Opinion : My midlife crisis: Going for the shiny new things

I'm one of those practical gals.

I grew up in a family where we didn't learn how to splurge, and don't even ASK for the shiny new things.

Then I grew up, got married, had our 6 children and well, the pattern continues.

The older I get, I notice that my attitude about what I have and what I want is slowly changing.

My sister had a Camero Berlinetta as her first car.

My first car was a Plymouth Valiant.

I don't remember anything about how much hers was, but I KNOW mine was cheaper, it cost me a mere $50. It went from Iowa to Pennsylvania to college for 3 years, with lots of oil, transmission fluid and spare brake fluid, antifreeze and windshield washer fluid tucked snuggly in my trunk.

It also hauled 4 of us with a car top carrier there and back, it was a good car.

It lasted into the first year of our marriage, it did the job.

Back then, waaay back in the 80's, being the daughter of a truck driver, I felt the need to have a CB installed, and back then that was as close as you could get to a cell phone.

I could've had a simple boring antennae put on that would have served the purpose, but I wanted one mounted right in the middle, over the trunk, I always though that looked cool.

I remember talking to my dad, who did NOT want to drill into the body of the car to install said anntenae, but in the end of COURSE he catered to his daughter's wishes. We went out, marked just where we wanted it, and he went to town installing my "cool" antennae.

My dad was also the kind of guy that could rig up anything on a car that you wanted. He's also the guy that introduced me to those wonderful fireworks that are car bombs. He showed me how to hook them up to the spark plugs then watch as the unsuspecting victim starts the car only to be greeted with smoke and banging coming from under the hood. (all completely illegal in Iowa, but however we think handing a 2 year old a sparkler a much safer idea...)

There were also the foot shaped gas pedals we picked out of a car assessory catalog, and again my dad crawled in the car, laid on the floor and installed them.

Then I talked him into jacking up the back a little, and he did that, which lasted until the body rusted out, just outside of Vinton, we hit a bump and the springs came through the trunk, but again, this was after we were married, so it did it's job.

Then he said he could hook up a speaker to work under the hood with my CB radio, I then had the ability to have an installed megaphone...I mean everyone needs the ability to speak to the world from inside their car, I don't remember actually using this feature, but I had it!

Then there was the 8 track tape deck, and seat covers, my little Valiant was as tricked out as I could make her.

The one think I always wanted but never bought was, I don't know the official name, but an OOOoogah horn, that sounded like a really old car.

Now that I've hit 45, I find myself drooling over a Camero Berlinetta that I see in town that looks exactly like my sisters old car. It has the T-tops and the cool console and the gear shift that makes you "feel" like you're driving a stick shift when you aren't.

We spent hours cruising in her car, and now I find that I'm wanting the same car for my midlife crisis car.

I don't know why, it makes no sense, but to me, that car still looks sooo cool, and I want to drive with the cool kids.

This week, we sat in a meeting discussing the future of Vinton Today, the possibilities, the changes and the upgrades we need to make to the site, things you our readers can see and things only we can see on the back end.

As with everything, EXCEPT our government, we realize there is a limited amount of money to do everything we are dreaming about.

When it comes down to it, we will have to make a priority list and decide what we can and can't do.

The practical thing would be to make some changes on things you guys can't see that would make my job so much easier.

But now I'm at that age that sees the shiny new idea that makes me say, "Forget practical, I want the shiny NEW thing!"

I couldn't sleep last night just thinking about this "shiny new thing" and how I know you all will absolutely fall in love with it.

I think its taken these last 45 years to finally realize that we only live once, so I might as well go for a few shiny new things, and forget being practical!

I'm sure this shiny new thing will be months down the road, and our tech guy will now be up nights trying to figure out how to create the "shiny new thing" but I will fall asleep, when I'm not too excited about it, with a smile on my face, waiting anxiously for the "shiny new thing" to finally arrive on my computer.

I'm finding technology is so fascinating when you start to realize anything you dream up can become a reality.

We are still in the talking about it stage, so it may not ever happen, but the next time we sit around the table, everyone will know that I'm FOR the shiny new thing, but I think mostly because I KNOW you all will love this shiny new thing as much as I, and THAT'S what will make it fun!

So here's to life and a few more shiny new things!