The Long Road Home

It has been a rather tense and emotional few days around here. April's car broke down and ultimately died for good on Saturday. Of course we didn't really get the full diagnosis until today, her day off.

Her car was 14 years old, twelve of those years found the car in her possession. Her 1993 Dodge Shadow has been an amazing little car. A real trooper in every respect. It had been giving little signs of illness and hinting at its own demise for some time now, but the repairs were all in that acceptable price range to keep it going. This time the car told her definitively that it was done.

Aside from me having a gig to attend at the beginning of the day (leaving April to worry even more about the prospect of getting a new car) there were things like figuring out what to do with the old car, cleaning out the car, and the dreaded shopping for a new car.

Most people have the luxury of being able to shop around and look for a car. April and I have few luxuries in life and the casual and thorough search for a new vehicle may never be on the list of those luxuries we do enjoy. She needed a car right away and had a few options based upon price, time to look, and so on.

Ultimately she ended up getting a brand new Chevy Aveo which is way cool and much fancier than my own. Our mechanic recommended a dealer where he has a good friend who truly did give us the family discount in every respect. However, it wasn't just the limited availability of funds and rather narrow search criteria that led us to her particular car. One thing that made a huge difference was the test drive.

April has never bought a car of her own really. She has also never test-driven a car before buying it, which I found somewhat amazing given the fact that she has had a few cars , but not many before. On her first test drive, she was learning that her car of choice would be more than suitable. She'd even dialed up a good rock station on the radio to see if she'd get some good tunes sent by the Fates to aid in her drive and her decision. At a stop sign we sat and chatted about her opinions of the car. Then the Fates spoke aloud.

"Ba-da ba, ba-da.....BA!"

The familiar ring of one of my all-time favorite songs (and a song April knows best to enjoy in tandem with me if she expects to stay married to me) burst through the speakers. The never boring, always rockin' Ides of march tune, "Vehicle", echoed throughout the cabin and we couldn't stop laughing.

"I'm your vehicle, baby! I'll take you anywhere you wanna go"

I know it wasn't really why she ultimately told the salesman to start in with the paperwork. In my mind there was no way we were going to leave the lot without that car.

She's mighty happy, but very tired and emotionally drained right now. I'm just glad she'll be safe on the road for a long time ahead.

Now I just have to hope my car, approaching the end of its warranty, doesn't start in with the slow hints. I don't have the cash to buy another car, but I do have to be in Milwaukee this evening.

Happy Steak & BJ Day to all!