The Worst XMas Gift -- Ever!
This gift deserves it's own entry for so many reasons.
Short setup -- Traci really likes punk/indie/underground music, in addition to 80's hair bands.
Consequently, there are not many good radio stations in the area for her. I've shown her how to locate and download music from the Internet, but discovering these indie bands in particular is quite difficult, since there is no radio play for many of them on conventional radio stations.
As such, I thought a satellite radio would be a great gift idea -- Sirius to be precise. So I purchased the radio, and 1 year subscription for her.
She loves the radio and the music selections; quite possibly, this was the best gift in her mind this year (the necklace from Tiffany's runs a close second.)
Why then it is the worst gift ever? Let me explain.
It all started the Thursday after XMas. I was off this week, and as it turned out I needed her car to run some errands on Thursday and Friday -- she has an Outback, and I needed the extra room the Outback has over my Legacy. Since she can't drive a stick (my car is a stick), I had to drive her to and from work on Thursday and Friday.
On the way to work Thursday morning, she announces that she's only almost rear-ended 3 cars since Tuesday. Seems she's too distracted by the Sirius radio, and switching through all the stations finding songs she likes -- too many choices. Only 2 days, and she's almost had 3 accidents; this is not good odds. In her defense "only 1 was really close." There's going to be an accident sooner or later.
That's not the worst, however. The worst is the fact that we take her car whenever we go anywhere. There's a couple of reasons for this, cheif among them are:
1) She can't drive a stick, so if we go on long trips, she can't help drive if we use my car.
2) Over the past 5 years, we put a lot of mileage on my car, running trips around town, and short distances. She had an older Jeep, and I didn't want to push the wear-and-tear on the Jeep, and risk it breaking down before we could afford to get her a new car. Near the end of the Jeep's life, we used my car for all long trips as "little" things started to go on the Jeep.
At any rate, now that we drive her car most places, the difference in musical tastes is becoming VERY apparent. It wasn't so bad when we only had the choice the terresterial stations offered, but now that there are channels with nothing but 80's hair bands, indie, punk, goth, etc... It has become painfully apparent how different we are in our musical likes and dislikes.
We haven't even taken a long trip yet. I fear I may lose my equilibrium while driving, if my ears start to bleed from too much 80's hair music. I may have to start to drive with my iPod while in her car.
Short setup -- Traci really likes punk/indie/underground music, in addition to 80's hair bands.
Consequently, there are not many good radio stations in the area for her. I've shown her how to locate and download music from the Internet, but discovering these indie bands in particular is quite difficult, since there is no radio play for many of them on conventional radio stations.
As such, I thought a satellite radio would be a great gift idea -- Sirius to be precise. So I purchased the radio, and 1 year subscription for her.
She loves the radio and the music selections; quite possibly, this was the best gift in her mind this year (the necklace from Tiffany's runs a close second.)
Why then it is the worst gift ever? Let me explain.
It all started the Thursday after XMas. I was off this week, and as it turned out I needed her car to run some errands on Thursday and Friday -- she has an Outback, and I needed the extra room the Outback has over my Legacy. Since she can't drive a stick (my car is a stick), I had to drive her to and from work on Thursday and Friday.
On the way to work Thursday morning, she announces that she's only almost rear-ended 3 cars since Tuesday. Seems she's too distracted by the Sirius radio, and switching through all the stations finding songs she likes -- too many choices. Only 2 days, and she's almost had 3 accidents; this is not good odds. In her defense "only 1 was really close." There's going to be an accident sooner or later.
That's not the worst, however. The worst is the fact that we take her car whenever we go anywhere. There's a couple of reasons for this, cheif among them are:
1) She can't drive a stick, so if we go on long trips, she can't help drive if we use my car.
2) Over the past 5 years, we put a lot of mileage on my car, running trips around town, and short distances. She had an older Jeep, and I didn't want to push the wear-and-tear on the Jeep, and risk it breaking down before we could afford to get her a new car. Near the end of the Jeep's life, we used my car for all long trips as "little" things started to go on the Jeep.
At any rate, now that we drive her car most places, the difference in musical tastes is becoming VERY apparent. It wasn't so bad when we only had the choice the terresterial stations offered, but now that there are channels with nothing but 80's hair bands, indie, punk, goth, etc... It has become painfully apparent how different we are in our musical likes and dislikes.
We haven't even taken a long trip yet. I fear I may lose my equilibrium while driving, if my ears start to bleed from too much 80's hair music. I may have to start to drive with my iPod while in her car.
posted by Rich B | 1:49 PM
2 Comments:
I would vote for Satellite radio to be one of the worst holiday presents as well but for another reason. If someone bought your a gift that required you to lay out money each month to enjoy it, that is a bad gift. To Rich's credit at least he provided a year of service with the radio. And it gets him an instantly renewable gift. Each year he can buy the next years service and call it a "gift".
for $499 I can purchase a lifetime contract. While this may sound like a lot, 3.5 years x $142 = $497.
Bottom line, if you plan to use Sirius for 4 years, it's cheaper to go with a lifetime contract.
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