Seat Warmers

So, I have this pretty cool car. It not only has seat warmers, but seat coolers - handy in the GA summers, trust me! I have recently discvoered a whole new use for these gadgets - and it has to date provided me with many hours of car fun and story fodder, and I have only known about it for a week.

As most of you know I have a teenage girl adopted from Congo who has been here only 5 months. Given the current socio-economic conditions in Congo, no children there have been in a car like mine (a nice lexus) - in fact my daughter tells me it is the same car the President of DRC drives - seat warmers/coolers are foreign to immigrants like my daughter.

So the other morning after another protracted silence and breakfast filled with "fine" or "whatever" (those with teenagers will immediately understand), I was enlisted to drive the girls to middle school on a very cold morning. Since there was no communication from my shivering daughter, I decided to do the good dad deed and turn on her seat warmer...something she did not notice me doing. Ninety seconds later, amid screams of "Daddy...my butt is on fire!!! Why my bottom...owwww...Daddy this make me have to go to bathroom..." and wild gesticulations in the seatbelt, I had to pull the car over - lest I kill us all in my fit of hysterical laughter.

I of course did the proper thing by telling her that cars like this - particularly Dad's car - could tell if someone had a bad attitude, and would punish the offender by burning their butt!

Car rides have taken on a whole new meaning over the last two weeks, though I suspect my fun is coming to an end - a byproduct of her more technologically savvy sisters educating her on Dad's car...and more importantly his 12 year old sense of humor :-)