Text 7231, 103 rader
Skriven 2006-08-29 00:04:00 av Robert E Starr JR (7728.babylon5)
Ärende: Re: Farewell to Sheridan
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Laura Appelbaum wrote:
> 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

A very moving tribute indeed. I have to admit though, when I read the
header it scared the crap out of me!
Take care and Godspeed.
Dave
                                                                               
                
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