On Sept. 22, 2004, the fate of my dear, dear maroon/brown/purple 1990 Honda changed forever.
She looks quite upset, doesn't she? I would too if my nose was mangled like that. She got me and Keri from Ohio to Seattle. She took me and others hiking. She made sure I got to SeaTac to get on a plane to visit friends and family. She finally died with 201,620 miles on her at 7:45 a.m.
I won't go into the gruesome details. It's too complicated and its too annoying to try to explain. Regardless, it was the kid's fault and I'm getting all my bills paid for, including the rental car (for the most part.) However, I now have a totaled car and a slightly damaged body. I have been trying to see this as a blessing in disguise. A chance to reevaluate life, what I should do, where I should go and who should go with me.
This 2005 Nissan Altima was given to me as the rental car. A bit bigger than I was used too (and a bit too new for me), however, it did its job as I drove it to Seattle and Tacoma FOUR TIMES IN ONE WEEK to look for a new car. I decided it needed to be broken in, so I broken it in with about 2,000 miles in three weeks. All paid for by the insurance company.
After a week of being snotty to car salesmen, test driving with some of the Northwest's Finest, refusing to give up my stubborn insistence to purchase another Honda, being extremely picky and many sleepless nights that were intermingled with nightmares about Hondas, this lovely little sporty thing, thanks to Beth's help, with 77K on her, was the lucky winner. A 1996 Honda Civic Coupe EX - loaded. Beth and I looked at a 1996 Accord, of which Beth observed that it was "a very adult car" (it was immaculately clean and well-kept) but she figured this coupe fit me better - size and personality (and yes, it was well kept too). Given that I could barely reach the pedals of the Accord, even with the seat scooted all the way up, I had to agree. As Mom said, at 77K, this baby was barely broken in.
