FORD (Found On Road Dead)

Or actually in my case, found in the parking lot dead. I'd killed it. Again. The day after we came back from the "We're Moving to Montana" maddness, I was on my way to work when a spring broke (unbeknownst to me at the time). I managed to trudge the car into work, not fully aware of the situation until I turned into the parking lot and it sounded like metal chunks being ground up inside a great metal blender. Yeesh. I got out to inspect, pretending that I knew what I was inspecting, and saw that the right front part of my car was now sitting on my tire. Sweet. So, being the Ford Escort that it is, there it sat, in the parking lot where I pay $65 a month to park for work, for slightly over a month because we were too broke to even have it towed. Now, rescued and rehabilitated, I have my car back, $1290 later.



I gotta say, I love having my car back. I love being in charge of getting from point A to point B on my own, and I don't even mind getting there in the Escort. Truth is, I love the dang thing. It's a 1995, and yeah, it's a little raggedy, but all in all it looks pretty dang good. I am particularly proud of the clean, newish condition of it on the inside, despite the small hole starting to wear in the carpeting on the driver's side, and the Junior Mint that is crushed into the carpet in the back from the very first week that I owned it. It's got the typical door dings on the outside combined with two good scrapes from taking a parking garage corner a leetle bit too closely, but hey, that just gives it character. I don't like a lot of clutter in my car, and the only thing that really gives it a personality is the "Judge Roughneck" sticker in the back window, which I got watching a band by that name play one time many years ago, and dang it, I just really liked it. The name more so than the band.



I'm not afraid to admit that I get attached to inanimate objects. Anyone who tries to take my baby pillow knows that. And I found, after getting my little car back, that I am indeed attached to it. The Escortness of it, if you will. I have transported a lot of good friends to and from a lot of good times in that car, some in each category that have now been forgotten. It's gotten me through some crazy winter storms, and some of the hottest summers without the air conditioning ever going out, not even once. Can't say the same for the defrost button as it is currently out of commission, but I've got a couple more months before I really need to worry. I think. The crazy thing is, when I got the car, what I did NOT want was a dark green Ford Escort because I hate dark green and I hate Ford Escorts, and I ESPECIALLY hate the bright orange reflector strip that adorns the entire back end. Well my friends, all that and more is precisely what I got. And, it's completely paid for.



Who needs a new car? Not this chick.