Mood:
spaceyTopic: "Sunday, Sunday"(9)
Frodo has purchased a new motorcar. There is no pleasure greater than the flawless performance of something new and sleek, that smells good and draws the attention of friends and neighbors. Unless, of course, one fails to eliminate winning the Power Ball from consideration.
Frodo has had many new (and some not-so-new) cars, but there is something different about this time, and it relates to the ever-changing technology which either adds to our freedom, or detracts from it, neither of which provide an encompassing response thereto. Frodo was particularly attracted to the sun roof, which stretches all atop the vehicle, but in typical Frodo historiography, he began to push buttons before reading the instructions. The ominous color and passing of clouds forced the need for Frodo to halt progress, and to enlist Sam into the fray.
As the Hobbits ventured further afield, they noted that the motorcar was not evidencing any leaks at all amid the downpour which followed them into the parking lot of the retail establishment. Frodo was grateful. They found neither was familiar with exactly how one not only turned the wiper, the air conditioning, and the radio off, but they were mutually unable to halt the engine itself. Frodo felt like an inauspicious fool until noting the same occurrence in two or three other cars in the same parking lot. Evidence, he supposes, that the economy is performing far better than alleged by Mitt Romney or John Boehner.
Frodo's new car does not have a key. Instead he has a "bauble" which he carries in a pocket so that it can communicate with the locking system to disengage whenever Frodo ventures near the parked motorcar. It is supposed to work thus in reverse, but Frodo was unable to verify that new feature upon his return to the parking lot. Short of an emergency call to the dealership, Frodo found a secondary path and followed necessary instructions.
Sam was able to get the "media system" up and running. It is filled however with celtic and highland claptrap, all of which draws Frodo away from true American musical artistry. Frodo will learn how to override in the immediate future.
There is a television camera arears which, it need be added, was a primary attraction to the increasingly stiff-necked Hobbit who found this as an alternative to spinal dexterity lost moons ago. Now Frodo can concentrate on the camera playback on his dashboard, and manuver in reverse without dimembering small children or fauna alongside the driveway. Unfortunately, Frodo has already learned that concentrating on the dashboard discourages attention paid to the road ahead. Sam's heart is in tatters already.
Frodo's father had amazing mechanical skills, but he was terribly close-minded to technology, having stated on numerous occasions that such devices were merely "one more thing to go wrong." Frodo wonders what he would have thought of a "bluelink" telephone which completes calls without any charges for long distance. In truth, he would probably have identified it as a "communist tool" somehow enriching Standard Oil of New Jersey.
Frodo's father would also have objected to the national origin of the automaker. But that remains for another story, on another day. Until then, one may find Frodo, pushing buttons, and wondering why he can't get the frost off the windshield.
