Guilty pleasures: heated seats

Fall is here. It’s been nothing but rainy, cold and horrid all day. And thanks to my many trips to Goodwill before, during, and after our move to the new house, my wardrobe is decidedly slimmer than I thought it would to be. I seem to be lacking in autumnal wear more than I originally anticipated. While I could wish for nothing more than a warm jacket and a pair of boots, what I ended up wearing as I left the house this morning was a hoody and a pair of sandals. Not very warm at all.

Getting into my little smart car, I shivered in the chill of the morning. While I waited for the engine to warm up enough to turn the blower on, I turned on the heated seats. Warmth spread across my lower back and seat. It is a sensation second only to sinking into a hot bath with a pot of tea and a good book about progressive CSS techniques. Yum. But before long the engine is warm enough to turn up the heat, and away we go.

You wouldn’t imagine how much I balked at having heated seats in the beginning.

When I was looking for the smart car I wanted to buy, I originally wanted one with red and black interior and exterior (such a thing exists, and it is stunning). However, the smart Center in Cary had just sold their only red and black combo. My second choice, which I began to think a little more tasteful, as too much red and black could turn a smart car into a laughable goth-mobile, was a white and black exterior with red and black upholstery. There was only one such smart car in the Triangle, and it came with all thebells and whistles: six CD changer, tricked out sound system, power steering (I still don’t think I need it), the works, and that included something I had never imagined being privy to: heated seats. I thought they were far too frivolous for me! Why would I want to warm my butt? I have a wool overcoat, by golly! I’ll wear the blasted thing if I’m that cold. So I went ahead and got the white color combination because it came with everything I wanted and only a few extras I didn’t.

But I did not imagine being in the half-clothed state that moving and fall have put me in. Now I embrace the heated seat, the “butt warmer,” as I am wont to call it.

After putting in ten and a half hours at work today, I was so happy to crawl into my smart car, switch on the heated seats, slide open the moon roof, and sail home in the dark in my cocoon of happiness.