Even in the midst of these sleepless nights thanks to our restless daughters and stressful days due to work deadlines, I have to remind myself how spoiled we can be.  My battery in my car key remote died the other week and I found myself not realizing how convenient it is to have that.  Besides the fact that it’s handy to have if you don’t recall exactly where you parked your car, it’s convenient to have it ready for you to open if you’re caught in a downpour.  For the few days where I had to manually insert the key into the door, not to mention I had to get into the car if I wanted to open the trunk since there is no external key entry for it, I realized how much we take little things like that for granted.  It’s not like putting a key into a keyhole is a hard thing to do.  Heck, this is the first car I’ve had that’s had a keyless remote.  But once you start using one, it really is convenient, not to mention fun to use.  I love gadgets and wireless gadgets are even more fun to use.  There’s something viscerally fun about clicking the remote once to lock the door and tapping the button again to turn your lights off.

Another nice aspect to this car is unfortunately mitigated for most of the year in a southern climate.  I’m talking about front seat “bun warmers”.  The only time I wind up using them down here are after hockey games I work in the middle of winter where the temps might actually be in the 20s or 30s.  A toasty set of buns makes for happy driving.  Unfortunately in the south, you’re usually trying to cool down your buns from the insanely hot interior of your car if it’s sitting in the sun.  Even with a tan interior it can be downright scalding to set your arse down on leather that feels as though it’s been loitering in Hades for an hour.

On a semi-related note, I'll be in my car less for the foreseeable future.  In addition to me saving money and reducing stress by taking the train to work once a week (it takes a bit longer due to having 3 connections but I catch up on reading), our office has implemented a "Work at Home on Tuesdays" policy beginning next week.  Rising gas costs and the horrific Atlanta commute are the two factors in our company letting the Atlanta office try out this pilot program.  Not being on the highway 2 less days a week is going to help a lot in reducing my blood pressure and overall stress (not to mention the same benefit will be for all my coworkers).