Good Bye, Dear Friend.

Our beloved red Ford Escort wagon is NO MORE. Gone. Kaput. End of an era.

I'm sad about it, but whatdyagonnado?? The estimated costs to fix her more than doubled her Kelly Blue book value. The airbag problem was NOT related to the recall, so that would have been outta pocket. And the acceleration issue was all computer related, which really adds up and needs to be fixed to run everything else in the car. Ho hum. She died in NJ, where she still sits waiting for a proper 'burial.' That will probably mean joining fellow unfortunate cohorts in a junk heap, and with any luck, we'll get a little something for her time in our lives. I have a lot of good memories in that car. My parents gave her to me for $1 when Mom was no longer able to drive due to her eyesight. She gave it to me with 40K miles on it and i put another 80K on. She served us well. I hope that the dealership where she died is good enough to put some personals in a USPS box and send them back to me. I have a cool beaded snowflake that hung from the mirror. I have a THIRTY YEAR OLD "Rodney Reindeer" from Hallmark that not only sat on the dash of this car, but every car Mom drove since i was in third grade. There's a pretty cool all-in-one tool in the glove box (i actually put it in there cuz it had an ice pick tool on it, just in case i needed to puncture a window if i got submerged in a lake!). There might be a portable CD player under the passenger seat. There's a bra i never wore and meant to take back to Walmart in the back seat (not even an sexy one, dangit). There's a myriad of stale Goldfish crackers strewn about. A good set of jumper cables. NO, I don't want them to mail ALL THIS STUFF. Just the bead thing and Rodney.

Sigh. We'll miss you, Red.

I'm looking to create another work of art in stickers on the 'new' caravan. Kathryn, i need a classy Maine one. Another from VT would be nice. Keeping my eye out.