3 minute read
Publisher’s Message
All we need is Luv
Last month we decided to say “goodbye” to our 1993 Volkswagen Eurovan. She had been a trusty vehicle and a beloved member of our family, but, as they say, she had been getting “up in years.” So, my wife and I started browsing the used car section of Craigslist. When something looked good, we would contact the seller. Strangely, we always seemed to be too late.
It got to the point where we realized, if we did not take action within a few hours of a car being listed at a fair price with decent mileage, it was gone. The next great market bubble, as it turns out, is not in Dutch tulips or dotcom stocks, but in second-hand Honda Odysseys. The frenetic pace was unnerving. And we started feeling desperate.
So when a great listing popped up in San Diego, I called immediately. “Do you still have the van?” I asked. The reply came back, “Yes, but…” The man—his name was Sam—went into a very long, sad story about how the odometer had been fraudulently replaced by the guy he had bought the van from and that the actual mileage was about 70,000 more than it appeared. “Wow,” I thought, “What a story. And, what an honest guy for sharing it!” We went on to commiserate for nearly an hour over his misfortune.
Around the same time my wife found a van being sold by a guy named Luv. She liked his wheels so much that she sang the tune “All we need is Luv…” to me during the entire week of our shopping experience (she insisted that his van had good kharma similar to the VW). But, not entirely persuaded by her argument for vehicular kharma, I decided to go with Sam—besides he had a better price. I explained the decision to my wife, “Hey, I gave Luv a chance to reduce his price to match Sam’s, but he wouldn’t budge.”
Sam assured me that he would hold the van for us until we got there the next day, so I got off the phone and bought two one-way tickets to San Diego on Amtrak’s Pacific Surfliner (I was taking our eight-year-old son along for the experience and for the company). But, as I was stuffing granola bars and water bottles into our backpack late that night, I received a text message: “Hello sir this is Sam. I am VERY SORRY but the van is sold.” I was more than a little bit annoyed when some minivan kharma made an appearance. Literally, three minutes later, another text popped up from Luv, “Hi Tom, I talked with my wife and we have decided to accept your offer.”
We knew for sure that we found the right vehicle when Luv, his wife and two kids sent us a short video documenting their last drive together in their van. So, instead of heading to San Diego by train, we drove to Ventura. After assuring The Luv Bunch that the van was going to a good home, we completed the transaction. The next day—the first time our family all piled into the van together—we decided to make a video for The Bunch with the Beatles’ “All You Need is Love” blaring in the background… but with our three kids, inexplicably doing the Gangnam Style dance.
As always, I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who had a hand in producing this issue of SLO LIFE Magazine and, most of all to our advertisers, who have made it possible.
Live the SLO Life!
Tom Franciskovich tom@slolifemagazine.com
