Text 7249, 104 rader
Skriven 2006-08-29 11:18:00 av Robert E Starr JR (7746.babylon5)
Ärende: Re: Farewell to Sheridan
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With as much driving as I do my vehicle has 93,000 miles on it, and it's 
only five years old.  By the time it reaches the 12 year mark, it'll 
probably be up close to 200,000 miles.

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 
> 
> 
>
                                                                               
                            
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