January 6, 2015

The Looneys’ cars are as eclectic as everything else Looney.  🙂  I will be introducing you to all the cars in the fleet, past and present, eventually.  But today seemed liked the perfect day to introduce you to the newest vehicle in the fleet–Rover the Robot–because Rover’s color is “blizzard white,” and today was the first true snow day of the season.  Here’s a picture of Rover in the snow, with a silly “snowhawk” hairdo.  😉

Rover is a Prius and was purchased in November 2014.  We’ve been having a hard time deciding if ze is a boy or a girl, so we’ve taken to using gender neutral pronouns when referring to hir.  Coming up with a name for hir was also difficult.  After about three weeks of trying on different names, Kristin decided that hir name was Robot, because her iPhone is the robot in her pocket, and this new car has so many bells and whistles that it is her newest, fanciest robot… even if it doesn’t fit in her pocket.  🙂  Andy was less sure about this name until one day when we were all climbing in the trees and taking turns crossing a wire.  Kristin said, “Red Rover, Red Rover, send Andy right over!”  From that moment forward, Andy was sure the car’s name was Rover–not like the schoolyard game, and not like a dog’s name, but like the Mars Rover (a fancy robot!).  And thus, Rover the Robot got hir name.

So what kind of bells and whistles, you ask?  Well, ze has internal navigation with programmable destinations, a back up camera, built-in phone charging outlets, satellite radio (at least for the first month), cruise control, and hands-free bluetooth phone calling.  Rover rocks!  🙂

Before I end this post, I have to mention Patchouli.  Kristin bought and took home a compact Prius that we had for three days.  Patchouli’s name came quickly and easily, and we loved her.  But the seats were not ergonomically good for Kristin and, luckily, due to CarMax’s hassle free return policy, we were able to bring her back.  She is missed and we hope she found a good home.