OT: Car review after owning this one for a month...

Car goes fast. Interior very quiet. Reasonable price. Nice stereo. Big trunk.

All done. 

I get that most of my readers are practical, frugal and centered. They are often mystified that I would buy a new camera when I have bags full of perfectly good ones already. Human nature is weird. Some people never travel more than a few miles from their homes in their lifetimes while some people travel relentlessly. Some people save. Some people spend. But I have to say that it can be a lot more fun to spend on stuff you want than to feel virtuous for abstaining...

I'd been driving economical, small SUVs for decades. All the better to cram full of cameras, lights, stands, carts, props and assistants. A big space in the back is, to some people, an invitation to fill it to the brim. And that, on many shoots was certainly me. Why bring two cameras when you have space for three? Or four? Why bring just the lenses you were planning to shoot with when you have the space to bring nearly infinite back-ups? I never paid more than $25,000 for a new, small SUV so my credentials as a frugal business operator should be more or less intact (the average new vehicle purchased in the USA last year tipped the cash scales at or near $50,000. Amazing! Especially in a nation where the constant complaint is the inability of the middle class to get by). 

So, I baffled myself when I walked out of a lunch one day, drove to a car dealer and bought the car I really wanted right on the spot. Did I make a big mistake? Probably... but not one I regret. I traded in my econo box for 2024 Subaru Legacy Sport. It's fast, fun to drive and the interior is, to my way of thinking, luxurious. It has every safety feature known to man and the air conditioning gets cold quick. Of course I bought a white one. This is Texas after all. White reflects heat. I got some feedback from someone who lives year round in the barren reaches of the far north. Apparently people up there don't buy white cars because the white cars tend to blend in with the snow making accidents more likely. For the two days a year we see a dusting of snow here I'll just sit at home and wait it out. That's worked so far. 

This is my first car with a rocking good stereo system. Twelve Harmon Kardon speakers and a 500 watt system. But it's my first car with no CD player so I have to remember to bring my phone along with me and use ApplePlay. I wish I'd thought to get a CD player but that makes me sound old. It's easy enough to put a bunch of favorites on my phone. I already have 6,000 songs on my studio iPhone anyway. 

My old Forester got better gas mileage but I blame some of that on my enthusiasm for the turbocharged engine and the ever present enticement to drive faster, accelerate quicker and generally channel my teenage persona. I'll settle down and drive like a conservative fuddy-duddy in no time. But I can hope not. 

The trunk is bigger than I expected. I could put three golf bags in there. But the issue is that I don't play golf and I don't have golf bags so I make do with a couple of Think Tank rolling cases and a stand bag. So far so good. 

I got all the windows tinted except for the windshield. Subaru sends iffy signals about tinting the windshield. So that's where most of the heat in the interior comes from. The company that tinted the windows apparently has a window treatment that blocks about half of the heat energy without changing the clarity of the view. You don't get a tint but you do get IR blocking and I think, as Summer progresses, I'll look into that. It's not outrageously pricy.

The car engine delivers its power to a CVT automatic transmission. Every car reviewer seems to hate them. I've been driving with CVTs in my previous two vehicles and don't understand the criticism. Sure, they don't work the same way as a standard gear box but they can be programmed with a "sharp sports mode" which seems right punchy and, according to a performance review, moves the 3800 pound car from zero to 60 mph is 5.7 seconds at sea level. Granted, this will seem anemic to a dual motor Tesla driver or some other EV cars with never ending low end torque but compared to the much slower 0-60 time of my two Foresters or my Honda CRV it's breathtaking. Compared to the pokey performance of my (cherished but departed) Honda Element it's downright exhilarating. 

The Legacy Sport has a low center of gravity and all wheel drive and it seems almost impossible to make the car misbehave on winding roads or on negatively banked curves (damn those highway engineers). And, in addition to the balanced feel it's also got a great braking system. The car stops quite well. Especially when comparing the stopping distances between a mid-size sedan and most of the full sized SUVs on the market. 

One perk for photographers: USB C chargers up front and on the console in front of the back seats. You can charge multiple devices as you trek from one location to the next. 

So, worse gas mileage, less storage space and not many other cons. I gave up worrying about gas prices a long time ago. Around the time I decided that the price of coffee outside the house was just fine. If I wrecked my car tomorrow would I go back to the dealer and buy another one? Yes, exactly the same one. It's the most fun and most comfortable car I've driven to date. And that includes the BMW 525i I owned for several years in the late 1990s. 

It's also a good argument for not packing too much gear to take on jobs. Or against taking on jobs that require too much gear. The perfect vehicle with which to glide away from all those projects I no longer enjoy. 

The 24/7 news yesterday was an endless coverage of the heat dome nestled over the North East US. Apparently temperatures have gotten as high as ..... wait for it.....95°. What we in Texas call, "Spring Weather." So, after turning off the "dire" news around 3:30 in the afternoon I got in the new-ish car and headed for my usual downtown walk. I guess it was closer to 98 or 99 here but the humidity wasn't too bad and the "feels like" index said that it felt to be around 105°. Perfect walking weather. 

I know that oppressive heat is supposed to be worse for "older people", "seniors", "geriatric participants" so I kept the walk short. Just three or four miles in the "heat sink" we call downtown. Amazing to report but I was not the only one out walking in the heat of the day. In fact, just in downtown hundreds of people were out walking, shopping, site seeing and ignoring the heat. We're used to it. As long as the soles of your shoes don't melt into the asphalt things are manageable. The same hints from year's past apply: Wear a wide brimmed hat. Wear light weight, breathable, moisture wicking shirts. Wear short pants. Put sunscreen on the tops of your feet if you feel inclined to wear your Birkenstock sandals. Which you should. Drink water from time to time. Take less camera gear. Maybe just one camera and one lens. Relax, walk well, enjoy. 

B. and I walked the hills in the morning, after swim practice. We've got some significant hills but the temps were in the high 80's at 9:30 a.m. We only got in three miles in the morning. That's why I added a second long walk in the afternoon. If you are interested in living better and longer I can suggest a book I just read called, "Younger Next Year."  If you hate to exercise or feel just one or two days a week is enough for you you'll hate this book and that will be that. If you read it and embrace the advice you'll enjoy all your walks more. diligent exercise for at least an hour a day, at least six days a week. Oops. I just synopsized the book for you... 

I took my other advice for a change and only brought along a Leica CL (Compact Leica...) fitted with a 56mm f1.4 Sigma lens. It was so light I could barely feel it riding on my shoulder, on a strap. All the images here were shot with that combo and I used the lens either wide open or at f2.0 just to see how it would perform. Thank goodness for electronic shutters in digital cameras....

the mannequins have re-emerged as a force to be reckoned with. 

I saw this animated mannequin in a little round window attached to a parking garage. 

The mannequin mimicked my every movement. It was like being at Disney World.

Invasion of the sliders. 

Always a party in downtown.

We have no old, historic buildings in Austin. I have to shoot what I can find. 

So un-European...

I counted dozens and dozens of cranes towering over a small square of Austin. We may have too much office space on tap but it seems not to have slowed down the builders...

A mysterious sight on the sidewalk. A miracle? A vision?

I headed home. When I walked through the front door I said a little prayer of thanks to the air conditioning gods. They smiled on me benevolently.

Miracle!!! 68 year old man survives two walks in the heat of Summer.... yawn.