Back in August of last year we were involved in a multicar traffic accident. It happened in a work zone where the highway lanes were tight and bounded by concrete safety walls. Unfortunately, when the traffic had cause to slow down, so much so that we had come to a stop, a pickup truck, towing a caravan, then careened into us at 70 mph.
Hand over a
check, sign some papers and then, don’t call us, we will call you to let you
know when to expect delivery. As for bargaining then no chance; indeed you are
lucky to close a deal on a new car without being pressured to pay a market
adjustment fee.
Last time I checked, this is America after all. The land of instant gratification! Of being able to walk onto any car dealership’s lot to simply wander along the aisles of parked cars to determine what color you liked best. After which the bargaining process started. But no more it seems.
Fast forward to early March 2022, six months after the accident and still no replacement car. For now all indications point to us seeing our new SUV late May perhaps early June. Supply chain? Chip Shortage? A car transport ship at the bottom of the sea? In all likelihood it has been almost all of the above contributing to a delay in hand-over and my patience is running a little thin. One thing we are both sure of is that in replacing Li’l Pumpkin, we will be simply calling this new SUV Pumpkin II.
Forewarned that our leased BMW i8 Roadster will be heading back to BMW later this year, we took steps in late 2020 to get on the list for a Corvette C8 Z51 convertible. A matter of weeks later we jumped to another list this time for a C8 Z06 coupe. A small amount of money changed hands but this was just to be on a list. There was no actual inventory available given that there wasn’t even a production start date. To be clear, the C8 Z06 hadn’t even been announced back then!
Put it down to
production delays, a tornado, a strike and yes, supply chain but all
indications suggest we will see our new Corvette sometime end of 2025 possibly
as a model year 2026 variant. Again, I didn’t want to pay over MSRP and I was
working with a local dealer – full disclosure, the dealership is owned by my
next door neighbor – so being sixth on his list awaiting allocations and with
deliveries expected to be just two a year, here we go again, deprived!
Do you blame us
for our growing impatience? Speaking for myself I am no spring chicken and I
wonder whether I will fully appreciate all the nuanced benefits of the Z06 but
then again, if patience is truly a virtue then I will be among the most
virtuous in our county. And Margo and I will have a Z06 to meet the challenges
of tackling the local freeway on-ramps!
Three years later and with a commercial lease rather than a manufacturer’s lease (unlike BMW leasing program) the final payout was so low it made absolutely no sense to part with the car. With just 12,500 miles on the odometer, it proved to be a no-brainer. Now, if you look into our garage you will find that our Jaguar is settled in for the long term and to think, two days before we decided to buy the car we had just changed all four tires from extreme summer to all season. New tires? That had to be the deal maker!
As we have the F Pace SVR arriving end of May we will have completed the transition from a BMW and GM family to a Jaguar family. Totally unplanned, even as it was completely unexpected, it just goes to show that if you build a pretty car, there will all be an audience that simply likes to drive cars that look nice. Supercharged 3.0 liter V6 in the coupe – a better balance proposition given almost 400 hp; supercharged 5.0 liter V8 in the SUV – an appropriate frame (and weight) that can handle the 550hp.
Where my
patience is beginning to run even thinner is with winter. After surprising us
with a period of sunny days, snow descended once again. For those who may not
be familiar with Colorado weather, our snowiest months happen to be March with
February now giving it a run for its money.
From memory however,
we can see snow falling in April but fingers crossed that we escape further
heavy wet spring snowfalls going forward. Rain, yes! Snow, no! Then again,
looking at the rainstorms pounding my family back on the east coast of
Australia I have to be very careful what I wish for. My daughter Lisa is
already praying that it snows in Sydney rather than continuing to rain.
Sunshine lessens
my anxieties. I am not a native Coloradan, although I have to admit I have now
lived continuously in Colorado for longer than anywhere else. Having said this,
I so miss the Rugby, Cricket and yes, the great race atop Mt Panorama.
Fortunately, with a realignment of networks I get to see most Manly Rugby
League games much to the chagrin of Margo. Following their first official game
of the season, you have to imagine a sense of foreboding developing and in this
instance I just don’t want to contemplate losing my patience with Manly, my all-time
favorite pro-Rugby team.
Looking ahead to
next month, in just a few weeks’ time we will be driving back to California for
the April running of the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach. We have attended a
past event but that was before Colton Herta began his Indy campaign. We were
spectators at Sonoma to bear witness of his very first outing in an Indy car
back in late 2018 but even then it wasn’t a true indication of where his career
would take him. That was a time when we had our RV and when we hung out there with
his grandparents, our good friends, the Kennys.
Now Colton is favored
to win an Indy Series very soon, perhaps even the Indy 500 this year and yes,
staying focused on Indy. While there continues to be speculation that Colton will
be Michael Andretti’s first driver selected should Michael be successful in
gaining entry into the F1 circus in 2024, keeping up with Colton has been a
true revelation. And now I have become more than a little impatient to get to
Long Beach to see how he performs on a track that he wants to call his own. Yes
in 2021 he won the race last time out on this street course.
For quite some
time I have exercise considerable patience as I looked after some premium Aussie
wines that I have kept for many years. Our collection of Penfolds wines from
the 1990s – 1996 and 1998 includes many of the popular vintages. A ’96 Grange
bottled in ’97, a trio of RWTs from that time, but all the same, augmented with
a couple of bottles from the early 2000s. Then there is he Magill Estate and
the St Henri we watch over as well. But just the other week my patience finally
ran out and with our good friends the Fowlers on hand (yes, it was my birthday
after all), we opened a bottle of ’98 Penfolds 389, but before doing that we helped
ourselves to a bottle of ’97 RWT.
The sad thing is
that once we had emptied the bottles there would be no going back, but then
again, we still have a couple more to go with perhaps Margo’s and my
twenty-fifth wedding anniversary (in less than two years’ time) proving to be
the right occasion. I think my patience with the Grange will finally end given
that circumstance and, against my better judgement, the cork will finally be
pulled on a wine we have been watching over for years.
Surprise,
surprise! When our newly found favorite restaurant in Ft Collins, Colorado,
informed us that there would be a private gathering in their cellar to
celebrate Penfolds wines together with a six course tasting menu, we jumped at
the opportunity. We even suggested to the Fowlers to join us and they too
jumped at the opportunity to taste numerous bottles of Penfolds.
And the occasion
proved too much for my impatience as the occasion led me to jumping up at one
point to give my own impression on Penfolds and its wine history, particularly
when it came to Penfolds port wines. Upstairs, in the Cache restaurant proper,
they now serve Penfolds Grandfather port, but unfortunately that didn’t make it
onto the Penfolds wine and food menu. Then again, without much publicity Margo
and I are hopeful that for a little longer a bottle of Grandfather will continue
to be on hand.
Even as the
photo atop this post is of Margo, looking outdoors at the sunshine that emerged
albeit briefly it projects the hope we both share that sunny days aren’t far
off. Perhaps my impatience indeed, more than a little rising anger, dissipates and
leaves me at peace. All we can add is that the year is still young and with
youth comes the expectation of better things to come. For that, we may need
more than hope even as our prayers become more focused.
Then again, snow
fell overnight repainting the landscape. Spring! Bring it on!
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