I'm craving a car. I was born and raised in a car culture but then once I discovered NYC I had to sell my car and have not had one since. Guess what? It's been a long time too. More years than I'm going to mention, so just imagine.

I learned to drive when I was 16 on this fabulous 1961 Buick convertible. It was red. It was hot and had a V8. Fast. Cars had lots of pep then. My Dad taught me to drive; first automatic and then standard transmissions. Oh man, the standard tranny was a 1957 Ford. I forget the model but it was painted this too too dull beige and probably needed some body work but the engine worked just fine, even with me grinding the gears sometimes. The radio worked too so, for me, that's what was really important. Growing up in the Lehigh Valley in the heyday of Top 40 AM radio was the ideal time for me to learn to drive. There were rock stations in Easton, Allentown (two I think in Allentown) maybe Bethlehem but I'm not sure and New York City. I would set the buttons on the radio so that when the music stopped on one station I would just press the button and the next station would pop in with, hopefully, another hit and not another advertisement. If so, just press another button. Sometimes there was an awful lot of button pressing but that was fun too and then when the big beat would finally catch up with me my foot would press the accelerator. Whoosh.

But now the cards are stacked against me. The economy sucks. Living in NYC is not a particularly 'car friendly joint.' Used car or new car? Buy or lease? Where the hell would I park the thing? And all the rest of the deals that go along with owning a vehicle: insurance, gas (a big deal now), taking care of the thing. Money, money, money. Sure there are the plus sides too and that's what makes the entire issue such a dilemma. I could just hope in my car and drive! Wow. A feeling of freedom. That's must be the bottom line of my craving.

I have found a solution for the moment. I've decided that my budget simply will not allow for this luxury that I am craving so bad. Needless to say I am not thrilled with this decision. I was looking very closely at these new Hondas. Man, I dig them. The new Civic is so cool looking and one can buy delicious extras. The one I love is not that expensive either. It's the chrome add on for the exhuast pipe. Looks rich. And the other item I dig which is expensive are the sporty chrome wheels. They run around 1200 bucks. If I was to fit this car the way I wanted it the price sticker would read about 25 thousand. If only that was just the end of the money game but as I'm sure you know, it's just the beginning. Damn. I know used cars can go for a lot less money but when I think that I have not owned a car for X number of years, why would I buy someone elses' leftovers? No. I want my own fucking brand new car or nothing. Unfortunately, it's the latter that is rubbing it's cute little fender up against my leg. Rats.