Why didn’t anyone tell me…

I have a perfectly good car, my camera is in great condition, my lens
collection is already too big, and yet, while I wait on installers to
finish locking up my computers at work, I’ve been looking at the new
BMWs, the new D3, the lenses that are better than mine, and so on.
What’s wrong with us humans that we’re never quite satisfied with the
way things are? I’ll tell you a couple specific things I know for
sure, and we can make guesses at the rest.

First, my car is “older”. 11 years. It’s a nice sports car, but the
engine won’t last forever, and the power is definitely off it’s
original spec. The body and interior are in great shape, but the
engine is going to need a good deal of improvement to get back to
“sports car” condition. It’s
due for an oil change, so I can talk to my mechanic shop about it
then. But there are used M5s for 30ish and even less… and they would
fit more kids, sit just as well at the train stop under a cover, using
more expensive parts and tires, and attracting more attention of the
kind of people that should probably not see a used M5 covered at a
park-n-ride. So maybe I should go look into econoboxes, right? Well,
my common daily drive is to elementary school for a dropoff, then to
the train station to park until 6:30 when the shuttle comes in, or a
50 mile round trip to work, and I rarely go out at lunch.

But let’s back up a bit. Why in the WORLD am I looking at cars? My car
is fine. It’s probably fine for another 100 kilomiles (currently at
106.5 kilomiles). It looks fabulous, sounds great, has the aftermarket
bluetooth adapter, iPod adapter (the kind that does NOT stink), and
aside from the looming threat of a coolant system rebuild (plastic
gets old after 10 years), it’s fine. But I looked up how much it is
for carbon fiber body panel replacements to cut some weight off, maybe
shed a few pounds of stuff to drive back and forth, accelerating and
decelerating at every stop and turn, but the fact is that $800 for a
new hood and $900 for new, less safe doors aren’t really my thing. A
new exhaust would pep the engine up a bit, paired with a cold-air
intake it’d be a nice less-expensive upgrade to keep it feeling lively
while I run it into the ground for good.
And back to the car – it’s paid for. Do you see why I’m worried? I
should not be looking at cars at all seriously. But I’m not sure I’m
doing anything other than just looking at what’s there now so that in
3 years when I’m starting to get serious about a replacement, I’ll
know what the off-lease cars I’m looking at were when they were new.
Because I’m completely sure I’m not going to buy any car for 60k, no
matter how cool the new M3 looks, or how absolutely I would love to go
burn off the tires and an entire tank of gas on route 9.

My camera is fine. So it’s not worth the MSRP any more, as there is a
new bumped up version of it out plus another very significant model
improvement (D3), but the camera is slightly over 12 megapixels,
handles GPS and panoramas flawlessly, again, is paid for, and my
biggest complaints about it are pretty much trivial (see previous
post). I would like to get a couple of my lesser lenses sold off and
replaced by their bigger brothers in f2.8 or f1.x range, but that’s a
serious outlay for what amounts to just plain better pictures that I
still don’t have enough time to get to until the kids are older. And
yet yesterday, I whipped up a text list of the 5 lenses I’d like most
to get, amounting to some stupid amount nearing $10,000. Why? Why do I
need to have this roadmap in front of me?

My house (townhouse/condo technically) is fine. It’s perfect for how
we live at the moment. But my wife wants a yard, and I want to spend
less than 50% of my paycheck on housing – more if you include property
taxes. And I see houses – actual 2500+ sft houses in other areas of
the (county, country) that would give us both options, but with the
standard array of problems getting to them. 1. Jobs – present and
future, 2. Real-Estate selling issues, 3. Real-estate agent fees, 4.
schools, etc. etc. etc. But yet I look. Not often, not seriously, but
I look.

So as to why, I’ve got a couple theories, and you know how my theories
go. Feel free to stop reading any time you like.

First, I’ve always been a looker. Maybe I’m a toy-voyeur, loving to
look at things that aren’t mine. I don’t feel like that’s the right
answer. Maybe I’m bored. I personally think that’s it. I just like to
see what’s out there, what’s coming next. Where are we taking what we
learned last year and making it better.
Maybe I’m a moron.
Second, there are specific problems with the things I have that make
me want to improve them. I’m not saying what I have is bad, but I’m
always adjusting things, fiddling with them to make them fit better
with what I want. But when I get things
to the way I want them and mostly leave them alone until I don’t like
them again.

So, comment away. Do you do the same thing? Is this behavior I should
abhor in the future? Am I just the archetypal wasteful American, doing
his thing, leaving wanton destruction in his path while searching for
perfection? Or am I just human?