SUV Got Photon Torpedo, Me Powerful!...And Got Cup-Holder!

"We have photon torpedo, we’re powerful!"

Believe that’s how it goes. When Geordi on Star Trek The Next Generation, held prisoner and coerced into upgrading his captors’ weapons systems, seems to hand them photon torpedo technology.

Reminded of that show and scene every time a car with a cargo pod on top warps past. One of those photon torpedo-shaped cargo pods that looks designed to slip through the air. Strangely, tho, I see one more often atop an SUV. Not a lot of interior space inside your average hurtling SUV, so it seems, after the comfy seating and cup-holders.

Strange, because years ago when my Dad drove us kiddies, and our cross-country skis and stuff, for a day up some wintry postcard mountain, we all fit...snugly, sure...in Dad’s Dodge Omni hatchback. Including skis and poles. Lunch and thermos’ stashed away under that ‘backboard’, which passed for hatchback out-of-sight stowage.

I’d guess some of these SUV folk prefer not sharing the upholstery, perhaps a nice sweater too, with slush-dripping skis on the drive home. Prob’ly concerned some, too, about impaling family members on their outdoor recreation equipment. Tho, that never worried us in that compact car of Dad's. Tied together and stashed low enuf, them wiped-clean skis.

Cup-holders reminds me. Wanted to jot it down, somewhere. Fitting, here, because it’s another funny thing. Funny to me, which is what counts, seeing as this is my blog.

Last Saturday, grocery shopping. Found myself in temporary possession of a spankin’ new shopping cart. Steered straight. All four wheels on the ground.

But. A cup-holder. Intruding into the not overly spacious top tray of the cart. Sturdy brown plastic, this beverage stowing convenience. It had this air about it of Special Order from the showroom, this shopping cart, finished in the same brown plastic trim. Eyeballing the convenience, inconveniencing me, intruding into the space where I’ll have to wedge in two jugs of homogenized milk, and eggs, I could appreciate some engineering went into designing this…thing. Buttressed plastic. Stiff and strong. And no doubt most useful to the shopper able to navigate Saturday shopping, perhaps with a toddler or two strapped in the family shopping cart, and checking off the list, and without spilling that coffee.

Funny, because of the seeming need for a cup of coffee while busily shopping. As if the shopper as relaxed as when hurtling about the roads, another coffee in hand.