so that witch that lived in the woods in that house made of candy, do you think she had like a rodent issue there in the attic, maybe?

we currently have 7 vehicles of which 4 are motorized and 3 are bicycles. wait. we also have 2 sets of crutchers, so i guess those are 2 more vehicles of a sort so there you go. of the 4 motorized choices, we drive 2 most days - me in one and my old man in the other. these 2 comprise... are comprised of... ? which is it - "these 2 comprise a honda and a nissan" or "these 2 are comprised of a honda and a nissan"? hrm? hrm? at any rate, what we have here are a civic and a sentra. civic sounds a bit like civilian so it's out little populist and sentra is a bit like sentry so it's our little militarist. so cute, the little buggers. the civvy and the soldier. and as we learned previously, honda is spanish for slingshot and as i am telling you now, nissan is spanish for japanese automaker so there you go.

our slingshot is the younger of the two by maybe 15 years. it's the nicer in terms of amenities - cd player, power windows, boopboop door unlocker, seats that don't feel like you're sitting on the undercarriage, and a trunk that doesn't fill with water when it rains. our wee tiny soldier, though, has 2 distinct advantages: 4 doors and 5 speeds. 4 doors are just a convenience factor - makes it easier to stash our stuff. the 5 speeds, though... now THERE's a feature.

i am a fan of the manual transmission. back in the day, the corolla had a manual trans and that's the car i learned to downshift on. i believe that diesel chevette had a manny tranny and the diesel volkswagen truck did for sure. [what's with all the diesels? jeez.] my cj-5 was some kinda wack 3-speed. man, i loved that jeep. i'll scan you pic sometime. the hyundai was a 5-speed. when i have a choice, i choose a 5 speed.

some people - my old man being one of them - don't like to bother with it, but to me it's no bother. to me, the 5-speed is like a game you can play while you're driving. not that driving is a game, mind you. hurtling down the road in control of hundreds of pounds of glass, metal, plastic, and rubber is not game. DRIVING IS NOT A GAME. okay, but that being said, driving can be boring, yes? yes. why else do you think people eat, drink, text, read, talk on the phone, discipline their children, play the guitar, use a netbook to surf the web, conduct minor sexual activity, and sing loudly & poorly & with all the wrong lyrics to the complete collected hits of abba - all simultaneously while driving?

because it's freaking boring. the cure for boredom is the manny tranny! downshifting is the bomb - like, i am going along going along lalala and then WHAM downshift zoom and awayyyyy!!! waiting at a traffic signal takes on a whole new dimension with the drift-back-and-catch-it tactic. ooooo - i'm rolling back - watch out car behind me - ooooo - NOT! hahaha! curving roads can be interesting in any type of car, but the handling you get from a manny tranny is incomparable if you don't agree then you clearly have never downshifted going into a sweeping banked turn.


[hey, i just re-read this and noticed there's not a conclusion. it just sort of drops off. so, here's your assignment: write a conclusion. there ya go.]