Re: Alfas on a budget

[Joe Elliott <jelliott@domain.elided>]

>I believe Joe Elliot's response, while valid, failed
>to account for a few extra expenses that Ted, Neil and
>myself and others have to incur :(assuming a
>high-school student lives at home) living expenses,
>mortgage/rent payments, heating bills, etc..

I actually thought of that before I posted, but then I looked at myself and
thought otherwise.  Keep in mind that while I don't have any expenses I
don't have any income either.  I mentioned that I make $35/week--and that
includes allowance and lunch money from my parents.  If you love your Alfa
as much as I like to think we all do, then you can make sacrifices like I
do. For  example, at school, most people either spend $2+ on a school lunch
or eat out for $5.  I never spend more then $1.75 on a school lunch, $.89
when I eat out on a school lunch break, and I often brown-bag it.  When I
go to the sandwich shop with my friends, everyone else get a $3 sandwich
and a $1 beverage.  I get a $.45 loaf of bread and a water (those are free
in the USA, ya know).  When a group of us rents a movie for a Friday night,
I'm always the jackass that doesn't contribute monetarily.  I always
bootleg all my music and software, and I don't use drugs.  My wardrobe
consists primarily of hand-me-downs and the latest fashions from Wal-Mart
(I own a whopping 4 pairs of pants!), and I don't go on dates very often.
I don't like to say that my car owns me, but that's about the size of it.
Now my friend Jake doesn't have to spend as much as I do on his Alfa, and
he works at the sandwich shop (50% discount!!), and also doesn't have to
drive 20 miles to get to work, but the attitude's the same that every penny
he makes goes into his car.  And another friend, Nattie, has a Euro-spec
'83 BMW 735i that cost more to purchase and costs more to maintain than the
Alfas (theoretically, we haven't owned these cars long enough to really
know), and although he's had the same pair of shoes for two years, he's not
starving or borrowing heavily from his parents.  My ideas of college life
are pretty warped, I assume.  I live in a college town and all I see are
kids in brand-name clothes driving new BMW's and Lexus SUV's--lots of new
cars in general.  And between Thanksgiving and Christmas I guess everyone
convinces mom & dad to let them take the "good car" because in December the
biggest German influence our town displays is not Christmas trees, but
rather new Porsches, Benzes, Audis, V12 BMW's (more than usual), and Jaguar
S-Types this year.  I doubt anyone's ever heard of Miami University, so I
don't know why wealthier-than-average kids would come here.  My friend
Jake's cousin from Michigan goes here though (drives a 4 cyl Mustang with
chrome wheel covers w/fake brake discs, black tinted lamps, usual crap),
and decided not to go overseas next year because "College is great--I'm
making so much money I'd be stupid to transfer into a new situation."  He
works a couple jobs, I don't know what, but even if everyone here is a rich
bastard, my point is that I can't imagine that anyone is as poor as I am
and hasn't already sold their Alfa....I'm just rambling now, I'd better go
find a party.

As for crunchy second gears, I went to
http://www.speedquest.com/gearlightning/ the other day and saw those
pictures of a second gear, before and after lightening.  That was a bit of
a shock.  The lightened gear was what I had always pictured in my mind--the
stock one would scare the piss out of me if I was a syncromesh!  Actually,
that stock gear looked like it would be put to pretty good use if someone
used it to make a mold that they filled with brown sugar, butter, flour,
baking soda, and lots of chocolate chips and baked in the oven!  Just
imagine--Alfa cookies--"the second gear that crunches in your mouth, not in
your transmission!"

I'll be cruising in the XJ6 tonight since the GTV6 is disassembled in
Jake's garage--going back together tomorrow (Jake said to come over and
wake him up any time tomorrow--so I might as well not come home
tonight--tools in the trunk of
Dad's Jag--hahaha!)

Joe Elliott  *last post of the Millennium--there is a Year Zero on either
side of Jesus' supposed birth and I've never read anything about a
33-year-old Jesus executed in the year 34....

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End of alfa-digest V7 #1254
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