Very few if any of you will recognize that parking lot and know that I took in Euless, Texas. Hell, I could tell you I went to the Target on Glade that day and it probably wouldn’t mean anything to you and that is ok.
It is only tangentially related to this post.
That blue hood you see in the bottom right belongs to my 14 year-old car. Fourteen years old makes it older than the Bar Mitzvah Boy.
Technically the car is in pretty good condition, fourteen years old and it only has around 130 some thousand miles on it. Last year before I drove it through the desert into the weird, wacky and wooly wilds of Texas I took it to my mechanic and had them give it a good scrubbing to make sure that it wouldn’t die on me.
That mostly worked.
No Brakes!
You see there was this minor incident where the brakes decided not to work together and I lost control of the car. Ok, it happened twice but it was the same day and thankfully nothing major happened.
The first time was after I drove through a puddle so I wasn’t entirely sure I hadn’t hit some oil but the second time I knew something was wrong.
It was about five minutes or so after the first incident and it took me right into the curb. Thankfully I was moving quite slowly so the collision with the curb didn’t really do any damage.
If you are looking for an alternative to coffee I can promise you that losing control of the car wakes you up. It is a fantastic way to start your day.
For a moment there I had this funny idea about how I would call the family from a hospital in Texas and explain what happened. Since at that time I didn’t know anyone I was even more grateful to not have been hurt because what good is staying in the hospital if you don’t get to guilt your friends and family for not coming to see you.
Anyway, nothing happened to me and I had the car repaired. Me and Blue drove all over Texas together and then when we were told we could head back to LA we retraced our steps and went back.
So here we thousands of miles and months later and suddenly old Blue is making a couple of new noises that don’t sound all that pleasant or promising.
It is not unexpected but a bit frustrating to hear these sounds and begin to wonder if my mechanic and I are going to be setting up time to see each other.
A Prayer For A Car Or Winning Lottery Ticket
I don’t know about you but I have had the unfortunate experience twice of having to buy a car when I wasn’t quite ready to do so. Mind you, I like cars and if I had the cash I would have no problem buying something new because it is time.
Hell, when Blue joined the family I was 31 and I didn’t think twice about long car rides and lumbar support. I looked at some sedans as being vehicles for old people, like my parents. 🙂
But now time has passed and some of the cars an older person might consider driving are more interesting to me. I am not talking about something you’d see a senior citizen driving either.
What I am thinking about is that there are certain sedans that I could drive now and I wouldn’t look like I was driving dad’s car.
Would I like to get some cool sports car? Hell yeah!
Why not.
Sometimes I miss the Camaro I drove in college.
But chances are slim that I’ll get some cool two seater or anything that would make people ask about a midlife crisis. Chances are that it will be something very practical and I am ok with that.
Yet reality demands that first I say a prayer for the car, something that will heal what ails it so that it will hold up a while longer. Would be better all around if I had a little more time before I need to worry about making a car payment.
And if the prayer for the automobile doesn’t work I’ll gladly accept the one for the winning lottery ticket. In fact that could be even better than healing the car, provided the winner was for the right sum of money.
I suppose we’ll have to see what happens, a man can dream…
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