I Always Know What I'm Doing

As mentioned, my mom was opposed to me buying a truck.  At first her objection was that it was too masculine a vehicle, and then the protest morphed into the argument that I just did not need a vehicle with towing capability.  "What do you need to carry around?" she quizzed me.  "What are you possibly going to put back there?

"Wellllllllllllll," I said, "Someday I'm going to move again, and boy is that truck going to come in handy!  It's going to save me hundreds to be able to transport my own couch."

My mom sighed in disapproval and switched from questioning to lecturing me.  "You don't need a truck.  This is an unwise decision.  You never think.  You just do.  I don't know how you can live how you live.  You need to stop and consider this."

Little did she know that I had considered it in great depth.  I had done incredibly intensive research on the various blues that pick-up trucks come in, since I knew my truck better be some kind of bright, metallic blue or it might as well be a minivan.  

Also, I thought there were lots of things that I might want to tow.  I've long been interested in learning how to make chairs, and someday I might need to carry around lots of wood.  Now that we have goats on the property, I might need to drive them somewhere someday for some reason.  And I could definitely see myself wanting to put a bed in the bed.  I was open to allowing someone else to get behind the wheel and drive me around as I dozed.  Like a hay ride, except less poky.

So I went and purchased my truck.  My beautiful Speedway Blue truck:

And it took no time at all to prove my mom wrong!  Only a week after purchasing the vehicle, Brent and I were eating out at an Indian restaurant before going to see Year One, and it turned out that I could not finish my Chicken Biryani.  What to do, what to do.  I didn't want the dish to go to waste.  We didn't want to carry it into the theater-- they frown upon that sort of thing.  And we couldn't just leave the container of pungent rice and poultry in the car because then the floor mats would smell like Biryani forever.  I was about to be depressed.

Until Brent said, "Wait, you have a truck."

"I do," I agreed.  "I have a truck."

"So...just put the food in the bed."

Always suspicious, I asked, "You don't think anyone will steal it?"

We walked out of the restaurant, and I nestled the take-out container in the corner of the bed, figuring that questionable characters walking behind the truck would be the least likely to see it hiding there.  When we came out of the movie, it was still safe and sound.  I was delighted.  I'd never had such a good solution for fragrant leftovers before.  As we drove home, Brent started laughing uncontrollably.  "You can tell your mom she was wrong about the truck."  We looked out the back, to where the Biryani was riding comfortably in the fresh night air.  "You needed it to tow a single container of Indian food."

"I did," I nodded.  "I really did."

UPDATE 6/27/09:  Last night, we also needed it to tote half a leftover chicken sandwich:

Comments

[Cheryl]

If you can transport just one goat to the vet in an emergency, it will all have been worth it. And if I happen to stop at a traffic light next to just one truck-riding goat, it will have been doubly worth it.

[dan]

blue-ness aside, you bought a mini-van. I can tell but the number of doors. that is not a veichel (sorry for the spelling) that is for hauling farm stuff or moving stuff. that - like a mini-van - is for hauling childern and their stuff. that veichel has no purpose but to be expensive and LARGE,that car is the reason that GM is going out of buisness (yes I can see toyota made it). I don't know why you bought that truck, but that is not a truck that is bought becuase one needs to haul things, it is a truck bought becuase one want's others to think one is the kind of person with stuff to haul. but it is very pretty. tell your mom it is pretty if she feels the need to emasculate your truck.

if you want to MAN it up a bit (bizzar gender bias but you know what I'M saying) make it less clean.

you sent me a book 3 years ago. thank you again. and sorry for the auto abuse

[andreaa]

i'm definitely not trying to man it up. it is a vision as is.

[andreaa]

oh, and p.s. it has already hauled a toilet.

[Marianne]

So when's the new book coming out and who's publishing it? You hinted a while back that the bastards at Random House would be sorry. Can't wait to read it!

[andreaa]

marianne,

i'm waiting for my managers to announce the simultaneous book/film deal in the trades just to be safe, and then i'll put it up here.