No, the "Black Echo" wasn't a Marvel Comics superhero from the 1970s who fought alongside Black Vulcan, Black Panther, Black Falcon or Black Lightning (who might be most famous for a SNL skit where Sinbad, playing Black Lightning, wasn't on the invite list to Superman's funeral).
It's our car.
And after the trip to Abu Dhabi last week, I realized there were a few stories about the car I've never shared here.
First off, all cars sold in the U.A.E. have a fantastic standard feature - when one hits 120 kilometers per hour (about 74.5 mph) it dings.
Repeatedly.
Kind of like the new cars that ding to warn you your seatbelt isn't fastened.
Ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding.
Of course, with driving the way it is around here, this feature can get mighty annoying mighty quickly. One friend, who'll remain nameless as I'm sure this is illegal, took a drill to his dashboard to silence it.
Sounds extreme, but hey, it worked.
Seriously.
The other feature that still kills me to this day is the heat. As in, the complete lack thereof.
That's right, the car has no heater - only air conditioning. How weird is that?!?
Then again, since it's mid-April and already 100 degrees out, you can imagine we have more of a need for AC than heat.
Lastly, no matter what the language, we always have to remember that objects in the mirror are closer than they appear:
