I have been driving our minivan for about 6 or 7 years now. Is it my ideal car? For this stage in my life, yes it is. Our minivan has ample room for passengers and luggage. I can drive my kids, their friends and relatives, but when its just the four of us we each have enough room to ourselves. I have a back area that keeps regular items like my grocery bags, a couple folding chairs and an umbrella. Is it perfect? No. Is it clean? No. Does it have one of those cool tv's in the back? No.
While I dont care a lick about what my car looks like or how its model/make/pricetag/extras might reflect on me personally, I do expect one thing in a vehicle. Anti lock brakes, you say? Rear airbags? Pimped out rims? None of the above. The number one necessity for vehicle transportation on my list is a radio. While the satelight radio is all the rage and many of my loved ones listen to them regularly, Im talking about the plain 'ol AM/FM variety. The big draw for me is obvious - I want music while I drive. I have 5 - 10 local preset stations ready for my listening pleasure. I channel surf often and listen to them all. In my pursuit of music in the car, I also employ CDs and an ipod. I use all three music mediums daily.
Sometime last fall, the antenna on the minivan broke and went largely undetected. Because I listen to my ipod daily, the static from the radio didnt immediately register with me. When I found static on the radio, I switched to the ipod. Problem averted - music found. It probably took me a week of not being able to listen to NPR to finally realize that something had changed with the radio. It wasnt until Matt hypothesized about the antenna being broken that I went to check. Sure enough it was gone.
The break from the antenna was clean and even after a week unnoticed, the antenna was lying in the driveway. The evidence was clear to me. Only two people could have done it: Seamus or Finn. My bet was on Seamus. After some heavy questioning Seamus finally confessed to have kicked his soccer ball and broken off the antenna. At the time, he was practicing outside everyday. It was soccer season and Seamus had really improved on his skills since joining club ball. The explanation kind of fit, but it kind of didnt too. I mean have you ever heard of an antenna being broken off clean by a soccer ball? Maybe its possible if my son were Cristiano Ronaldo or David Beckham, but clearly he is not.
I digress.
When we found out what had happened, Matt offered to fix the antenna but I turned him down. Money and time is always an issue for us and I really thought Id be fine without it. Afterall, I still had cds and my ipod, right? Unfortunately, I have found its not enough. First: I really, really REALLY miss NPR (National Broadcast Radio.) Ive realized through this experience that I get most of my daily news from NPR. Thats how I know whats going on - both nationally, locally and culturally. There is an unmistakable void in my life where NPR used to be. I cant believe Im saying it, but its true. Who knew I would miss people talking so much. Secondly: sports radio. My antenna was broken off mid football season. There were several times when I wanted to hear the game while quickly running over to the grocery store and it wasnt available. Thats not a good feeling when a good game is on the line. The Padres 2010 season will be here in the next couple months. I dont want to be in the same position as I was with the Steelers this year - trapped in the car and blind to what is transpiring on the field. Thirdly, I miss the local music stations and their music programming. This whole ordeal has taught me that as much as it is hypothetically possible, no ipod can replace what the radio offers. The musical variety is not the same even when you have over 5 thousands songs in your ipod. The surprise of a good song - coming and going - cant be replaced with an ipod or cd. It just cant. Yes, I can put my ipod on shuffle, but its just not the same. I know this beyond a reasonable doubt. Also, the radio commentary. Again I shake my head in wonder about what Im about to say, but the daily banter of local DJs is actually valuable to me. IT has meaning for me. Hearing the traffic report - valuable to me. Hearing the local comings and goings around the area - valuable to me.
My point: I miss my radio. I never thought I would, but I do. Im going to have to go back to Matt and ask him to fix it, but Im certain that it will be worth the time, money and effort. I feels good to be so sure. :)
Happy Thursday.
It won't be that expensive and shouldn't be that difficult either and it will be so worth it. My new car came with XM Radio and I enjoyed it alot but still found myself reverting to my FM for the local stations and NPR during the biggest part of my drive.
ReplyDeleteI am skeptical about the soccer ball story but regardless of how it happened I am sure Seamus didn't mean for it to and I'll bet he didn't even realize the implications at the time - He's too smart of a boy to come between his Momma and her music.