The year was 1997, and I was about to leave the woodsy confines of Vermont to move to Boston. Although I knew it would be a temporary move, and the goal would always be to come back to Vermont someday, there were some aspects of life in Vermont that had to be left behind. These were mostly small things, like knowing that getting out to mountain bike and hike would be tougher, and I happily exchanged them for living just a short walk from Fenway Park. There was one big sacrifice, though, and that was that I decided it would be a good idea to replace my beloved Jeep Wrangler with something more sensible for city life. I only had a soft top, and figured I would live in a perpetual state of break-ins and stolen doors/etc if I brought it with me. I traded the Jeep for a Saab (which I did like very much) and headed for Boston. As it turned out, I ended up living in Beacon Hill with lots of other Jeeps and little to no criminal activity, so that trade has always been somewhat of a regret.
I am not a 'car guy'. I don't know how to fix them, I really don't know very much about how they work, and I don't really get any sense of inflated ego from a vehicle. The associated cost aside, you will likely never see me shopping for a BMW or a Lexus. It just doesn't mean much to me. I am happy to buy nice vehicles for Lauren and the kids to ride in, but that has much more to do with safety and convenience than any kind of perceived social status. That said, I have always had a love affair with Jeeps, which I believe goes back to childhood summers spent with my parents at the YMCA camp they worked at. There were some old-school Jeeps on the island, and I'm pretty certain that is where this started (that's me on the far left):
So, ten years later, I am back in Vermont as planned, and now have finally corrected the mistake I made before moving to the city. During our recent trip to the 4x4 beaches of North Carolina, Lauren finally tired of listening to me whine as the Jeeps rolled by and told me it would be okay to pick one up. Of course I knew I'd better act quickly before my window of opportunity passed. Considering that I work at home, commuting nearly 45 feet per day, it would be difficult to justify a new purchase. At the same time, one of the the rules of purchase was to get something that was at least reasonably safe, so airbags were a requirement (which ruled out the 1986 CJ I really wanted). With the high and low thrown out, I got lucky and found a red Wrangler almost exactly like my old one:
It is newer (1997), but still stays in line with my policy of never having bought a car that was built in the same decade in which I purchased it. There are a few upgrades over the old ride, I now have a hard top (which will make the 355 days of clouds/snow/rain we have here a bit more enjoyable), the aforementioned airbags, and a ridiculously powerful stereo, but otherwise, I am happy to say that Jeep seems to have stayed very true to their Wrangler roots. The ride is bumpy and noisy, the tires are over sized, and the handling on pavement is a little unpredictable. There is no carpeting or air-conditioning, and the steering wheel doesn't even tilt. In other words, it is perfect.
If you find yourself in Vermont sometime this summer, give me a shout and I'll take you out for a spin. Maybe I'll never be a car guy, but I guess I'll have to own up to being a Jeep guy. And yes, the kids are all over it and went for their first topless ride yesterday, so the next generation is already being exposed. Excellent.
Lauren and I will soon compete as part of a team in the third annual 100 on 100 relay race. The race takes place on August 18. As I've mentioned in earlier postings, the idea that I could actually be looking forward to running 16 miles in one day still blows me away, but somehow, I've really come to enjoy this event. The race ends up being a really cool team experience, which is kind of rare in a sport that is usually very focused on individual performance. Always a great day, and a chance to help out a great cause.
Here comes the shameless plea for financial support.... please don't leave the page, yet...
The race is set up by a good friend of ours and always supports a very worthwhile Vermont charity. This year, the charity will be the Boys and Girls Clubs of Vermont. The race organizers have put together a nice page detailing their mission and how we can help to support the goals of this great organization -- you can check it out here: Boys and Girls Club of Vermont
If you are willing and able to help with this great cause, Lauren and I would both be extremely grateful. Our race team (the Phat Angels) have set up a donations page at the following link: Phat Angels Fundraising Page The kids from the Boys and Girls Clubs will be out volunteering along the course on race day, we'll be running 2/6 of the 100 mile course... surely you can help us out with a small donation, right? :-)
Seriously, though, please only donate if you feel you can. I know everyone gets asked to help with lots of charities, and we all do what we can. If the time isn't right for you, please just think of us on August 18 and try to send some positive energy up to Route 100 in Vermont.
Just getting back into the routine of daily life this week after spending a fantastic week with the family on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. This was truly a family vacation, as we were lucky enough to spend the week with my brother and my parents, too. The occasion was my parent's 40th anniversary -- quite an accomplishment for sure. Congratulations, Mom & Dad!
This was the first visit to the ocean for Ally and Ty, and I suspect not the last. We were lucky enough to rent a great house just a couple hundred feet from the beach, and then even luckier to find a week of absolutely perfect beach weather. Kind of a perfect storm of conditions for kids on the beach, and they took full advantage. Not too much happening on this trip besides playing in the water and constructing sand castles. The kids headed straight for the water, and like most kids, stayed in until they had turned a nice shade of blue. I think that after the first day or two, they figured out that the ocean would be there for them every day, and they learned to self regulate their time in the water just a little bit (cutting down on the blue lips). Speaking of body colors, I do need to apologize to Ty for his genetic make-up now -- it is amazing to me that the four of us can all put on the exact same sunblock in the exact same quantities, and yet somehow Lauren and Ally come away tan and Ty and I came home to VT still fish-belly white. Sorry pal. Aside from my futile attempts to get a tan, we also had some good fun with boogie boards, footballs, frisbees and a bit of surf-casting. And yes, even in the ocean I have the same propensity for landing the big catch -- Steve and I caught several fish which easily clobbered the 8" mark.
So the only tough part of the week was getting to and from the house. The place we rented is on an area of beach which can be accessed by 4x4 only, and since we were using airline miles for tickets, we also added a bit of travel by not getting to select the optimal airport for arrival. So, the first Saturday featured a 4:45 AM wake up call for our crew, a 40-minute drive to the airport, two flights, a nasty brawl with the good folks at Enterprise, a 90 minute drive to pick up Mom, Dad and Steve, an hour traffic jam in Virginia and then two short hours to the house. Unbelievably, the kids did far less complaining than the adults. They really were amazing.
The ride home was hilarious, though. A week of late bedtimes, short naps, more sugar than normal and complete over stimulation left the kids in a really funny state. We spent Saturday and Sunday in Virginia Beach, and then took off early afternoon (after ice cream) for the Richmond airport. Too tired to sleep, Ally and Ty began a barrage of chatter and 'why' questions the likes of which I've not experienced. Two hours in the car, one hour in the airport and one flight later, the chatter was still going. At this point, I'm just looking at Lauren and laughing. I'm really just wondering which kid will a) run out of things to say (unlikely), or b) pass out first. As we take off on our last leg home from Philly, my question is answered. Ally fell asleep about 17 seconds after buckling her seat belt. Tyler, on the other hand, is now entering his 9th hour of continuous talking. He and I spent the trip to Burlington breaking down everything in his world to the atom-level. We've taken 'why' questions so far that I'm getting to answers like 'some things just ARE and some things ARE NOT'.
In the end, Ty was asleep before we'd left the Burlington airport parking lot, and Ally wasn't too far behind him (she did *wake up* when we got off the plane. All in all, a really great vacation, great weather, great company and almost no issues with travel. Tough to ease back into the normal routine this week, but no too bad. Already looking forward to next year's ocean visit.
So, ten years later, I am back in Vermont as planned, and now have finally corrected the mistake I made before moving to the city. During our recent trip to the 4x4 beaches of North Carolina, Lauren finally tired of listening to me whine as the Jeeps rolled by and told me it would be okay to pick one up. Of course I knew I'd better act quickly before my window of opportunity passed. Considering that I work at home, commuting nearly 45 feet per day, it would be difficult to justify a new purchase. At the same time, one of the the rules of purchase was to get something that was at least reasonably safe, so airbags were a requirement (which ruled out the 1986 CJ I really wanted). With the high and low thrown out, I got lucky and found a red Wrangler almost exactly like my old one:
It is newer (1997), but still stays in line with my policy of never having bought a car that was built in the same decade in which I purchased it. There are a few upgrades over the old ride, I now have a hard top (which will make the 355 days of clouds/snow/rain we have here a bit more enjoyable), the aforementioned airbags, and a ridiculously powerful stereo, but otherwise, I am happy to say that Jeep seems to have stayed very true to their Wrangler roots. The ride is bumpy and noisy, the tires are over sized, and the handling on pavement is a little unpredictable. There is no carpeting or air-conditioning, and the steering wheel doesn't even tilt. In other words, it is perfect.
