Farewell, old friend

This is my last post about cars. Seriously. I promise. Maybe. At least for a while.

For almost a week now, I’ve been driving the new car and I feel kind of bad to say it, but I am not really missing the other one all that much. Monday and Tuesday I did, but in the past couple of days, I’ve kind of….gotten over it.

But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t deserve a proper good-bye.

Like any other relationship, things started well. I liked the Focus, I wanted to drive it everywhere and show it off and when people needed a ride, I was first to volunteer because “ISN’T THIS CAR GREAT?” Keep in mind, kids, that I hadn’t had one in almost three years at that point, too. I even gave it a nickname – because my sister and I had almost identical cars (they were different colors) we started calling them Mary Kate and Ashley.

The lil’ Focus got me where I needed to go. I got it before the end of my junior year of college. And thank God I did, because when I had to pack up all my stuff and move out at the end of the semester, loading up my car and going was a lot quicker way to get away from the DEVIL INCARNATE than waiting for Mom and Pop to come pick me up from Louisville. It took me from Madisonville, where I had my first newspaper internship, to BG several times, and to Louisville the few times I decided to brave the Western Kentucky Parkway – AKA THE MOST BORING ROAD YOU’LL EVER DRIVE ON.

When I lived in Owenton and wanted nothing more than to be able to come back to Louisville and see my friends, my family, have a social life, it got me home and back, with no problems. But oh, the problems would come.

My Focus was made in 2001. It was four years old when I got it in 2005 and eight years old this past summer when it finally hit 100,000 miles. No big deal right? Wouldn’t have been, if my car hadn’t come to a dead, clunking, stop in the middle of traffic. And then it wouldn’t start again. Yeah. That happened 11.5 hours into a 12-hour drive to a relaxing vacation. What was wrong? Oh nothing, JUST THE FUEL PUMP. I don’t know much about cars, but I know the important stuff, like, A FUEL PUMP IS IMPORTANT. Luckily we found out it was a recall and got it fixed for free, but still.

Before that, it was a random window problem. The back windows, which neither I nor my passengers had ever even touched, started just falling down one day. Okay, maybe someone tried to roll it down, but they didn’t do anything wrong to it. After that, it just fell. All the time. I’d be driving and all the sudden it sounded like I was in a wind tunnel. Turns out, the window right behind me was just ALL THE WAY DOWN. And when I took it in to be fixed, wouldn’t ya know, the other one fell too. Seems it was right on the edge..good thing they took care of it. UGH.

The radio’s gone out randomly, the battery didn’t fit where it was supposed to so it was basically jammed in there. And when I traded it in Sunday, the check engine light had been on for almost a month. I’d say it was time. But you knew all this.

What you may not know are the good times.

In addition to all those places I listed above, that little car got me to and from two awesome Spring Breaks in college, stuffed to the gills with suitcases and other stuff we really didn’t need to bring but did, like, another suitcase. It got me to a couple CKRs and a couple of partial CKRs when I needed it to. Then there was “Spring Break 2005,” also known as “when Rebeck, Daniel, Carey, Anthony and I went to Puertos and Daniel was Dorian and saw people looking at him looking at them looking at him.” There was the Kings Island Road Trip where Rebeck and I made up interpretive dances and there was that woman with the bouffant in Anthony’s back seat.

There’s a million more things I could list, trips I went on or places I went that car got me – and usually 1 to 4 of my friends to, safe and sound. But I’m not gonna do that. It would take too long.

So, again, like any relationship, on Sunday night when I cleaned it out and turned in the keys, I did feel a little sad for a minute. It was my car for four years. And now it’d be someone else’s. There was a short little mourning period. Now though, I just try and remember the good times we had and I know that little car will make someone else very happy. Or be sold for parts. Whatever.

Good-bye lil’ Focus. We had some good times, and some bad times. But mostly good. I’ll miss you.