This old lady is indeed seriously old but she is a game old bird. She has some real quirks about her and an ever increasing rust issue. I left her at the garage last week for her annual road worthiness test last week. We know there will come a time when it is far kinder to let her go, kinder to our wallets that is!!"I'll call you!" said Alec, our local mechanic.
"I have no doubt you will!" was my reply imagining the conversation which would start with "I am really sorry to tell you but........." and he would reel off a list of things.
Well, the call never came and as the clock ticked on and we passed those lunchtime hours when I knew they had pretty much done their assessments I was beginning to have my suspicions. The call came at 4pm.
" That's your car ready."
"Unbelievable."
It is one of the oldest cars driving around the village. I know because I play a game when driving around seeing how many license plates record a car older than ours. I have my moments where I am kind of mortified, but you know what, you cannot aim for maladjustment and suffer from mortification. So get over yourself girl!! I am planning on designing a bumper sticker that says "Old, rusty but paid for!!" We have no loans on this car and with a very reliable engine (Honda, you know, very reliable or so I am told) we have paid nothing but wear and tear. Sure helps when we are working to be credit free.
I have been seriously tempted by the scrappage scheme. I mean £2000 would get us back more than we paid for her in the first place. Nice! A mere matter of about a £7000 loan however would push us to a place that my only working two days a week would not allow the sums to add up. I wonder how may folks have been encouraged again into crazy credit that they can't afford at a time we all need to learn some serious lessons about living within our means.
So the car and I keep our partnership. Alec warned me that she may be getting a little "soft" and might need some major welding if I want to keep her beyond next year so time to get saving some pennies me thinks!!
6 comments:
I think we can at least compete if not better you on the old car thing - it is an issue when you pay for repairs - we're into the welding thing already - but as you say - they run, we have no loans on them and altho' they look pretty scabby they get us from A to B, plus ours are deisel so the engines will last for years. Maybe we should start to call them vintage - sounds better than old and they've already done it with clothes...
Vintage... I love it. I am away back to title my untitled post!!
In the US you can get a special license plate for an "antique" car. Maybe you could see about setting up a similar scheme in the UK?
I say as long as the seat belts are in order, keep 'er on the road!
my question is...have you named her? she deserves a good name. eunice? gertrude? queen elizabeth? something...
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I have for the first time considered naming her but then when it comes to that moment when we have to decide that her life is no longer valid it does make it much more difficult.
However Eunice and Gertrude are great suggestions!!
i just named one of my plants gladys, as i thought she was about to meet a bitter end and needed some sense of dignity. uncle bo commented: "maybe she just wanted a more modern name." but, against all odds, gladys has pulled through and now we'll have some great smelling jasmine blooms in spring.
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