I think most people I want to enjoy their car. My wife has a touch of this and hated driving the minivan. It's pretty fair to say I'm just as dispassionate about cars as I am passionate about meats. I loved driving that minivan because I like sitting up high in a car. And I don't want to pay SUV prices. We recently added a fourth driver to our household and had to purchase another vehicle. My wife wanted a $52,000 SUV. I talked her into the $32,000 SUV. Neither of us were happy with this purchase. She wanted the larger, nicer vehicle and I felt like we spent $12,000 too much. I do subtly talk about how much I enjoy driving her new vehicle in order to swing her view in my direction. If she reads this she is going to punch me in the throat. She hates when I do things like this so I can never admit it.
The lady is in a tough situation here. She is driven and the breadwinner in the family. She works really hard and has a very stressful job. She also lives in a house with three people who all have the same sense of humor and enjoy the same things and those are not necessarily the things that she finds funny or enjoyable. Recognizing these essential facts I try to blind her with travel and projects getting done around the house. It generally works and she knows she's being played and lives with that as long as I shut up about it.
To continue this, the worst thing for her is that the cat that I openly lobbied against getting and that I was so mad that we got, absolutely loves me. Just follows me around and waits for me to sit down so he can come sit in my lap. This drives my poor wife nuts.
I drove a minivan for 10 years or so. We bought one when we had the 4th kid and couldn't all fit into our Subaru Outback anymore. (We bought that Outback on eBay, I kid you not.) Owning a minivan was a means to an end, we needed a vehicle that could transport the whole family at once. My feelings about minivans are that I will never own another one. I did kinda like being up high but everything else about minivan driving was not my cup of tea. But then again (sorry, Ymo), driving is not my cup of tea. Owning any car is a means to an end.
I agree with Ymo about having things that give you joy, but I'm not going to get that ever from a vehicle I have to drive everyday. There are classic cars that give me joy - by looking at them. Consequently, I don't need to own any of them myself. Now that I am past the minivan stage of life, I lease. The hubby talked me into it. We are on the same page in how we think about cars. We want reliable vehicles that don't cost too much. We spent thousands of dollars over the years repairing that minivan (Dodge Caravan) such that the hubby now thinks leasing such that you turn the car in every 3 years and get a new one is the way to go. I am a convert. Other than the fender bender a couple of years ago (not my fault), we haven't had to take a car in for repairs since we got rid of the minivan. That said, I did demand an Accord instead of a Civic (hubby drives a Civic) mostly because of people having to sit in the back seat more often in my car (including me!)
Cats know. I am allergic to cats and prefer to keep my distance from them. Whenever I visit friends who have cats? The cats find me, even the shy ones, the ones that "never come out". I don't think it's love, I think they know they have the ability to make me miserable. I don't dislike cats, but I think they dislike me enough to pretend to love me. If they really loved me, they would keep their distance. We don't own cats, we have guinea pigs. I'm probably allergic to them too but they do keep their distance, poor things. Guinea pigs are not particularly cuddly, if you want to pick them up, you have to grab them. Luckily it's the being picked up that scares them, once you have them in your lap, the will settle down and let you pet them. They purr. They also like it when you sing to them. I don't pick them up every day but I do pick them up. Sometimes I sing to them and sometimes we go on very exciting adventures to the fridge to see what's in the veggie drawer.
Some years ago we had a group of consultants descend on us at work, and I couldn't help noticing that two of them were incessantly scratching themselves and sniffling...I asked what was up, they said they had no idea, just checked into the Sheraton the night before, woke up all sneezy and itchy...which is when I told them the annual cat show at the Sheraton had just taken place that weekend, I'm guessing they didn't bother changing bedspreads...
Mountain and I are both picking fights on the main page this morning about the anti Jay Bilas stuff.
And also I am glad we are on a first name basis now. For a while I referred to people as Mr or Ms Devil, Mo, or There. Now I feel comfortable with Bund, Mountain, Y and Ai. Well maybe not Ai. She will let me know.
Jay can be annoying but I don't think he is anti-Duke/pro-unc. All the bashing gets old. And he isn't annoying all the time.