Ron’s New Toy

So this landed in my driveway.

It’s a 2008 BMW 335xi. Ron bought it for a myriad of reasons. Primarily it’s so he can get out on the track more often than once every few years on the Nürburgring. But also because we’ve reached an age where comfort is more important than it used to be, and having a luxury car for our concert road trips will be much more pleasant than screaming along the highway in my decade old, not so affectionately named VW City Golf, “Fuckin’ Bunker.” (Related to that is the fact that my next vehicle will be an electric one. This would entirely change our road trip dynamic, which tends to be point the car in the right direction and go like hell until you arrive at your destination. Charging times being longer than simple gas-and-gos has been a topic of much conversation between us, the upshot of which has been that I realize I have Range Anxiety.)

Plus it’s a more reasonable daily driver than his behemoth of a work truck:

I wasn’t part of the buying process, and I can’t say I was exactly thrilled to become a three-vehicle household with a two-vehicle driveway. But he ultimately won me over by saying that, knowing how much I enjoy taking photos of cars, he thought maybe I’d like to practice on this one. And not just stills. Next time we’re at the Nürburgring, the plan is for me to set up at various spots on the track to take both photos and video as he zips by, and he suggested I could get some practice in at a local track.

Yeah, Ron’s a wily fella.

He stands by his word, though, as he spent the weeks since the car arrived getting it both road worthy and pretty. Today it was deemed ready, and we went for a drive around town, looking for interesting spots to pose the car. Which turned out to be a learning experience about the city we’ve both lived in for decades, as we found a mural we’d never seen before …

… and turning 180° from there, a great wall of windows for reflective shots.

My favourite shot of the day, though, came when we got stuck at an intersection at the Ceres container terminal as a train came through, heading to the pier to be unloaded. Secure in the knowledge that, barring some sort of Fast and Furious type heist, no vehicles would be bursting out of the train to run over me, I was able to lie down in the road and take this:

When we got home, and I opened my blog page and asked Ron the inevitable question, “What am I going to write about?” he didn’t hesitate to answer, “Taking pictures today.” And considering that my blog is all about telling my stories, it only makes sense that I’d post Chapter One of this new part of my – well, our – life.

I’m looking forward to writing all the chapters yet to come.