“But I believe the world is burning to the ground. Oh well, I guess we’re gonna find out.”
So where to begin with this song? Yes, it’s another Matchbox Twenty/Rob Thomas song. What can I say? I enjoy their music and they have been part of the soundtrack to my life since the 90’s, that’s the 1990’s for you younger folks. This song in particular morphed into something special for Larry and me.
In the beginning it was just a fun upbeat song about….. well, the end of the world but it was still upbeat. I don’t remember exactly at what point this happened, but it became a song that Larry would do “The Carlton dance” to whenever it would start playing and we were alone in the car together. Kinda hard to do the full Carlton dance when driving but it was close enough to make me LMFAO every single time he did it. Then it became a reminder for us about “How Far We’ve Come”, how much we had accomplished as individuals, as a couple, and as a family.
When Larry and I had our oldest son Gabriel we decided that I would go back to work part-time, and we would work on opposite shifts so that we could keep him out of daycare. At that point in time, I would actually be bringing home more money doing that than if I had worked a full-time job and we had put him in daycare and when Connor came along 13 months later that just made even more sense financially. I don’t even want to know what the costs are today. Anyway, we stayed on separate shifts until both boys were in school full-time (lucky for us their kindergarten was full time), so once Connor started kindergarten, I was able to transition to dayshift with Larry for the first time, but I remained part-time. I’d get the kids off to school, go to work, get them from school and go home with them. I did this until one day I realized that the boys were almost grown and didn’t really need me the same way as they did when they were little. So, after almost 18 years as a part-time associate I decided to go back to work full-time. Since I had now effectively doubled my income the first thing I wanted to do was find a way to “repay” Larry for all his sacrifices so that I could remain part-time for 18 years and raise our sons. So, we went out and upgraded his Honda Rebel beginner motorcycle to a BMW touring bike.
Transitioning from part-time to full-time was not as difficult as I thought it was going to be except for the boredom and dissatisfaction I found working in my usual position, so I started looking outside my area for other opportunities within the company. Eventually I landed a permanent full-time gig in our Home Office as a compliance auditor, which I loved for the most part. Things seemed to be coming together for Larry and I, the boys were almost grown and were getting ready to start their next chapters, we both were making strides in our careers so life was good. As Larrys career was advancing he got another promotion and this time decided to return the favor and do something to thank me for taking care of the boys, the house, the dog and him and that is how I ended up with a totally bad ass black BMW 135i. After getting the car and getting ready to get it tagged and titled, we started thinking about vanity plates. We eventually landed on HOW FAR. It was a good reminder every time I’d go get in my car of all that we had accomplished and how far we had come from having almost nothing to all that we had now.
P.S. I still miss this car, especially how aggressive it sounded when you started it and how aggressive it could be driven. I had loved vehicles before but because of the sentiment attached to them this was the first car I loved for being a car.
Larry’s Perspective:
Well, well, well... another Matchbox Twenty song.
I seem to recall this song getting a lot of airplay in the house & cars. And why not? It's a very catchy tune. So catchy, in fact, that at one point I told Shannon this beat is exactly what I expect Carlton to be dancing to from Fresh Prince. Go ahead, watch it while playing the chorus to this song.
Let's start with the personal side. When the boys were old enough to "survive on their own" at home (with the help of Kayko, our first Akita), Shannon decided she wanted to work full-time. When that happened, she wanted to thank me for all the years I enabled her to stay part-time. So she bought me my first BMW. My dream BMW motorcycle - a 2011 BMW R1200RT.
You have to understand something about me. In 1986, when I was 16 years old, BMW revealed the very first M3. And that was my bedroom poster wall car. This was at the height of "Yuppies", Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, Alex P. Keaton, Wall Street Greed and the overall craziness of the 1980's. To me there was no more beautiful car, beating out Countach's, Ferrari's and every other exotic at the time. To this day, I still want that car. And they still command crazy prices.
But back to our story.
In 2015, I received a rather good promotion. So it was time to return the favor. At this point in life, we were leasing Honda Accords and Civics (because Columbus is a huge Honda town and those and Acura's were all we ever owned because reliability). Note we never, ever owned an Odyssey. Shannon refused REFUSED to drive a mini-van.
So I asked her what she wanted. And after driving kids around forever in 4 door family saloons, this is what she literally said:
"I want something with two doors with basically two seats. One seat for me and one seat for my purse."
So I had my marching orders. And as luck would have it, Kelly BMW had just the car for her. And basically got me one step closer to my own dream. A 2012 BMW 135i with the "M" Sport package. A 300hp rear-wheel drive compact coupe. I throw in the word compact because BMW's have become so bloated over the years. So dimensionally, her 135i was pretty close to the size of a 1986 M3.
I'm not going to lie. This son-of-a-bitch was expensive to maintain. Because German engineering.
But just like their old tagline "The Ultimate Driving Machine", that isn't far from the truth. BMW's are engineered with a 50/50 weight ratio so they are well balanced and A LOT of fun to drive. Not as fun as my EVO, but pretty close.
So I present to you the day we got her BMW (exactly 9 years ago today), a picture with her purse and lunch in the passenger seat and the vanity plate we got for her - "How Far", inspired by this song.
Ghost of a Chance 