Gusto

In high school my parents bought a '96 Plymouth Breeze. Shortly after I returned from my mission it was given to me as the car I would be driving. I have driven it ever since. I decided to call him Gusto, because as a four cylinder he didn't have any otherwise.

Gusto went to DC with us, he made the trip back from Georgia with me. I went to Michigan and then Colorado in him. I had my worst car accident in him. Both of them. Looking back I guess you could say Gusto has been 'mine' longer than anything else I own. When my parents moved to Georgia Gusto is really all I had left of home, the only home I've ever really called home.

Lately, I've been having arguments with my parents about fixing him up, I didn't really see a point, he has so many problems that I figured I would just drive him into the ground and that would be that. Tonight, he died. The starter has been acting up a lot lately and I knew the end was coming. But I don't think I was fully prepared for it. I know I wasn't. It was a quiet death, in his sleep I suppose you could say. He was pretty old for a car, and I didn't take as good a care of him as I ought to have...

I just didn't realize how much I'm going to miss him. How much I am going to miss a home. Ea said she was homesick today. I realize that I am too, I'm homesick for a place that doesn't exist anymore, for a period of my life that I can't go back to. How I wish things never had to change, that life would just go back to the way it was.

I'm going to miss Gusto, I'm going to miss the hole in the floor that I used to pick the lock so many times, I'm going to miss the metal bumper Brother Whiting put on when we drove it to DC. I'm going to miss the freedom he gave me, the memories I have of him. A hundred different things about him, about something that is so integrated into my life that it seems strange to give him up.

Some other memories of Gusto that I love:

Ashley: "Oh, you brought the good car today."

Emmaleigh: "This is going to be up here for a long time isn't it?"

Jason: "What is getting me wet? Where is this water coming from?"

Random New Yorker: "They hit your car!"

I'm going to miss you Gusto. I'm sorry that you have to go.

-C

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Tanya

Once, when I was younger, we made the mile long trek to Verds, or Yerds (we were never really sure which) to make use of our pennies on their supply of penny candies. Verds was a mom and pop type shop that was positioned about a mile from my home, we would ride our bikes down there and grab 25 cent sodas, 1 cent orange slices and the like.

One day, we ran into a girl that was in my grade and her older sister. I said Hi, she said, Hi. Then her sister said, "So this is Asmond..."

It made me think she liked me, it made me consider Tanya in a new light. We weren't really 'friends,' but I've always sorta wondered... what if?

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This Just In:

Natural Selection Dooms Humanity to Stone Age!

While working in the pharmacy section of the evil store that I work at the other day I encountered a strange sight(not for the faint of heart in fact... don't follow most of these links.). A gaggle of young native Georgian woman. Now, I was in the pharmacy section of the store. Do you know what is in the pharmacy section of the store? Things a single LDS male need not think about. This group of young women ( probably 15-17 in age ) were followed around by two hoodlum looking young men of the same age. They of course followed at a discreet distance, but made occasional remarks and were talked about... Anyway, they were looking for a pregnancy test. Of course they glanced about and finally chose to pick the cheapest one, after all results don't really matter. Then they grabbed some condoms. I personally should have thought the condoms be purchased long ago.

Natural selection is Darwin's theory that allowed for evolution. Basically the strong and smart survive long enough to reproduce.

So here is the problem: Humanity has eliminated ( except to a very small degree ) the process of natural selection in our reproductive cycles. Just about anyone can live to be old enough to reproduce, you don't have to be strong, you don't have to be smart. In fact, the smart ones prevent child birth completely. (I tired to do some research on this... but it took too much time/effort so I'll say that it may or may not be true... but it FEELS true.) Now with notable exceptions the more educated you are the fewer children you have (another one of those feels true things.)

So... how are these things related? If you equate money with being smart or strong, and poor people have more children. These are the same people that left to fend for themselves by providing food and shelter, would have died. So, we've eliminated natural selection from humanity. So what? I probably wouldn't be around if I had to provide for myself... I may be smart but I'm not strong.

However, I have noticed another trend in Americans. We like to marry people who are like us. Physically, mentally and spiritually. So smart people marry smart people, strong people marry strong people. Eventually we become morlocks and eloi. Gosh, I wish I could think up some sort of original thought. Stupid H.G. Wells came up with this blog YEARS ago. Only 'better.'

Oh well, moral of the story, you smart people, marry strong people and have smart, strong kids.

The end.

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