Do you like change? Unexpected change? It all happened this month!

I truly cannot recall a time when my desk has been messier. Then again, I am constantly multitasking on behalf of my clients and with the return of in-person events, I am working simultaneously on numerous papers and presentations that just have to be completed before a publication or event takes place. On the other hand, I haven’t been a religious follower of the clean-desk principle.

Wasn’t it International Telephone and Telegraph Corp CEO, Harold Geneen, who many years ago put down the clean-desk, super-organized manager with the criticism, "If your desk isn't cluttered, you probably aren't doing your job." It is also best left to the coach of the New England Patriots, Bill Belichick, who ends his post-game press conferences with something like “he just did his job!”

Before you entertain any thoughts that perhaps you are hearing a complaint from me then nothing could be further from the truth as yes, I love my job and I love the people I work with. For someone who has been in IT for as long as I have been, the industry is every bit as exciting as it was a decade or two or three ago and going back as far as I can remember. Maintaining a sense of excitement over technology change has been key to me being able to get out of bed each morning.

Talking about keys, the unexpected happened this month. I always welcome change but it all happened rather quickly and caught Margo and me just a little off guard. But there you have it; for a weekend we had to deal with five cars yet again. When we first moved into our Windsor, Colorado, home we had a motor coach and trailer, a track car, two SUVs and three sports cars and a motorcycle. And before you roll your eyes then yes, it made very little sense.

In the intervening years we have sold and traded vehicles to get back down to three but for now, we are working through exactly how to proceed. Our trusty Infiniti EX35 is now history having been sold to a family member. Given how our beautiful Range Rover Evoque convertible was destroyed late summer 2021, it proved rather lucky that just a few weeks earlier we had bought the Infiniti as it became our winter car.

But it’s gone, replaced with a Jaguar F Pace SVR. We all bemoan the fact that here in America you no longer can walk into a car dealer’s show room and negotiate a deal for something on the show room floor. Do we miss those days? I for one certainly do even as the rest of my family shudder at the thought. “Take it for a test ride?” “Sure; mind if I put a few miles on it just to see how it goes?” Over and over again but that was the practice until a couple of years ago and I so miss being able to visit a veritable smorgasbord of cars all ready to be driven out the gate.

Unexpected change? It was a matter of only a week or so prior to picking up the new Jaguar F Pace that a genial conversation between neighbors led to a totally unexpected acquisition. While it was out of necessity that we waited almost a year before Jaguar Land Rover could source the F Pace as a replacement for the Evoque, our desire to purchase a Corvette C8 Z06 had gone unfulfilled for almost two years, with no end in sight. GM dealers were building unofficial lists of potential buyers as early as December 2020 but even as GM has lifted the covers off this new addition to the Corvette family, no pricing information has been provided nor has there been any indication as to delivery dates.

It is fast becoming a sore point for car enthusiasts everywhere. “Yes I have a Z06 on order,” seems to be a common refrain from almost all of them who are active on social media. As for the unexpected acquisition, my neighbor is my local GM dealer and has me “number six” on his list which means we will be waiting three years, maybe even a little longer. Ridiculous? Not really; just a fall-out from the global pandemic and the following calamity over supply chains.

“Would you be interested in a slightly used C8 Z51 Corvette? It’s last year’s model but only has a tad over 2,000 miles on the odometer and I can get it for original MSRP!” Turned out, it was the same color with all the same options as we had included in an original order back in 2020 before we elected to let go in favor of the Z06. The enthusiast who bought the car experienced a medical incident that made it no longer possible to get in or out of the Corvette. So yes, a phone call back to Margo and a deal was struck. Over the proverbial back fence; didn’t see that coming.

It has become common practice through the years to snap a photo of whatever car we happen to be driving at the time parked in front of this old church. It has achieved some level of fame as Pope John Paul II visited this church many years ago, arriving by helicopter that forced a closure or the Peak to Peak highway. Not entirely sure what that was all about but it has become our go-to place for such snapshots and it should come as no surprise that we just really like the prevailing serenity radiating from this Rocky Mountain chapel.

The Corvette may not be the Z06 variant we wanted and still have on order but you have to believe us, this being our fourth Corvette nothing in the past prepared us for the pure joy that this eighth generation Corvette delivers. The finish is over the top gorgeous and there are no longer any reminders of the fiberglass and resin form of the past. With an engine located just behind our heads it is indeed heady stuff whenever we press the go pedal. 

And yes, it goes …

Unexpected changes? No matter how carefully we had planned the downsizing exercise, there was no way we would walk away from a temporary driveway full of cars. And very temporary it is as not only has the Infiniti now gone but in a matter of weeks we will be returning the BMW i8 Roadster. It was leased and the lease ends so that’s all that is needed to be said. It goes back; a fun car but only ever a casual thought about turning it into a keeper – a tad on the costly side for maintenance once the warranty ends. On the other hand we will be sad to see it go as it gave us a taste for what the future holds for PHEVs even as we continue to distance ourselves from pure EVs. Call it range anxiety or whatever but the roads we cover out here in the west have minimal charging station infrastructure in place. 

The change up to just three cars will also see us do a major shift to England. We have purchased our F Type V6 AWD R Dynamic as a grand tourer, added the F Pace SVR as the daily drive and we will be able to turn to the Corvette whenever a true sports car is needed. All sane decisions, right. Red white and black; what’s not to like about such a reduction taking place! Having options when it comes time for a road trip to attend one business function or another is such an American tradition.

However, there is another consideration that has impacted our recent decision making when it comes to event attendance. Time didn’t allow us to drive to Washington D.C. last week so we flew and it was a reminder of why we no longer opt for plane rides. Denver had temperatures in the 90F range one day and then the very next day, was hit with a sudden snow storm. And that was the day of our return trip to Colorado. Our plane was on the full instrument landing as visibility coming into Denver airport was almost zero.

But then we had taken the Jaguar to the airport and new to this particular vehicle meant googling the best set-up for driving home. It was simple and the big cat performed perfectly delivering us safely home after more than an hour on northern Colorado’s clogged freeways. We may exercise a little more caution driving the Jaguar than we had previously done when driving the Infiniti in similar conditions but all the same, it reduced the levels of trepidation that Margo and I both experience when heading into a snow storm.

Then there is sadness as we part ways with our cars. These are not just driving machines – they have names and they each have their own play toy in them. Mostly. Call us sentimental if you like but that won’t change how we feel about each of the cars we happen to have right now; they are family, after all. The i8 roadster was not named but we added the BMW bear the very day we purchased it! Infinity EX35, Sophia, as we called her, had a name but no assigned animal as we knew from the outset that we were to be her temporary foster parents. Yes, F Pace SVR is named Nigel, Corvette C8 Z51 with the Targa removable top is, of course, Blanche and the F Type coupe was just recently named by our neighbor (who is letting us park it in his garage till the i8 goes), Margo.

Perhaps it was the dramatic change in the weather that reinforced how unexpected changes continue to surprise us. Our days on road courses are long gone but our fascination with cars remains. We may be a little off with our reflexes and our muscle memory may be waning but then again, as a couple who were not born in America, every time we leave our driveway, it’s an adventure. We have a lot more miles to cover this year into next and the number of “empty weeks” at home is lessening.

The opportunity to still be a part of the IT industry isn’t something we take for granted even as it continues to require a lot of time in front of our terminals. Messy desks? Rather, I suspect, it is more a case of messing about with cars. Now, that’s more like it. With each road trip, each client visit and every community event there always seems to be an upside and with this past trip to D.C. it was inescapable. They delivered box after box of cupcakes and what possibly could be better than that! Ahh, the pure joy that comes from driving America!