Thursday, July 31, 2008

The Long Goodbye

I took the Neon to the mechanic yesterday, and before I'd even arrived at work, they called to give me the bad news. The transmission is shot and the mechanic did not recommend putting another dollar into her. Needless to say, I was distraught.

The Neon was the first new car I ever bought and I've become quite attached to her and her idiosyncrasies. We've been through a lot together - road trips, blow outs, accidents, friends, dating, dieting, short hair, long hair, dyed hair, job after job after job... As a matter of fact, now that I think about it, it was my first permanent job in entertainment that allowed me to buy her, and she's come along for the ride as my career has been built. She put up with me shifting her into lower gears to gain extra power to pass more powerful cars, carried me faithfully to and fro work and held her head high even as her age showed. I spent most of yesterday mourning her, crying during my daily meeting and tearing up at the thought of not driving her anymore.

I spent some of today researching my next car, which I think will be the Honda Fit. I still need to sit in it and test drive (trust me, we tried to do this today, but the local Honda dealer sold their last Fit last night - harumph!), but aside from that, I like what I've seen. And, let's face it, the Sport version comes in purple, and as far as I'm concerned, that is the most important thing of all.

The picture on the Honda site makes it look more navy blue, but IRL, it's more of a blackish purple with glitter:

The Fit is Go

As a goodbye gesture to the Neon, I took a picture of the mileage on the way to work this morning. It seemed fitting that after more than 12 years together, the mileage should be 121212:

121212

I know we will be going our separate ways within the next month (the mechanic said I could drive her for about that without too many problems), but the times we had were good and that is what I will try to remember.

And speaking of... Here are two pics of the Neon the day I got her:

Neon new

My first time behind the wheel:

Happy day

Ah, memories..... *sniffle*!

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