Subaru Outback: I Think I Love You

I remember the day more than 10 years ago when I bought my Outback. A friend and fellow teacher went with me on a December day when there was snow on the ground. I had done my research and we had already gone to several other dealers. In fact, one had the nerve to say that his job was a lot easier before the internet because people didn't know the actual cost of cars. I didn't buy from him, in part because he was a jerk, and also because they wouldn't give me a fair trade-in deal. The day of my purchase the salesperson reminded me of my teenage nephew. He was very young and eager. For the test drive he took us to an empty field covered with snow and told me to go for it. At first I thought that he was doing something sneaky, but soon another Subaru from the dealer joined us and they didn't hold back at all!

My Outback has been a very good car. Initially I needed all of the space for volleyball equipment on a frequent basis. Now I only use the space occasionally to transport things. The roof rack is handy for long wood pieces, but I never got around to getting a bike rack and when biking I just stick it in the back minus the front wheel.

Well, more than 10 years have passed and about two years ago I started to fall out of love. I had to replace the transmission, the dashboard is cracking, the floor mat is worn out, and the clearcoat is starting to peel off in some places on the roof. In November I learned that there is an oil leak and now there is an exhaust leak as well. My car is looking and feeling old. As a result, for about six months I've been talking about and researching new cars. Until now I had no intention of getting another Subaru. In fact, I was toying with the idea of a hardtop convertible. That would be really fun!

I fell in love all over again with my Outback this winter with all of the snow. During my years in Virginia I had forgotten how it performs in the snow. In an earlier post I wrote about helping others during the snowpocolypse. It was fantastic to be able to get out and help (and I love driving in the snow). Additionally, I was able to drive during other snow-in events when I otherwise might have felt isolated. More importantly I drove to the DC Temple and home one weekend without incident when it snowed a lot more than was predicted.

So now, I'm tempted to get another Subaru. Ten years ago I lived in Salt Lake City which is world famous for snow. Now I live in Central Virginia where the average snowfall is less than 15" per year. We had more snow this year than in the past 100, in fact at least one storm accumulated more than the historical yearly average. Should I base my decision on one unique winter? Is the love of driving in snow important enough to drive my decision?

My Outback has almost arrived at the 150,000 mile level. With all of the current budget issues, perhaps I simply keep it until it dies. If not, what should I buy?

Have You Done Any Good in the World Today?

I have heard a lot about people shirking responsibility or thinking only about themselves. Last week I was extremely impressed by Penn State University junior Pat Howley. I’ll get to his story later, but first let me give you some background.

Earlier this fall Darah Bonham embraced crowdsourcing through a novel idea with Twitter. He wanted to do something to help eradicate cancer so he set up a Twitter feed @abolishcancer and an abolishcancer blog. The goal of each was to solicit sponsors to the Twitter feed, raise awareness of the need, and raise funds for research. A sponsor would pick a date, and for every new follower of @abolishcancer for that day the sponsor would donate $1.00 to the American Cancer Society.

This started in October when Darah sponsored a day to try it out. Then Chari Olmedo (@irishcari) agreed to be the first official feed sponsor. She has never met Darah, but thought it was a great idea. Through her efforts there were 65 new followers and she donated $65 to the American Cancer Society. Other sponsors since then have seen similar results. I even sponsored a day in December. I tweeted about it all day long while I was at a conference and still only got 56 new followers. Well, let’s fast forward.

 A student group at Penn State called THON became aware of @abolishcancer. THON raises funds and awareness to fight against pediatric cancer. A group of them can be seen on YouTube chanting, “for the kids”. Anyway, Pat is active with this group and agreed to sponsor if he could donate the proceeds to THON. Of course Darah agreed and thus it began. Darah sent out tweets and Pat sent out tweets. Others retweeted until somehow it reached Khloe Kardashian. I don’t think that she became a follower, but she did tweet about it several times. At  the end of the day through her celebrity influence @abolishcancer had 1,734 new followers. For me, this is where the real story begins.

Pat is a college student who identifies as not having deep pockets. He thought he would pay about 50 bucks. I’m not sure what most people would have done in a similar situation, but Pat stepped up to the plate. He got creative and used other social media as well as old fashioned begging and according to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, has raised over the $1,734.00 that he had promised.

Some of the new followers commented that they thought it was someone with “deep pockets” sponsoring the twitter feed for the day. I’m sure that many thought that Khloe would step up. However it wasn’t the wealthy, famous, or powerful that made this happen. I love this story because it is about average people doing what they can to make a difference. Let’s follow great example of Darah (for the idea) and Pat (for the commitment) and do something good and worthwhile for others.