Classic Rant #982 (June 12, 2013): Here In My Car

I have finally paid off my car.

After five years, it is one less bill that I have to worry about.

And that makes me happy.

I love my car, I really do.

A couple of years ago, I was driving a 13-year old car. It was a good vehicle for what it was, but after 13 years, it was giving me nothing but trouble.

It had way more than 100,000 miles on it, and it was falling apart at the seams.

I held onto it for as long as I did because I didn't want a car payment.

I figured the maintenance on the car, even though it needed lots of work each year, equaled out to less than I would have to pay for a new car.

And for a while, that thinking worked out just fine.

But the last few years of that car were something else.

Not only did it need lots of work done to it to pass inspection and to drive it, but even its outside was falling apart ... or falling off.

One Saturday, with my family in the car, something was dumped--or fell from the sky--onto the car. It was some type of waste material, and it hit the car--as well as the car ahead of us and the car behind us--while we were waiting at a light.

This mess got us more than the other cars, and I swear, it peeled the paint right off my car.

I used to joke that my car was unique, as it was the only one on the road that when you drove it, the paint blew in the wind.

But it did--you could peal it right off the surface of the car.

Anyway, now a little more than five years ago, the car broke down for good while my son played one of his last Little League games.

I went to the car dealer the next day, and within a few hours, I was the proud owner of a brand new 2008 Kia Spectra.

I was very happy with the car at the outset, although the radio was nothing to write home about.

This was right before all the gadgets on the dashboard became pretty much standard, so it really is a basic car.

And I really enjoy riding in it.

My family and I have taken the car back and forth to Florida several times since then, we use it all the time, and it has nearly 68,000 miles on it.

I hope to have this car for at least another five years. I keep up the maintenance, and I really have never had much of a problem with it.

I think it can make it.

In fact, since the line was discontinued by Kia, I have had calls about selling the car. Evidently, this make and model of the car is highly valued, and since it isn't made anymore, people want it, especially as starter cars for their children.

No deal. I love my car.

Although the car pictured here is not mine, you can basically see what it is all about.

Nothing flashy, just something reliable.

What more can you ask from your car?

But I have to tell you, the only reason I am writing this Rant is that I had a dream last night that made me shudder, and it had to do with my beloved car.

I was driving the car, and my mother, of all people, was in the car with me.

I backed up, and the car would not stop.

It roared in reverse, weaving in and out of a busy parking lot, but it didn't hit a single car.

It made its way up and down the lot, in and out of parking spaces, but it never hit a thing.

I even used the emergency brake to try to get the car to stop, but the brake, and obviously the regular brake, did not work.

Finally, I got it to go on a patch of grass that was on one side of the lot, and the thing stopped. I turned the car off and breathed a sigh of relief.

The car was towed away ... and that is when I woke up at about 3 a.m. in the morning, never really able to fall back to sleep again.

Kind of weird, and if you know anything about dreams, please let me know what it all meant.

The dream notwithstanding, I love my car, I really do.

And I love it even more now, when I have finally paid it off and can call the car mine.

It is a good feeling, it really is, and even though the radio really isn't that great, I can live with it.

The only negative thing about the car is that today, I have to drive it to work.

When will the week end? I feel like this week has amounted to three weeks of work already, and we are only on Wednesday.

But that is another story for another time.

I love my car!