IT'S HERE!!!!

MY NEW CAR IS HERE!

Okay, I'm really late doing this update. The car actually came in over the last weekend in January, and I picked it up on the 31st. They said "end of the month" and they weren't kidding!

But it is oh-so-cute. Lil' baby in blue. Even has it's blankie (car cover) for the cold winter nights. You kinda have to see it to appreciate it, I think, so eventually I'll get some pictures up here.

I went and picked it up and drove it home without incident. Which is saying something -- it's a manual transmission. I drove a stick once... back when I was about 18. Never even touched one since then. So to get home without stalling was a source of pride for me. I did downshift from fifth into second a couple times, but we're not counting those against me. :-)

That night was a Tuesday, and the first day of a five-day ordeal for Gibson and myself: taking care of our boss's two daughters while the boss was off in Saint Louis for a conference of Presbyterian Christian Education Directors. Five days of running these girls back and forth to school activities, making sure they had food to eat, etc. It was enough to remind me of my arguments against ever having children...

So I picked up the car in Endicott and headed back to my house to pick up a few things for Gibson, who was watching the kids that night. I parked in the church's lot, because my driveway has this really nasty drop-off at the end from two years ago, when the city tore up the pavement and never bothered to repave. That was the first time I stalled -- didn't drop the clutch soon enough when I pulled into the spot. Ooops. Anyway, grabbed the stuff, and headed up the hill to show off my new ride.

The girls were suitably impressed, I suppose. They didn't get to see much -- it was dark, and then the car stayed parked for a week because of that darn driveway being too brutal.

So, I fixed the driveway. Our custodian at church (who's also responsible for maintaining the Youth Center, where I live) suggested throwing some cold fill driveway patch in the gap. He even had some back in the shed, if I wanted. Well, despite thinking "um... isn't that your job?" I went ahead and gave it a shot. If the supplies are already handy, why not?

Well... the supplies were probably six years old. The bags were soaked and the stuff itself had already congealed into lumps of asphalt. They definately didn't fit. So, off to Lowe's I went. Four sixty-pound bags and about $40 later, the driveway is patched and I don't bottom out any more! Took me a couple days to recover from all the soreness, but hey -- it's worth it to be able to drive my car! Eventually, this stuff will compact itself down and I'll need to add more, but hey, I'm okay with that. It works for now, and I can always fix it later. Win-win.

Now comes the challenge of driving a stick in Ithaca. Getting to Troupe rehearsals and Evensongs has certainly been interesting... the one night I caught that red light on 96B. Crap! I tend to get paranoid about rolling backward into somebody's bumper, and overreacted. I spun my tires. Heh heh. Yeah. I'm still learning.

But I definately feel like it was a good choice. It's a cute little car, has a decent amount of room, handles nicely, and has been pretty forgiving with my shortcomings when it comes to the clutch. It won't be setting any speed records (I was running at about 4,000 rpms driving it at 70 mph back from Endicott -- and yes, I AM sure I was in fifth gear!), but it's much more fuel-efficient than my old car, and has enough space for what I need to use it for. It's even brought a smile to people's faces, and that's always important.

See, Gibson's been pretty stressed lately, and it was getting really pretty bad a few days ago. We had some errands to run, and I was going to offer my car for the trip -- with her driving, of course. She had the same idea and asked before I could offer (I hate it when that happens!). Anyway, even just getting in the thing and starting it up got her grinning, and by the time we got to the mall, she was nearly giggling.

So the moral of the story is: get a cute little Scion. It just might bring a smile to your face.

Yeah, I do sometimes miss my old car -- it's one of my faults, I anthropromorphize things like that. My computer, my car, my trombone... all of 'em are like family. That old car was the car I learned to drive on. It took me and my family to the Adirondacks a few times, ran me to Blue Lake three times, took me to Shenandoah for a summer, ran me and some friends around North Carolina for a spring break worktrip, and took me to visit girlfriends many a time. It was a good car, but it was its time to be finished. The highway's gotta end somewhere, I suppose.

Wow, that's almost poetical... go, me.

Oh, one other thing -- I've actually gotten some emails regarding this site! Isn't that something? I've had this thing for what, five years now? Never got an email, and now I've gotten two! One from my friend Brooke, offering car advice, and one from Doc, offering me advice on life... and a beer, should I want one. Makes me feel pretty good, knowing some folks out there might actually be reading this. The modern friendship -- you still share your joys, pain, ups, and downs with your friends, but now you can even do it digitally. Pretty cool!