Text 7223, 94 rader
Skriven 2006-08-28 23:42:00 av Robert E Starr JR (7720.babylon5)
Ärende: Farewell to Sheridan
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It is with deeply mixed feelings that I consign Sheridan, my 1994 plum-color 
Saturn SL2 to the deep -- or whomever ends up buying him from the wholesaler 
who ends up buying him from 355 Toyota in Rockville.

After 12 great, trouble-free years (except of course for that "minor" 
incident wherein someone from homeworld had to be fetched to determine that 
his engine block needed replacement and he was given a new lease on life --  
and his name) and 123,400-some-odd miles (I have to drive it around a bit 
tomorrow because I'm *this* close to having 123,456 miles and I *can't* pass 
that moment up!), it just felt like time.  Time, that is, to buy a 2006 
Toyota Prius hatchback.  Time, because until September 30th, you get $3100 
back on your Federal Income Tax as a hybrid credit.  Time, because gas is 
$3ish/gallon.  Time, because I saw "An Inconvenient Truth."  Time, because 
until I ran around today moving all my money around different banks and 
accounts and then got the phone call this evening that my new car has just 
arrived, straight from Nagoya, Japan, I was getting tired of driving a car 
with standard transmission, one airbag and no cup holders.

Now, all I can think about are the great times Sheridan and I have shared. 
We drove from Raleigh, North Carolina back to his birthplace in Spring Hill, 
Tennessee for the Saturn Homecoming, stopping at Roan Mountain and Rock City 
and Cumberland Caverns and camping along the way and having one of the best 
vacations I've ever enjoyed.  We took trips out to Lake Mattamuskeet and 
Cape Hateras and Cape May birding, and innumerable rides up and down I95 
visiting family in New York.  We moved together to the D.C. area -- first to 
a rental house and then to the first home I've ever owned, where Sheridan 
has enjoyed a nice, wide, warm garage for the last six years.  With a Yakima 
rack and a faring that shouted "SATURN" on his head,  we've gone caving and 
mountain biking and camping and birding together.  We sat and rolled and sat 
and rolled through far too much Beltway traffic (that's when I tired of 
standard shift after 25 years of driving).  He was mugged in Cary when 
someone broke in and stole the stereo system.  We got two speeding tickets, 
both in Virginia.  We had an accident with another car as I backed out of 
the driveway.  A few months of PT for me and a new bumper assembly for him 
and we were both all better.

When I bought Sheridan, I was 30 and still routinely getting "carded."  In 
just over a month, I'll be 43 and no one mistakes me for a college student 
anymore.  In theory, I'm old enough to be the parent of one! :SHUDDER!:  I 
brought him home in February.  I'll be leaving him behind in September. 
Seems like that symbolizes something, but then he's made enough trips with 
me to enough libraries and bookstores to know that I'm always finding 
metaphors in everything.

He's got a lot of life left in him, I guess that's the hard part.  When I 
first drove into a Saturn dealer to buy his predecessor (who was killed on 
Raleigh Beltway by an inattentive driver who struck me from behind) in my 
old Plymouth Champ hatchback, huge chunks of the door literally fell off in 
the parking lot.  "Wheaties," as the Champ was known (from "the Breakfast of 
Champions" and the fact that he was "what the big boys eat") was used up, 
worn out, rusted through, wheezy.  Sheridan will easily go another 5 or 
maybe even 10 years -- after all, with plastic body panels, there's nothing 
on him to rust.  He still has his original stainless steel muffler and 
original clutch.  There are some stains but no holes in his upholstery.  A 
few scratches here and there, a couple of "stars" in the windshield, but 
then I've accumulated my share of scars in 12 years too.  Maybe, I think, 
I'm just being too consumerist.  Maybe I'm being vain.  Funny thoughts to 
have when you are spending extra money to buy a car that's better for the 
planet, for the slim hopes of extending society's standard of living a 
couple more years by wasting less fuel.  Maybe, just maybe, I get myself a 
little too attached to the occasional bits of metal and machinery as if 
things had souls and personalities.  But maybe they do.

Tomorrow night we'll take one last drive together.  We'll go out the back 
way to Rockville Pike, on 198 to Gude Drive, a route that has some nice 
curves in it and that avoids the Beltway.  There are plenty of traffic 
lights so I can enjoy the crisp shifting Sheridan has always offered, and 
the surprising zip in his little engine when we take off at the green light. 
For a year or two now I've only used it to run my i-Pod, but you know, I got 
10 solid years out of the Kenwood tape deck the insurance claim from the 
break-in bought me and the Polk speakers I replaced the OME with a while 
back gave some great sound.  All too soon, we'll be at the dealership, I'll 
get out, write out the second biggest check of my life and hand over the 
keys.  But you know I'll look back.

I hope Sheridan finds new life beyond the Rim.  I hope someone out there who 
only has a couple of thousand dollars in the bank that they've scraped 
together to buy a car purchases him and discovers they got a great bargain. 
I hope they find that having a car takes them to all kinds of exciting and 
new places and that even if they don't end up where they thought they were 
going, even if the drive includes some wrong turns, some bad bumps, a few 
lane changes they didn't count on, the ride is always worth it.

Fare thee well, old friend.

LMA
                             
--- SBBSecho 2.11-Win32
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