Mine’s the silver one

It’s been about six weeks now since I bought my car, a brand new Camry. I wrote about it here last month. I mentioned then that I was somewhat surprised that the first question almost everybody asked was, “What color is it?”

I told them it was silver, but that I didn’t care much care about the color: “It could have been plaid for all I care.”

Turns out I kinda wish it were plaid.

There are 33,987 new or late-model silver cars in the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area. And on any given day, a lot of them seem to be in the same parking lots I use.

Okay. I made that statistic up, but that’s the way it seems to me when I don’t take exact note of where I parked. I spend too much time asking myself, Is that mine? No. That’s a silver Honda. Is that mine? No, that’s a silver Ford.

Then I wind up standing next to a new silver Camry, energetically punching the “unlock” button on my key fob and wondering why the beep sounds so far away. Oh. This is not my 2015 silver Camry. That’s mine over there.

So it turns out that I do care what color my new car is. Silver is just too popular. Finding it is sometimes like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Don’t misunderstand me: I’m more than happy with my new car. I like the quiet ride, the safety features, the conveniences, and, of course, the new car smell.

But I wish I had picked anything other than silver.

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Congratulations to Mike and Becky for being the first to identify the image in Part 15 of the recently completed Where am I? series. That interesting garage is at the corner of Dooley and Floyd in the Museum District. Mike and Becky live not too far from there and had spotted it on one of their strolls. My thanks to all who participated. It was a fun contest, and it kept me busy staying one step ahead of you, trying to find not-too-obscure locations that fit the bill of being interesting or significant places and landmarks in Richmond.