I rented the Jeep Wrangler in search of my inner animal that I must find to play Rock and Roll music. Marilyn and I drove the Wrangler to Long Beach and pulled into Dooger’s Seafood Restaurant. While in the middle of eating the Admiral’s Plate, the Restaurant Hostess came up and asked if we were driving a black Jeep Wrangler. My inner animal swelled as I thought we must really look the part of a cool couple for the Hostess to decide that we, out of a packed restaurant full of diners, were the cool ones driving the Wrangler. I felt like a wild cougar that was just thrown some raw meat by the Hostess as she scratched me behind the ears while I growled. Maybe the cougar was my inner animal. Then my inner animal fled when she said a customer reported a large screw protruding from my front tire. The Hostess walked me out to the parking lot to examine the tire. She pointed at a shiny screw in the tread and rubbed it with her thumb. It was so smooth she thought it had been there for a long time. My inner animal instinct arose again and wanted the hostess to scratch my head some more. So I asked her in my sexy low voice what it is about me and Marilyn that clued her that we were the Jeep owners. Come on. Throw me a few scraps of meat and tell us how cool we look. She looked at me and said she had asked everyone else in the restaurant if the Wrangler belonged to them. We were the last couple she asked because she thought we were the most unlikely couple to be driving a Wrangler. She then told me her boyfriend has a Corvette with a six speed that is so powerful it makes her crazy. My inner animal suddenly shriveled from the cougar to something much less .... My inner animal was reduced to one of the fish I was eating on the Admiral’s Plate. Or maybe a gold fish lying on its side on the top of a gold fish bowl, ready to die. I wanted to ask her if she had ever heard of Anything But Hip. Then she’d know I was cool. I tried to recover quickly from this blow and asked her where I could get the tire repaired. She said the Christian gas station down the road with two large Jesus pictures painted on the water towers would treat me well. I knew then that someone was trying to save me from my inner animal. But I cannot be saved. I must save my own soul playing rock and roll music. I’ll just return the rented Jeep and try a different midlife crises on another 4 day weekend. I cannot be stopped.