Last night I went out and bought a little toy. It's a Memorex personal cd player that also plays mp3 cds. A snarling look nixed the idea of a new car stereo for the time being, so a truce was reached. Hence, the handy little player.
It has the adapters for the cassette player, and power supply (lighter socket) in cars. Wasting no time, I quickly made up a playlist and burned a disc lastnight.
Trial run this morning now makes MJ indispensible. This is going to make the two and a half hour ride home everynight more tolerable. In some ways this makes sense for me. Because no matter which vehicle I drive, I'll have something better then the radio to listen to. Just throw it in either one and away I go. And the sound was outstanding versus a cassette. I never used the cassette player anyway, tapes just don't make the grade.
And for less then $100.00. I'd still like to get an in dash unit for the car, but until the beastmaster says yes, this will have to do.
Finally, justification for getting MJ. Now it has become more then 'hobbyware' for me. Thank you JRiver. Without MJ I'd never have done this.