re: #1 GeneJockey

Once again, pontificating downstairs. So here, let me share my pontification:

O-whatever the T has become, but I now know why 70 year old men are angry.

Let me start years ago, when I was just 9 years old, in 1966. I bought my first car magazine, Road & Track, with a picture of the then-new Jaguar E-type 2+2 coupe. OMG, what a beautiful car! I have been obsessed with sporty cars, basically all my life, but the American muscle cars of the late 60s through 71 - those I REALLY loved..

When you’re a kid, you can’t have one because you can’t drive. When you’re a young man, you can’t have one because you can’t afford it or the insurance. When you get married, you can’t have one because you’re supposed to be responsible. When you have kids, you can’t have one because you need a family car, AND you can’t afford it.

So, here I am, middle aged. The Big 3 started making muscle cars again, only now they don’t fly off the road when it bends gently, they get >20 mpg, they’re comfy, and even the base models have more power than most of the muscle cars did back in the day. I’ve been waiting 40 years, and I thought ‘Finally! I can get the car I’ve been wanting forever.’

Nope. Now, according to Mrs. Jockey, “It screams “Midlife Crisis!”

So there you go, why men at 70 are so pissed. Because they put off getting things they wanted for years, to be responsible family men, and when finally the kids are grown up, and you’re more financially stable, now you’re considered too old for it. You should buy a nice sedan.

I believe ‘Midlife Crisis’ is a ruse, and I think it’s as insulting as telling a woman “Don’t you worry your pretty head about that, little lady!”

/rant. Now get off my fucking lawn.

A Louisville judge of my acquaintance drove a cherry-red Mazda Miata around town at the age of 75. He didn’t give an ounce of fuck what other people thought of it, because, hey, he was a judge and probably knew more unsavory stuff about them than they did about him. His wife rode shotgun, so I guess she was cool with the whole sports car thing.

As for me, I’d like a sports car, but not right now. My midlife crisis — if you want to call it that — was to chuck teaching high school and come to China to teach university students English. It’s a lot of fun! Seriously. It’s rewarding work, but not especially in the financial sense. Plus, I get to hang out with young people. The day I have to quit teaching will probably be the same day I tell y’all to get off my lawn.