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Cars and Stuff.

03/05/05

Cars and Stuff.

Permalink 06:46:00 am by cassie, Categories: Announcements [A]

Yes, I got a new car. I miss Old Grey Bessie and the Duck very dearly, as it stands, Jen. Plus, New Car isn't a standard. :( But New Car has many of life's amenities that I'm not used to and of which I am quite enamoured. It's got heat that heats (and you can even vary whether the heat is really hot or only kinda!), AC that is ICE COLD(!!!), power everything, working windshield wipers, bumpers that are still fully attached, brakelines that don't leak brake fluid (as we left off, Bessie's brake fluid container and I were having weekly-or-less fill-up sessions), and lowlowLOW mileage of only 95K. Of course, age does bring wisdom (and Bessie is pretty wise), but youth brings vim and vigour and a remote starter for early AM clinicals.

Did I mention that, due to this eleven year old car, I feel completely and utterly spoiled? I was even skeptical of New Car's wonders, initially. I was reticient to give up Bessie on just hearsay from my father that he "knew this guy who has this car that has some critical malfunction that has caused it to be off the road.." but, he said, "he thought he could mickey mouse it and it'll be really nice." As I said, skeptical. Not of my father's ability to mickey mouse things (because it is quite impressive), but of this Car-In-Someone's-Backyard idea. And, again, not because I haven't driven cars that have sat in people's backyards before, believe you me. But Bessie and I, over our yearlong relationship, had gotten fairly attached. I remember just a year and a few months ago hearing that my father "knew this guy who had a car and he'd sell it to me for two bucks." I was, again, skeptical. What kind of car can you get for two bucks, you ask? That was my question as well. As I researched further (and still had not yet seen Bessie at that point), I found out that Bessie was - HORRORS! - a station wagon. This Two Dollar Car idea, of which I was initially so fond of due to its penny pinching qualities, was fast becoming the symbol of my initial rise to normalcy as a social human being, with its terrible seventeen-year-old Toyota speakers pealing out the song to accompany, as well, my ultimate downfall, at nineteen years of age, as a social reject. A station wagon, indeed, would be a tremendous blow to whatever scrap of credibility of coolness that I had managed to scrape up over the course of my very few years that I have actually even been a viable candidate for coolness. All that being said, when I first saw Bessie, my first impression of her was that she was not nearly so bad as the pictures I saw of her on the intenet made her out to be. I mean, the camera DOES add ten pounds, and she was noticeably slimmer, more svelte, and definitely cuter in person. I knew we would make it then. Thought I couldn't drive stick at the time, I got in, pretended to shift a few rounds, put my hands on the wheel, adjusted the seat, and pretended she was mine already. She was definitely dusty (I don't even think I got all of it off when we had to park her up in the Vehicle ICU in the corner of our driveway a few weeks ago), and a little creaky, but she was charming. All grey, inside and out, I couldn't see anything to make me hate her, and she seemed to run quite well, all things considered.

And then my father did it. All of a sudden, one day, I awoke a saturday morning and my father was sitting with a bucket of Bondo and hovering menacingly over Bessie(!!!). Her rusty spots were covered over, but in their place were white splotches. Now, I've never really been one to talk in the Perfect Skin Department, but probably three years ago, when I was more self-conscious, had I been at the level of Bad Skin that Bessie was at that day, I would have gotten up, looked in the mirror, and proclaimed myself sick all day. Or at least wanted to. This is how Bessie got her splotches. As time went on, though, I started to love Bessie and her splotches, unconditionally. I saw past her exterior - the bumper that someone banged into and half tore off of her in the parking lot of A.J. Wright one day, the dent that this jerk made in it when he slapped her while we were sitting in the driveway of WalMart and listening to Massive Attack, and, yes, even her Bondo - and I learned to love what she was inside. Faithful, comfortable, frank, and honest, she always let me know when something was wrong and always got me around town and to my classes and work. And when I bought giant box speakers to mount on her back wall... well. It was love.

So Bessie is now infirm. Her brakes barely work due to brake fluid leakage, and she sits sadly in the corner of our driveway, snugly tucked between our house and the neighbor's rock retaining wall. And while new loves come along and impress with fancy working heat and sleek silhouettes of burgundy and attached bumpers, as the old saying goes, you just never quite forget your first love.

10 comments

Comment from: [Visitor]
03/03/05 @ 19:20
Comment from: so... [Visitor]
so...What is your new hotness??
03/05/05 @ 09:37
Comment from: psj [Visitor]
psjNow there's a comment you don't see much around here.
03/05/05 @ 17:26
Comment from: Cassie [Visitor]
Cassie(And for good reason, J!) It is a Subaru Legacy, friend. Burgundy and fabulous and zippy.
03/05/05 @ 18:16
Comment from: heidi [Visitor]
heidilovin the new hotness. how about a picture sometime!
03/05/05 @ 22:40
Comment from: Guess who... [Visitor]
Guess who... Quoting cassie: "It is a Subaru Legacy, friend. Burgundy and fabulous and zippy." and not to mention the perfectly aligned timing belt...
03/06/05 @ 09:11
Comment from: Cassie [Visitor]
Cassieyes. can't forget THAT one. :D
03/06/05 @ 09:50
Comment from: Sar h [Visitor]
Sar hI thought your first love was that 2004 Corvette? Oh, no. That was the one you hit.... Nevermind. I like your wagon too, dear. I think it made you cooler, to be honest. Whenever I remember it, I'll always remember being in the dark in the McGarry's driveway and having you pile like, 4 or 5 guys in there, all banging your bumper up and down. Very cool. Like the glasses.
03/06/05 @ 12:31
Comment from: court [Visitor]
courtAhh yes... the fondness of remembering the first car... after it has been replaced.
03/06/05 @ 18:55
Comment from: Cassie [Visitor]
CassieActually, the fondness of remembering the third car, after it has been replaced, Court. :D But that's all semantics. :) I know, Sar. The McGarry's incident was the best. I mean, all boys, all station wagon, all at once. I thought that was a blast. I couldn't even see out my rearview because there were too many tall, greasy teenaged heads blocking the view. :) I love it so. :) And I kept screaming, "Stop! Guys! My shocks! My shocks! This is an ugly car but it's all I have!!!" and Derek Bond (can't help buy love that man so) said, insightfully, "If that car can stand up to those guys, it'll stand up to anything. I think she's a keeper."
03/06/05 @ 20:52
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I like to multi-task: wife, writer, nurse, Christian, ne'er do well. I do all with equal gusto.

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