As I was driving to work this morning, I found myself behind an SUV. Not that THAT'S anything unusual, since there are lots of SUVs on the road these days.

 

But the entire time it was ahead of me, all I could think was, "What the heck COLOR is that thing?"

 

I couldn't quite say it was a metallic medium-gray because there was a hint of tan in there. Well, more than just a hint. But it wasn't really a metallic medium shade of tan, either, because there was WAY too much gray in it.

 

For a moment, I thought maybe my sunglasses were the problem. But when I lifted them and regarded the SUV again, the color was no more identifiable than before.

 

Mind you, I'm getting used to seeing cars on the road that make me feel as though I'm in a black-and-white movie. Along with the actual white and black cars, there are cars in shades of the palest silver or champagne, which are as close to white as you can get without actually HAVING a white car. Then there are the cars in deep, dark shades of navy blue, forest green, maroon/burgundy, purple, etc that need to be viewed in bright sunlight or else they look black.

 

This has been the trend for the past few years, resulting in an absolute profusion of cars whose paint job encompasses one extreme of the spectrum or the other. One day last winter, I looked out the window toward the parking lot and saw leafless strees whose bark was a pale shade of greyish brown, cars that were white or nearly white, cars that were black or nearly black, and ONE bold yellow jeep. Everything else in view of the window was so drab,  the jeep looked like it was the one computer-colorized feature in a black-and-white photograph.

 

None of which speculation brings me any closer to knowing what the heck color that SUV I saw this morning is. If anyone sees one like it, though, feel free to venture a guess. I'm curious.