Have you ever gotten attached to something and kept it for an unreasonably long time? Then let it go?
I sold my old car last night. The gentleman is coming to pay me the rest of the money today and take it away. It makes me kind of sad. Ye old Volvo was purchased used in 2006 within the first couple of weeks that I knew my husband. It saved us the first winter I lived here because it was AWD and he couldn’t get his car down the driveway and we were snowed in. The Volvo plowed right through the snow to take him safely to buy a snowblower.
I drove it for work as a hospice nurse. It kept me safe on the road in the middle of the night when I had to go attend a person’s death. I drove it down to Long Island and back one day with my two older children to attend a birthday party for my aunt. I was pregnant with my twins at the time. That was crazy.
I drove it to Maine on our first vacation together. The one when I got a call saying my 95 year old grandmother had died.
It has never left me stranded in the snow although it did leave us stranded in Orange NJ once on our way back from an anniversary trip. That happened to be 2 days before Christmas. We spent Christmas Eve driving back in a rental, renting a U Haul and trailer and bringing it home. It spent 9 weeks getting fixed. That’s 9 weeks without a car! Stupid car.
After getting a new oil pump, motor and turbo, it got a new alternator a few months later. I’ve lost count how many wheel bearings and brakes and rotors have been replaced. I’ve been nursing it through it’s hiccups and testy transmission but my mechanic finally said that yes, it needs a new transmission. So we bought my “new” car from a friend and the Volvo has been sitting at my church (I was afraid to try driving it up the hill to my house). I finally put signs on it and posted it on Craiglist after over 2 weeks. I guess part of me wanted it to magically spring to life again.
I had big plans for that car. Did you know Volvo has a million mile club? There are cars that have gone over a MILLION miles! Wow! Well, they say you gotta dream big.
We have some history, me and my Volvo, and I am sad to see it go. Today is kind of bittersweet. And as much as I am enjoying having a car that reliably shifts gears I know that I will not have the same relationship with this car as I have with the last. I also have fond memories of a white Jeep Wrangler my older kids still talk about. Heck, I even remember crying my eyes out when my parents sold their Nova when I was a kid. They replaced it with a gold Toyota Corolla. Cars. They can have a serious impact. Perhaps in a few years I can start dating a Lexus. I think I could make some memories with a Lexus 😉
Happy trails!
Liz