Sayonara Sucka

I have been driving a five speed, silver, Honda Accord for the last six years.  My whole family are Honda freaks.  Each of my normal siblings has owned at least one, and my parents currently own three.  My motorcycle is even a Honda!  As a side note, my poser sister Chris owns two lesbaru (Subaru) vehicles, but I don't understand 90% of what she does, so I don't count her as a contributing member of society anyway.

I have loved my car, especially because it's paid for.  Additionally, I was the only person who consistently didn't grind into second gear.  Therefore, my sweet ride made me feel like Danica Patrick in that every time I heard a grind, I could disdainfully stare at the driver from the passenger seat and mention how skilled I was at shifting.  I half expected a representative from Nascar to offer me a driving gig, but so far, my Indy 500 dream remains unrealized.

About a month ago, second gear started grinding for me too.  Then I couldn't consistently get it into gear.  Finally, it started popping out of gear.  I tried for a while to pretend only Jared was experiencing these problems, but when he rode shotgun with me one day and I sounded like a student driver trying to grind my transmission into oblivion, I had to admit something might be up with my silver wonder.

I drove it to the tranny guy and when he told me it would be two grand to fix it, I yelled, "damnit!  You're going to have to fix someone else's car today!"  Then I walked right out.  I just couldn't see the wisdom in spending that much on a car that already had 250,000 miles on it.  I decided to cut my losses and donate it to NPR for the tax break.  Despite my stiff upper lip, this is how I felt:

I bought my mommy lunch so she would help me look for a new one since she's a shrewd trader with a keen eye for a bargain.  My dad has a racist term for her talents which I will not repeat here.  Needless to say, I like having her around for just these occasions.  We test drove a Toyota Camry which was clean, tight, and priced to move, but it just didn't feel right somehow.  We finally ended up at a dealer who had a couple of Hondas we had earmarked from the start of our adventure.  When I slid behind the wheel of the 2008 V6 Accord they had, I suddenly felt right at home.  Mom wisely uttered, "feels like a Honda doesn't it."  I had to agree.  We ran her through her paces and I bought her immediately after the test drive.  I've decided to call her "Nicki" after Emma's spider hanging outside her window.  The best part?  The kick ass sunroof!

Emma told me she wants the car after I die and both the teenagers want it when they leave for college.  I guess I made a good choice.  So long silver bullet.  Thanks for your years of service.  Hope you can make someone at NPR as happy as you've made me.  Don't worry about me, I'm gonna be just fine.