I bade farewell to a friend today.
We enjoyed a lot of fun times over the last five years- and weathered some rough moments as well – but isn’t that the foundation of all friendships?
And as I look back, I only wish that I had treated my friend with a little more loving care.
I’m talking about my 2001 Honda Civic, which now belongs to Educator’s Credit Union. Talk about the end of an era.
I bought the Honda five years ago after being involved in an accident in the WGTD parking lot which totaled my Toyota Corolla and left me with a Harry Potter-ish gash on my forehead (which actually prompted me to take my one and only ambulance ride.) In the wake of that accident, I decided to make my next car a Honda- the third one I’ve owned in my life- because there probably isn’t a safer, sturdier vehicle to drive (unless you’re into military tanks.) And as if to prove the point, my Honda survived three- count ‘em, three – accidents. One was my fault, plain and simple, when I tried to cross Durand Avenue against some heavy traffic and was clipped by a Mack Truck – literally. (I think it was banged up worse than my little Honda was, which is rather amazing.) The next was an April Fool’s joke that actually happened on April 2nd (just to catch me off guard) when my windshield got in the way of a Carthage track and field athlete practicing the hammer throw. Carthage’s insurance took care of the whole thing and I had some promising material if I ever went into stand-up comedy. The last was just this past summer when while sitting at an intersection, minding my own business, two other cars collided right in front of me, and one of them careened into me with such force that it sent me flying into the nearest light pole. I would have bet you anything that my Honda had been totaled in this little altercation- but nope…. $4000 later it was fixed and back out on the road, and fortunately for me, State Farm was there (just like a good neighbor.)
For as not-fun as those three incidents were, I think what gave me the most gray hairs was the terrible trouble I had getting this jalopy to pass its emissions test (A special gauntlet for cars in southeastern Wisconsin) the time-before-last. I had two different “check engine” warning lights illuminated on my dashboard, but it seemed to be running fine, so I wasn’t anxious to bring it in. (I guess I was remembering my dear mother’s long-time aversion to going to the doctor, because – plain and simple – “they might find something.”) But when I flunked the emissions test, they suggested that I get a tune-up and oil change, which I did- only to fail the test again. At that point, I was ordered to bring it in to a garage- and the typically nice and helpful people at the Honda dealer told me that I was going to have to replace my entire transmission to the tune of several thousand dollars. Not exactly good news. And then one day, the Check Engine lights snapped off- and sensing a fleeting opportunity, I went back to the emissions testing center and passed with flying colors. And my friend and I were allowed to stay together!
But things have been rough lately, in more ways than one. If the car ever had shock absorbers, they stopped working some time ago and riding along on the normal highway has felt like I was driving the car up the front stairs of the U.S. Capital Building, like a car chase scene from “The French Connection.” It’s been incredibly bumpy for a long time now, so I’ve just stopped noticing that the car rides like a dune buggy going 80. And the engine, which used to purr, now sounds like a dryer filled with 100 screws and bolts and set on High. And the power windows were starting to be rather under-powered, to the point where the only way to get the passenger window up was to reach over and grab it and give it a manual assist. And of course, there was the legendary mess- which has always been the sad state of my vehicles but which as of late has achieved near Biblical proportions. If you haven’t had the “pleasure” of lately seeing the interior of my car, you might not realize how incredibly messy it’s been- but this might help: After cleaning out the car, I had filled four garbage bags to the brim. . . and filled a tupperware bowl with $65.15 in change scavenged from the floor and seats. People who keep their cars clean never get to experience that particular pleasure.
Of course, people who keep their cars clean also don’t have a new strain of penicillin growing on the floor of their car. At least that’s what it looked like this morning as I sprayed several layers of Resolve on what I can only describe as a disgusting mixture of mud and mold on the driver’s side floor of the car. Three passes with the Car Wash high-powered vacuum picked up at least some of the top layer of gook but I could have worked on that mess for the rest of the year and never cleaned it completely. So I decided to bring it to Educator’s Credit Union as is and take my lumps. And when they said that they wanted to take it for a drive before assessing its value, I fully expected them to offer me $35 for it. (And we would have taken it, too.) But lo and behold, in one last miracle for me and the Honda, they offered me $1500 for it- which just goes to show you how much those five letters are worth when they’re affixed to the rear end of a vehicle.
We drove away from Educator’s Credit Union today with a 2009 maroon Santa Fe that we absolutely love. . . but before we left, I had to snap one more picture of my old car- which I was scarcely recognizable (since I could see both the seats and the floors) but which still made me smile. . . . because that Honda is likely to be my last car. From now on, we are only going to own “our” cars; there will be no more “yours” and “mine.” Our hope is that if we continue to swap cars, I won’t manage to take up full residence in either of them. . . and that just might give me a fighting chance of mending my ways.
Like I said, it’s the End of an Era.