There's been a lack of entries lately, not because I don't want to -- but because I'm sadly swamped lately. Several projects have reared their ugly heads and forced me to cut back on the fun stuff.
But I wanted to give a short little speech about something that really matters to me.
My car.
Yeah, I know -- I'm about as far from the "car-monkey" type that I grew up with around Detroit as you can get. There, I had friends who's dads built and designed the cars they worked on, and my parent's Honda got called a "rice burner"; I was an iconoclast, so naturally working on cars was not cool.
Off at college, I found I needed some wheels; while walking was fine, muggings around my college's art building (off campus by a mile or two) made walking home at 2 AM not so good.
I have no idea where Dad found the car, but when I came home for my winter break senior year, he'd found a car: a 1987 Nissan Sentra hatchback. With more buttons and secret panels than I'd ever seen in a car, I nicknamed it "The Batmobile". Dad said it should last me a good 2-3 years.
It's lasted 10.
The car's lasted me through 2 cities, 5 homes, and around 100,000 miles of driving -- that's over the 80,000 it came with. Dad and I have gone through about every system in that car together (well, really, mostly him, and me watching). Batteries, radiators, heaters, air conditioners, breaks, windows, electrical problems -- this thing's been toyed over for years. "It's a good car," we kept saying over the last couple of years, even as parts fell off. Mom thought we were nuts, but really, it's just something we do together.
Last week I went out and bought a used Honda. It's a nice car. I think it'll last me years.
But here's to my Batmobile. It's a heck of a car. I miss it still.
Posted by Ted Stevko at March 19, 2004 02:17 AM | TrackBack