Smokey Solano Sunday – Yeah, There Was a Big Fire, But That Was Not the Only Heat on the Road

                                

 I have always challenged the concept of a midlife crisis, at least as manifested by the commonly accepted evidence of a sports car, motorcycle, or for those who could afford the alimony, a younger, new wife.

What does being in early-life, midlife, or late-life have the hell to do with it?!?

Those things can be fun at ANY age.

(No, dear, I am not talking about the last one…I have just heard about that one.)

I bought my first motorcycle at 16; I got a sports car at 22; but I have the same wife of 30 years (that is, if I make it another two weeks!).

My first sports car was a classic.

(That’s what us old people call something that was around during the last century when we were much younger.)

Back in college in Berkeley, I owned a used Datsun 1600 roadster.  This was the predecessor to the Datsun 2000 roadster that was one of the hottest cars on the road back in the day and I really wanted to own a 2000.

A 2-liter engine in a tiny, light car the size of an MG was a lot of car.

That was also the bloodline that lead to the iconic 240Z which in time, morphed into the Nissan Z-cars.

Anyway, that was about the time the Era Of Being Responsible started.

So, no Datsun 2000.

There was a dry stretch during those prime career years with house payments to make, young daughters to help raise and just lots of life’s responsibilities.

So, when the daughters survived college; got jobs; and headed down their own paths, and I survived a 32-year career, I decided that retirement was yet another great time to enjoy the pure, unmitigated and unadulterated pleasure of driving a sports car.

(I had considered another motorcycle, but given the combat-zone mentality of our local freeways, I wasn’t sure if I could survive that.) 

Fast-forward to almost 10 years ago to the advent of the Honda S-2000.

It was lust at first sight!

I think my wife figured that as long as my post-adolescent, testosterone-fueled lust was directed at something with four wheels, rather than a well-tanned, long-legged woman wearing a tight tank-top and ultra-short skirt that didn’t cover everything that a skirt might cover…wait, what was it that I was talking about? 

(What dear? What heavy breathing?  No, I’m just in here blogging about my sports car.)

So, yes, I got the leather-clad, topless, hot number. No, the car.

And yes, it’s fun. Oh, is it fun.

While I am typically out driving solo, last weekend I connected with a local group of S-2000 folks and did my first group drive.

We ventured up in the mountains with narrow roads, replete with tight curves and beautiful lines…no, I AM taking about the drive, dear.

My wife joined me and we were by far the only people on the receiving end of AARP paraphernalia.

(About now the younger drivers are probably Googling what an AARP is.)

The ages of the drivers of the dozen, or so, S-2000s ranged from 17 to 57. 

I got to thinking of how someone at each end of that age range might view the drive from different perspectives, so I present here:

The Top Ten Differences Of A Honda S-2000 Driver Aged 17 Versus Aged 57:

(Needless to say, most of the drivers were somewhere between, so I will leave it up to them to decide where they fit.)

   

 Number 1. The younger driver watches his oil pressure.  The older driver watches his blood pressure.

Number 2. The younger driver relishes the load exhaust pipes. The older driver can’t even hear them.

Number 3. The younger driver will have a login name on the S-2000 forum something like RedHot2K2Play.  The older driver will have a login name that is, well, their name.

Number 4. The younger driver will miss a drive because they partied until 5:00 A.M. The older driver had dinner the night before at 5:00 P.M.

Number 5. The younger driver will stress about their homework. The older driver will beg the wife to postpone the home work so he can go for a drive.

Number 6. The younger driver will make stops to buy another liter-sized can of Red Bull.  The older driver will make stops to buy Advil to mitigate the arthritis.

Number 7. The younger driver will make yet more stops to buy yet more Red Bull.  The older driver will make yet more stops to pee yet one more time from a cup of coffee that was drank two days ago.

Number 8. The younger drive will go home and add another component to boost their horsepower.  The older driver will go home to take a nap.

Number 9. The younger driver thinks it’s “cute” that grandpa drives an S-2000.  The older driver thinks it’s cute that these kids humor grandpa by laughing at old-person jokes that make no sense.

Number 10. The younger driver got bored with this list five numbers ago and has since surfed five web sites, texted three people, checked their Face Book and My Space pages, downloaded six songs to their iPod, watched two You Tube videos, and is having an intimate relationship with someone they just met in Second Life…and had two more Red Bulls. The older driver forgot the rest of the list.

Cheers to the S2KI Sac group!