Thousand Dollar Cars, Life, and Goldilocks

We live in a land of plenty, but if you’re poor, chose is limited to what you can afford. I never made lots of money even when I was working, because of my weight, opportunities for employment was limited to the imagination of the employer and my physical abilities, or lack of abilities as it goes, so good paying jobs never really presented themselves to me. But as long as I had a roof over my head and food in my belly, I was never really bothered by not having expensive possessions, my computer might be 10 years behind the times, my car 20 years, but as long as they are working I am content in my existence.

However when one buy a 20 year old vehicle, the life of said vehicle is somewhat tenuous; usually lasting from 1 to 3 years. So over the course of the last 15 years I’ve gone through a number of vehicles. And as the size of my waist has grown, the number of automobiles, which I can actually get in and out of, has diminished considerably.

For the past 10 years, I have been exclusively been restricted to minivans. The height variance of these vehicles allows me to get in and out of them with out too much strain; vans are too high, compact cars are to low. It’s almost like the ancient fairytale of Goldilocks; Oh this ones too high I can’t pull myself up, oh this ones too low I can’t get out of it, but this ones just right I can get in and out of it without any trouble. Of course when I do find a $1000 dollar minivan the next thing that I have to check out is if I can fit behind the steering wheel, some compact and foreign models don’t make the seat go back far enough for me to fit behind the wheel.

Luckily my car’s still running, but I’ve had it for 3 years now, the seat’s broken, the windows doesn’t work, I smell gas whenever I drive it, and I know it’s on it’s last legs now, I do my best to keep drive times to it’s lowest possible levels, in hopes that the vehicles will last until I find another job. But everyday that I do drive it, I wonder how long it can last.

I don’t know why I’m telling you all this, it’s just something that been playing around in my head. The point is that morbidly obese individuals have a very limited selection of cars that they can buy. For that mater they have a limited selection of just about everything from jobs, to clothing, to furniture, to just about every facet of life. I think as I transform my body, that, that will be the greatest alteration to my existence. To have chose, and not just having to cope with whatever is available. Sure finances will curtail some of that, but the world is filled with possibilities and that pretty awesome if you think about it.

Peace

FM