and wait in the car any longer. I wait in line at the online orders’ pickup spot and explain that I’ve been waiting at curbside for a while. The cashier gets a puzzled look on her face and asks, “What are you driving?” I say, “a white Mercedes ML350.” She shakes her head, still looking puzzled as she peers out at the curbside area of the store. Then she hands me my bag, and I charge out the door…back to my. Blue. Honda. Odyssey.
Yep. I did all that on autopilot.
When I got home, my friend’s husband was on the porch conversing with hubby and leaving some money for a purchase I made for my friend (that was one of those text conversations going on). Holding my sides, I told the guys my story. Hubby responded, “That cashier was probably thinking, ‘She wishes she had a white Mercedes ML350!”
I got a good chuckle out of that story. So funny.