I sold my daily driver of the last six years, a VW Passat station wagon. It had a number of names, not the least of which was the Kubelwagen, in homage to the German squad car of World War II, but my old classmate Mike Ripley is responsible for the moniker that really stuck, which was "The White Sled," in no small part because the car really looked like a wedge that might sort of resemble a sled.
I traded the White Sled in for a car which I've at least nominally monikered "the SVBIED." This was a running joke, inasmuch as the most common Suicide Vehicle-Borne Improvised Explosive Device (SVBIED) in Afghanistan is a white Toyota Corolla. I briefly entertained the thought of a Corolla, but relented when the OPFOR Commander (also known as Household6) mandated that I get a larger car because a rinky-dink econobox was probably too small for what we really needed from it.
I'd joked about how I'd wear a headdress, drive the new vehicle in (a 2009 Honda Accord LX-P), and hold a cell phone like it was a detonator, and to top it all off, I'd do this from a car that had a vanity plate that said "SVBIED." Then I could count on getting tasered a few times for good measure.
Seriously, though, I won't get the license plate. I'm not sure how many people who haven't been to Iraq or Afghanistan will get that one. I also remembered how much I hate haggling for, and then buying, cars from an auto dealer.
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