Day XXXIII of the Importance of Knowing the Limitations of Every Environment Road Trip of Non-Renewable Resources
Center Point, TX
I went running today along Verde Creek Drive, the L-shaped country highway on which Sandy Blake's house sits, and it was damned cold so cold I wondered how bad it was back at home. Then I saw on the news reports that the Hudson River is actually starting to freeze, that Columbia County is basically the tundra, and there are four inches of snow in Charlotte, NC. Which leads me to believe that there is no milk left on the shelves in North Carolina – curiously, every time severe weather threatens the South, everyone runs to the store and buys all the goddamn milk. Consider that Hurricane Fran (and last month's ice storm) left everyone without power for a week, and you can imagine the gallons of fucked-up milk these doofuses end up with.
We're set to visit Sandy tomorrow at the Ford dealership in Kerrville, as she has implored us to come drive their worst gas guzzlers. It's bad enough we're driving the Land Rover around, because I can't get mad at SUV's without living on an island called Hypocritia. But we are making plans to buy a hybrid car within the next few months (with our tax break) and retire Ol' Bessie up in Columbia County, where she can spend her autumn years looking at... well, autumn.
I'd love to keep driving her around, but I just don't see how any rational human American being that gives a shit about anything could possibly drive an SUV (or any other car that gets less than 20mpg in the city). Exemptions, of course, are for those who actually use their SUV's to haul equipment for work (like us filmmakers) or those who have an inordinate amount of kids. But Americans' King Henry VIII-like hunger for gigantic fucking cars is so mindlessly hubristic and insane that I've felt like running a few Escalades and Navigators off the road. If the New York subways get mustard-gassed by terrorists, I'm going to get cards printed up that say "IT WAS YOUR FAULT" and super-glue them to every SUV I see.
Now Bush is trying to push through tax loopholes so that businesses can deduct the entire cost of their needlessly pimped-up SUV's. Honestly, I think his staff just does shit to make me personally insane with rage.
Anyway, we suggested to Sandy that her Ford dealership sell the new hybrid Ford Escapes. She said, "oh they wouldn't cotton to those around here." Unfortunately, she's right. Yay for Texas!
Posted by at January 23, 2003 8:59 PM