Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

To fix or not to fix: that is the question. I have an old truck with great bones that got a little sick this week. I had to decide whether to end our relationship (which I've been pretty good at lately) or whether to stay committed. The decision cost me a pretty penny. When I was a young girl dreaming about love......I always wanted my legacy to be one love and one man for one lifetime. Funny how with cars there's no cultural assumptions on the love life with your car. In fact, if you believed the commercials, society expects us to upgrade our wheels to appear successful and popular - driving something used and worn would never fly as a commercial on Super Bowl Sunday.

Speaking of flying, my first car crush was the jalopy in the movie, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Silly, eccentric Dick Van Dyke tinkered with an old car until he could get it to fly. Man, I wanted a flying car. Sure the Jetson's had rocket cars that flew in outer space but I wanted something that would take me from the East side of Richfield to the West side on a Saturday.

A girl's history of her cars is like her long list of boyfriends. We can remember our "first" like it was yesterday. And if we were frugal and moderate with our money we can list on one hand of all the cars we've "driven." If you need 2 hands or more for the list......well let's just say you've been around the block more than me.

I'd like to brag someday that I drove my truck past 200K miles and to get there I need to stay on my 3 year plan. Darn, no flying cars for me. I reluctantly paid the repair bill at Midas yesterday with a big sigh. As I walked over to my cute red truck dangling those familiar keys in my hand, I couldn't help but think.......maybe a fling with an Avis convertible now and again would be just the ticket!