Life Musings

I had the following aggravating conversation with somebody recently.

Somebody asked, "When did you get that dent in your car?"

"Last year. It happened when somebody cut into my tailpipe and stole the catalytic converter out of my car. They must have dented the car in their haste to escape."

"You should get the dent fixed, then."

"I don't think so. The car is more than ten years old. Repairing it would cost almost as much as the car itself."

"You should buy another car, then."

"Why? It still works fine."

"But it's got a dent in it!"

"Buying another car would be a bad idea. This car still works great, and it will probably last me another six years, at least. I don't want to waste the money."

"Fine. Do what you want."


Some people can be really pushy with their opinions. They're eager to tell you what to do, as long as they don't have to shoulder the costs.

When I was purchasing my new home, this same person once told me, "You shouldn't buy that house! It's too old. You're going to have problems with termites and you'll have to do all sorts of repairs." Again, talk about pushy. She didn't know what kind of condition the house was in, but she was awfully quick to foist her adamant opinion on me. These self-appointed experts are just darned annoying.

Her husband can be kinda aggravating as well. Last November, I was talking about buying some snow tires. Her hubby said, "Don't do that! Just get some all-weather tires. That'll be good enough." Mind you, this fellow was supposedly very handy when it came to cars, so I was shocked to hear him say that. All-weather tires can't be expected to perform as well as snow tires -- not by a long shot. All-weathers may work fine under normal snow conditions, but when the weather gets rough -- or if you're going up a steep, snowbound incline -- snow tires provide so much more traction. That's what they're designed to do, after all.

Some people just don't understand the concept of trade-offs.