Wishful thinking

Look, it's me and Michele! 
Except I don't play the sax.

So, today I find myself wishing for things I don't have.  I think that's a pretty common thing.  Most people call it "daydreaming".  When I was a kid, my folks tried selling Amway, and they called it "Visualizing" (would you belive that, at 9 years old, I could give The Plan in its entirety?).  Call it what you like, but today I am thinking about cars I like, cars I would want, cars I've had, and cars I wish I could have.

I have long been a fan of cars.  Oddly, I've never learned how to work on them, and only in recent years have I gotten a good grasp on how to properly maintain one.  But when I was about 7 years old, my mom married a guy who was big into hot rods, and I learned to share that love with him (aside from baseball, that's the only thing I shared with him, and now I don't even care for baseball).  Even after my mom thankfully left that abusive SOB, I still maintained my love of cars.

When I watch movies, if the hero drives a hot rod, he's just that much cooler to me (Stallone's Cobra was awesome for this).  My all-time favorite movie car is the 67' Camaro from Better Off Dead (which someone tracked down and restored). 

1968 Shelby Cobra

However, if I were to have one car that would just be a ME car, it would be a Shelby Cobra.  There is just something about this car that gives me feelings very close to those I feel when I look into my wife's beautiful eyes.

Yeah, at the risk of sounding creepy, it almost nears a sexual attraction in intensity.

Anyone have about $80,000 I could have for one?

The first car I bought with my own money, all on my own, was a 74' Nova.  It was red, had cool mags, no seatbelts, and was a total lemon.  But I loved that car, and if I could get another one I would love to fix it up and cruise.  That was when I was 19.  The only other "muscle" cars I have owned were an 87' Fiero and an 88' Trans Am.  I kind of miss both of those cars as well.

When we finally decide to retire and move to San Diego, I would like to get what I consider a "retirement" car.  Basically, a 2-seat roadster of some type.  Maybe something classic, maybe something that isn't even out yet (I have about 20 years before retirement is an issue).  But, if I were looking right now, I found a 1976 Fiat Spider project car that would be totally cool to own and fix up.

Eh, it's fun to dream.  Maybe I'll write a book someday, and have my character be a car afficianado, who drives something wicked cool.  That's probably as close as I will get (for a while).  But, hey, that's life for a middle-class dad, right?