Material Girl

Last Friday I spent the morning in turmoil.  The time had come for me to part with a very dear friend.  My Beetle.  My car was a very important part of my life.  It had been purchased in memory of my very first car, a 1968 powder blue Bug.  This one, a 2001 remake, was a Vortex blue (periwinkle) turbo and it drove like a dream.  I took it everywhere.  And when I say everywhere I mean it.  It was an off-road camping vehicle, a long-distance traveler when the boys were young enough to both fit into it.  It was even their first training car - both of them. And yes, I do realize that they were under age - but I believe that learning early helps create better drivers as the fear is gone by the time they can drive on their own.

Zeus, as that was the car's name, saw me through great times and bad times.  Literally the best and worst times of my life (with the exception of the birth of the boys).  And then he just started to come apart.  It started about two years ago when I had to have the motor replaced. It was expensive and cost more than his book value, but I invested in keeping him with me.  I thought that with a little extra care I could pull another five years or so out of his company.

Then he had an issue with the injection system.  I fixed that too.  Then he lost his antenna in a bizarre vandalism event.  I still have the old antenna.  I have no idea why I have saved it.  I suppose someday I will give up this little bit of him that I now carry around in the trunk of the new vehicle.  Through all of this I still thought he would manage to eek it out.  And then it happened.  We had the most incredibly hot day in Milwaukee and I went to a long meeting.  When I got back to him he was over a 100 degrees even though I had parked him in the shade.  So I started him up. I was running late so rather then wait for the air conditioning to kick in I let down the windows so I could breathe and drive.  They never went back up.  And that is when I realized he wasn't going to make it.  It took me two weeks of his sitting in the garage and bumming rides from my son to finally look for another car.  My boys, Lord love them, went with me on the search and we found a white Scion Tc.  It drives well and has more room, so now they can fit in the car with me again, which is a bonus I must admit.  I signed the paperwork on Tuesday and agreed to deliver Zeus to his new owners on Friday.  I spent Friday morning crying over the phone to my Mom.  Thank goodness she understood where I was coming from.  It was not about the material thing.  It was about Zeus, about all the years,  eleven years of memories stacked up in him.  Eleven years of feeling like myself everytime I got behind the wheel, connecting to the young girl who first started driving on her own and to the young mother who played with her kids and then taught them to drive.  It was about all of it.  In the end, I handed his keys over and took the new car home. 

The boys are home for the summer and we will build some new memories with Zerubbabel (Zeru for short).  And I will have to keep the old memories locked in my heart instead of driving around in them, but I guess I can learn to do that.  I suppose we all learn to do that as life takes us on our journey.  Afterall, in the end it is not about the things that surrounded us as we created those memories, it is about the people we created them with.

So while I suppose I will always have a special place in my heart for my wonderful little Bug, I will also never forget how wonderful the Boys were in helping me find a new car when I needed to or my Mom's support in helping me learn to let go.

Here's to fabulous family and knowing in the end that's what really matters.  Love you all...........

Happy Driving

May the Road Rise Up to Meet You
and The Wind Be Always at Your Back