showing off...power trips

The inspiration for this post is the gas-guzzling v-12 truck that passed me on the on-ramp today.  This will circle around to pilot stuff - promise.

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For the record, I drive a station wagon.  It is basically a couch on wheels.  And a very comfortable couch it is! 

There is nothing performance about it.  It has a 5-cylinder engine for goodness sake.  The thing is comfortable, safe, can haul the dogs and gets good gas mileage. 

I love my wagon.  Steve? Not so much.  He knows I like it, and I wanted it, so he agreed to buy it. But, he likes something with a little more "spirit".

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Ok, so here I am turning onto the on-ramp.  35, 40, 45, 50, 55....

grooommmmmm......groooom.......grooooooommmmmmmmmmm.....there goes the gas-guzzler

*cough* *cough* as I choke on the exhaust from the beast of the truck.  It was black, had huge wheels, and was obnoxious, overbearing and loud.

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What is it with dudes and showing off like this?  And here is where the pilot stuff comes in...Steve doesn't show off like this, and I am okay with that.  Ok, let me clarify a bit, the other week when Steve and I went on a date he was pretty quick to accelerate onto the highway.  But he wasn't being an ass about it.  He was just being quick and "spirited". 

Maybe it is just the nature of man to show off like this, to feel power like this.  I would imagine that every time Steve takes off he gets to feel that power, and then some.  And when taking off from Orange County, he can REALLY feel the power.  Maybe that is why he doesn't show off.  Maybe he gets his fill of this need for power every time he takes off, therefore he doesn't need to do it more at home.

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Soon after I recovered from the exhaust from "beast truck", I was on a bridge that slowed me to about 60, rather then the 65mph speed limit.  Of course the yellow crock-rocket motorcycle passed me, and fast!  And then as the motorcycle was taking a curve, he weaved back into the other lane in a rather "fancy" maneuver that I am more accustomed to seeing on tv when motorcycles are taking turns on a race track.  At least the guy was wearing a helmet.

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A boat is another place where dudes can show off .  Steve and I took my cousins to the lake last weekend, and we visited a lighthouse. 

You can actually see the lighthouse area behind us in this picture...way off in the distance, where the land juts out to the left...

As we were walking back to the car, we started to hear the rumble of a boat.  I am not joking when I say that everyone in the area turned around.  The rumble was loud and you could just feel how much power that thing had.  The boat was going fast!  Steve made some comment about how cool that is.  And cool it was, I suppose.  That boat had a lot of power, and the driver was enjoying himself.  The boat had A LOT of power.  That boat owner probably spends a couple hundred dollars a week in gas with habits like that. Whatever floats your boat, I suppose.

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I don't know, maybe I am just not all that impressed by dudes showing off like this so I find it unnecessary.  I do have to say that I am glad that Steve is more tame with his power trips.  Or maybe Steve just knows to curb it when around me...you all know how adventurous I am...