So just how old am I?

I bought a car stereo today for my Explorer.

Ever since I turned in my company car, it's been like the money pit with my 1999 Ford Explorer Sport, which is a two-door SUV that we bought about two months before I got my company car in 2001. Due to the fact that it was hardly driven for the last five years while I've been cruising around on free gas in the Magnum, it has less than 70,000 miles on it. However, it has had some things going on with it...we had new brakes put on it, a full tune-up and a plethora of other repairs done on it a few months ago to the tune of about $900, which was not too bad. But THEN, a few weeks ago, both the passenger door and the trunk wouldn't open anymore, and since our electric locks had stopped working years ago, we made an appointment at the Ford dealer to have the doors fixed. Wouldn't you know it...on the way there the check engine light came on and it turns out that we had some kind of a manifold leak. That little trip was $790. Ridiculous, but now the dealers charge you like $200 just to look at the car, so we couldn't not repair it.

So after that, we started seriously talking about buying a new car, but there just isn't anything out there that excites us to the point of making us want to have a car payment other than a mini-van which we can't afford right now, so we decided just to keep fixing up OUR cars and then just drive them until they fall apart. Neither one of them has over 80,000 miles, so I figure we've got a while to go considering all the recent repairs they have had done.

So, the Explorer is getting detailed at some point in the next few weeks, I ordered a CD visor and Carolina emblems to put on the back, we're going to have keyless entry and an alarm system installed soon, and today I bought a Panasonic stereo that is going to be installed tomorrow. Philip's Honda is going to get new rims and a new stereo and a full detail as well. And that'll be our remodeling to the cars to keep the "I want a new car" gremlins at bay.

But I have to say, I never felt alternately so young and so old as I did today. The young feeling came when I was actually contemplating which stereo would give me the best sound and whether or not I needed new stereo speakers to install in the Explorer. I felt like I was seventeen and had just saved up my babysitting and lifeguarding money for months to be able to buy my stereo.

The OLD feeling, however, really came from talking to the 19-year-old (or so) that was trying to sell me a super-nice stereo and telling me how he just spent $600 on an alarm system for his car. All I keep envisioning is my friends from high school that would have the biggest heaps in the world but the most sensitive alarm systems and the best sound systems for their cars.

Next thing I want is some of that undercarriage lighting....IN PURPLE. And I'm getting my name painted on the back in pink and white pinstriping. It'll look great against the black.

Okay, so I'm just kidding. I don't feel THAT young.