“Honey, I have great news for you,” my dad exclaimed to my mother, who was sitting in a chair, eyebrows raised. I knew what was going through her head. Not again.

She didn’t say it out loud, though, possibly because of a eager saleswomen standing right next to my dad. She was holding a clipboard and had a pen stuck behind her ear.

“What?” my mom finally asked.

“They said they would upgrade us to a SUV for only 100 dollars!” my dad smiled at my mom.

“Every day?”

“No, total!”

My mom stuttered for a moment, then said, “Your decision.” I didn’t know what it meant (and that was the whole point: zero percent liability), but my dad must have perceived it as a yes because he turned around and grinned at the salesperson. “Go ahead.”

Twenty minutes later, my mom was sitting in the front seat with my dad. We had just walked out of the rental car company near the Denver International Airport.

It was now three hours since our airplane had landed. We were planning on spending a day in Denver, and driving into Copper Mountain, our ski resort, tonight.

My dad turned to my mom. “So how do you like this car, eh?”

She wasn’t talking.

“One hundred dollars…” she puffed. “You could have bought so much stuff with one hundred dollars.”

“Well, why didn’t you speak up when I asked you whether you liked it or not?”

“Well, I assumed you’d be reasonable.” my mom huffed back.

“I am being reasonable; I’m saving our lives.”

“How might burning cash be saving lives?” snorted Mom.

“If there’s a blizzard on the road, then an SUV will definitely save our lives!”

The argument continued, and I sat in the back glumly, listening to them argue.

—-

Thirty minutes later, my parents had finished arguing. We were parked near Denver’s supposed famous 16th Street Mall, a pedestrian-only street with lots of cafes.

As it turned out, they were all cafes, and I soon found myself inside a pizza store after asking my parents for some food.

I had picked a personal pan pizza, but it came with a drink. Normally I don’t like drinks to come with the lunch since they are expensive and my dad had packed plenty of water anyway.

“Can we just have the pizza, not the drink?” I asked the lady.

“Sure,” she said, pressing a bunch of buttons. It came out to $5.29. The number seemed familiar.

“Wait, how much is it with the drink?” I asked the lady again.

“Sure,” she said (again), pressing a bunch of buttons (again). It came out to $5.39.

“So there is only a ten cent difference between having the drink and not having the drink?” I asked, unbelievingly.

“Hmm? Seems so,” the cashier said, pointing at the crumb-covered screen.

“Okay then, I’ll have the drink.” I told the lady.

“And for you?” asked the cashier, pointing a plump finger at my dad.

“Er, the same thing, but without the drink.”

Later, my mom joked that my dad saved way too much on the little things instead of the big things. She said it should be the other way around. However, the decision to upgrade to a SUV was a good one; that night there was strong winds on the mountain highway.

This article is part of the 2008 Colorado winter trip for skiing. They are all tagged with “2008winter” for convenience.