In which trek reaches for the stick

Stick, singular, not sticks, plural.
No, not that stick!
This stick, the stick shift.

Before we invested in the minivan back in '05, I drove a 2001 Dodge Neon. I loved driving my Neon: it hugged the road really well, had a pretty tight turning radius, and best of all, it had a 5-speed standard shift tranny. A fair number of people are probably scratching their heads right now wondering, "Well, if trek like the zippy little Neon so much, why on earth did she part with it in favor of a whopping behemoth of a minivan?!"

And I answer thee, "The Neatnik."

Neons are great fun to drive. It is probably about as close to driving a sports car as I'll ever get and like a sports car, they are somewhat lacking in the backseat department. By the time our little Neatnik was two, we were having a devil of a time trying to put her into her car seat. We always had her buckled into the middle seat of the car so we had to climb halfway across the backseat in order to secure the great collection of straps and buckles designed to safeguard our little bundle of joy.

Trust me, there was no joy in that.

The backseat of a Neon is only as wide as the rest of the car but it does not feel that way when you are trying to restrain a wriggly toddler. Suddenly, the back doors seem twenty feet apart and the limited amount of leg and head room is temporarily sucked into an alternate dimension. This leads to the parent of said toddler being forced into odd and uncomfortable Gumby-like contortions. For a short time, Neatnik was able to climb into her seat on her own and we had only to arrange the straps and fasten the latches but then she, like all of the children her age, grew. When the backseat is too tight for the child to crawl into the car seat without banging her head/elbows/knees, it is just too tight.

The minivan doesn't have any space issues and Neatnik was able to climb into the van all on her own. Latching her in was much easier since she was now at waist level and not eighteen feet away. Neatnik loved the new vehicle. In fact, she claimed her very first chore: it is her job to push the close door button. Heaven help the parent who pushed the button for her. She would cry. I kid you not. She had a job to do and she would do it!

Fortunately, she has mostly outgrown that particular neurosis.

Driving the minivan is very different from driving the Neon. Beyond the obvious that the driver's seat is much higher off the road and the vehicle itself weighs so much more, the minivan is an automatic. It took me a few weeks to stop reaching for the stick on the floor.

This morning, I finished up the last few pages of a trade paperback from the library. I wanted to read a short story in progress on my Kindle next, so I picked up my Kindle, and my little green paper bookmark. See, if I tuck the bookmark into the pocket of the Kindle's cover when I shutdown the ereader, when I come back, the Kindle will know where I left off.

Just like reaching for the stick shift.

You know I would reach the point of the car story eventually, didn't you?

I hope my little story was worth a chuckle to you on this very sunny Sunday.

PS - When I feel like zipping around town in a sportier vehicle, I borrow Number Guy's car: he drives a standard-shift Neon.