Ten-ish on Tuesday- Cars

I am days away from having my life back (sort-of). The HUGE show that I am painting loads in on Thursday. So that means I have two days to finish everything...well, everything that needs to fit in the truck. I'm going to be be awfully close, but I should make it.  But that means everything else has suffered....writing, knitting, eating...I work straight through and then collapse at the end of the day, hopefully after the kids are in bed. But I see the light at the end of the tunnel and we'll see if it is a train or not. Eitherway, I'll have a paintbrush in my hands.

Anywho...Ten on Tuesday. Cars we have owned. Mine is a short list being I am only on my third car.

 1989 Plymouth Reliant

My first car. 4 cylinder, two door, tan exterior, maroon interior. (looked like the one pictured but two doors). Manual locks, manual crank windows (remember those?) Tape deck. Bought it from my Grandfather who lived with us at the time. We had been sharing it and somewhat continued to do so, but he wasn't really at a point where he should be driving. This was an old school car. The bumper was metal covered in rubber. There was no computer inside....you could work on the thing yourself. The thing was so light I would have to put sandbags in the trunk in the winter, even though it was a front wheel drive. But it was a good little car. I named him Norman after Norman Bates. That front grill smiling at you on a misty morning totally brought to mind the last scene of Psycho, and thus he was named. He was traded in for my next vehicle.

 1998 Oldsmobile Achieva

This car was a graduation present from my parents when I left college. Norman was not going to make the trip down to West Virgina where I was working the summer after graduation. And so Sophie came into my life. I had requested that my next car have 4 doors and air conditioning....and she has it. As well as 6 cylinders, power locks and windows. Not a bad car but there were several design flaws in it. It has a tendency for the doors to freeze shut in the winter. Since the back seat does fold down I could climb in through the trunk....and often had to. The trunk is designed so that what every might be sitting on it (snow, leaves, what-have-you) is dumped right into the trunk when you open it. There have been various issues over the years: the driver's side window has problems getting back into place, the spoiler on the back leaks rain into the trunk, various electrical quirks. She is still limping along, driven by my husband for the last 6 years. Well, not at the moment...her exhaust system kinda fell apart on the drive home the other day. Now she's just sitting in the driveway.

2006 Saturn Vue

Six years ago, a week after my son was born, we took another new addition into our family...my beloved Saturn Vue. For some reason, I've not named this car yet. It hasn't revealed its name to me. But I love this vehicle. When it goes, I don't know what I will replace it with. My heart was broken when Saturn went under. We specifically were searching for a Saturn Vue when we got this one. The only thing I did want and didn't get were heated seats. Next time. This car easily handles the car seats. The back fits all our luggage when traveling. Mine unfortunately has lost all its hubcaps due to overzealous mechanics using the air ratchet on the plastic nuts. I don't mind. Between that and the car seats, the car just screams "Nothing to steal here". It has a few bumps and dings...a scrape and small crunch on the back bumper from a woman turning her mini-van too closely at the gas station (and almost pinning a very pregnant me between the cars!)....multiple divots on the roof from the hail that accompanied the tornado that hit our town. The inside is graced with multiple tea stains, countless stray goldfish crackers, and a patina of dirt from the garden. But it's my car. And I love the thing. 

So there it is. And that being said I will pray that the divine trickster that haunts many of my adventures sees fit to overlook this post and not kill my current vehicle.*


*Edit to add: Apparently my prayer was headed but in the twisty way of trickster gods a loophole was found. I got pulled over on the way home because Geekboy failed to renew the registration. I knew posting on this topic was going to tempt fate.