Hot Wheels

Hot Wheels have taken over my home! Really! I've never counted all that we have. Even I, as a math teacher, would have trouble keeping up with the numbers.

You think I'm joking. I sense the laughter behind your eyes. But, there are a few of you who are NOT laughing....my parents and my husband. You KNOW how my kids LOVE Hot Wheels. Now...I'm not talking a few cars and one little track. No, I'm talking HUNDREDS of cars. My kids have even gone to the extreme of reading the bottom to see if they are true Hot Wheels. Most are...otherwise they are not worth a sniff.

Back to my story: we have cars, trucks, tracks, carries, bigger carriers, games and movies. Did you know that they have Hot Wheels movies? They have at least 3 of them. I would love to be able to loan them to you, but to do so would cause some rift in the cosmos.

Anyway, those of you who are just getting into Hot Wheels need to know a few things. First of all, the cheap tracks are just that, cheap. I have thrown out several tracks...some small and some very large. (Don't worry, Grammy and Gramps, we still have the gorilla track.) Secondly, you need a minor in engineering to be able to put these tracks together according to specified instructions. But a good thing about them is that you can fiddle with it long enough to connect and make the necessary loops and turns.

Investing in Hot Wheels can be expensive. Who knew that these cute little 97 cent toys could become such a "hot" thing around the house. It is good to know a bit about these. To step on one is Painful with a capital "P." It will make a grown man cry to step on a "wagon-car" during a barefoot, midnight run to the little-boys' room. Where a "cheaper" car, not worthy of the Hot Wheels name, would just break under the healthy weight of an adult, the Hot Wheels car will simply pull said adult to his or her knees with tears....both the adult's and the child's as he runs across screaming, "MY CAR!"

The next lesson that must be learned is the lingo. This is far more difficult to learn. My children are fluent in the terms, and my hubby (who is quite versed in BS) is also good....much to my chagrin and to my children's delight. The common child, sadly, is not so well-versed. My children still do not understand why friends, theirs and ours, do not know what Nitrox 1, 2, or 3 is. Even worse is the fact that my hubby has defined Nitrox 4-12....wow. These terms are even unknown to the Hot Wheels "people."

Now all I have to do is convince my kids that cars aren't meant to be driven the way they are in the movies. They need to learn that Nitrox doesn't really exist....or does it?