Bizarro World

Well that’s a relief.  I didn’t go colorblind overnight


All the dogs, bulls, and colorblind people who read your blag are now offended.  Good job, Jeremy.  


Today's Sametime Status is brought to you courtesy of the continuing story of my car.  For this story to make sense, it's important to know that my car is red.  Knowing that, we can continue.  

So, the repairs to my car are indeed substantial, and require parts that the dealer did not have in stock and needed to order.  As such, they set me up with a loaner car while I wait another day or two to get mine back.  (For the record, I'm not 100% happy with the construction of these last two sentences.  I also can't think of a way to reword it at the moment, so tough luck.)  Normally, when providing loaner cars, dealers like to set people up with pretty nice newer model cars to entice customers into buying new stuff.  They drive home in cushy luxury and wonder why they're trying to keep their old piece of junk on the road.  Well, that didn't happen in my case.  The dealer's employee pulls around in the exact same model and year as my car.  As it turns out, this car is the stripped-down, bare bones version of my car, and it's gray.  This has led to weird things happening for me.  

My car has a power-adjustable driver's seat which moves in many directions.  The loaner has a mechanical seat which moves back and forth along with tilting back.  I can move it back to the same position I'm familiar with, and tilt it back a little, but the seat remains considerably higher than I'm used to.  I'm looking out over the same dials and gauges, but they're farther down, and I can't change it.  The climate control is the old-fashioned kind where you control the approximate level of heat coming out and how fast...unlike the auto version I'm now spoiled with where you set a temperature and the car figures out how to reach that.  There are no automatic headlights, the bluetooth doesn't connect to my phone (I suppose I could pair it if I really wanted to), there are no garage door controls on the mirror, and there are no fog lights at all.  To top it all off, this car has the model's base engine, which has a completely different response to it than mine...though it does get slightly better mileage.  

Then comes the fact that it's gray.  If nothing else, this car borrowing experience has taught me that I will never buy a gray car.  It's so incredibly boring and common that the car doesn't stand out in any way.  Sure, I still think the design is nice, but it loses a lot by having a color that doesn't pop out of a crowd.  It's also confusing when first waking up.  See, my brain takes a little while to get moving in the morning, so by the time I get down to the garage after a night's sleep, it has basically escaped my mind that I have a loaner car (except for the fact that I had to grab a second set of keys...NOT the cool proximity key that my car has).  I open the door to the garage, and inside sits something that looks very much like my car, but without color.  In fact, it blends in remarkably well with the cinder block walls.  At first, I think I just escaped Oz, but that feeling lasts but for a second, and I realize what car is sitting there.  I then proceed to drive this weird thing to work and go about my day.