He’s back from college and hasn’t driven a car in a long time\u00e2\u20ac\u201dcertainly not a standard. \u00c2\u00a0So a little practice was in order. \u00c2\u00a0Driving here, driving there. \u00c2\u00a0Going to get something to eat, going to the hardware store.<\/p>\n
So we’re in the car, and he’s at the wheel. \u00c2\u00a0And it’s a new car. \u00c2\u00a0(Yes, I got a new car, but that’s a separate story.) \u00c2\u00a0He’s changing lanes, checking the mirrors, speeding up, slowing down, upshifting, downshifting.<\/p>\n
“Man dad,” he says. \u00c2\u00a0“This car is so quiet. \u00c2\u00a0It runs so smoothly. \u00c2\u00a0I can barely hear the engine!”<\/p>\n
He changes gears and looks down at the tachometer.<\/p>\n
“Wow! \u00c2\u00a0Look at the RPMs. \u00c2\u00a0Below 2000!”<\/p>\n
He shifts again and repeats his exclamation.<\/p>\n
“Wow!”<\/p>\n
Now, Ben knows that I don’t fall in love with my cars. \u00c2\u00a0A typical car of mine will get\u00e2\u20ac\u201dwhat\u00e2\u20ac\u201d20 washings in its entire<\/strong> lifetime, fewer vacuumings. I don’t grow attached to them, and he knows it. \u00c2\u00a0So these exclamations can’t be indirect compliments aimed at me; they must be authentic amaze. I smile as he talks about the RPMs and about how other cars run higher and louder and don’t have a sixth gear. (Yes, it’s a six-speed.)<\/p>\n Then it strikes him.<\/p>\n “Oh dad,” he says. \u00c2\u00a0“We’re having a typical father\/son talk<\/em>. \u00c2\u00a0We’re talking about RPMs and gear shifting and how the engine’s running just like fathers and sons should.”<\/p>\n Kind of scary, that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" He’s back from college and hasn’t driven a car in a long time\u00e2\u20ac\u201dcertainly not a standard. \u00c2\u00a0So a little practice was in order. \u00c2\u00a0Driving here, driving there. \u00c2\u00a0Going to get something to eat, going to the hardware store. So we’re in the car, and he’s at the wheel. \u00c2\u00a0And it’s a new car. \u00c2\u00a0(Yes, I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[32,33],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/augerhandle.net\/blogs\/jumpingfish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/augerhandle.net\/blogs\/jumpingfish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/augerhandle.net\/blogs\/jumpingfish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/augerhandle.net\/blogs\/jumpingfish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/augerhandle.net\/blogs\/jumpingfish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=448"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/augerhandle.net\/blogs\/jumpingfish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":449,"href":"https:\/\/augerhandle.net\/blogs\/jumpingfish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448\/revisions\/449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/augerhandle.net\/blogs\/jumpingfish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/augerhandle.net\/blogs\/jumpingfish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/augerhandle.net\/blogs\/jumpingfish\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}