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May 31, 2003
Goodbye, Poop Stinky.
We finally sold Poop Stinky. Yes, someone actually gave me money for that lovely heap of 1980's german goodness.
I'm sad she's gone, actually - I have fabulous fond memories of tooling around town in that thing.
From the night I first got her - calling a friend up and saying "guess what I just got? One hint - it's a housewarming gift" and squealing to a stop in front of his house to share a vague sense of unreality. We tooled around the north shore until I realized I only had a few bucks in my pocket and had no idea how much it would cost to fill her with fuel - but it was a magical night of "new old car!"
The night I got Poop Stinky, I felt blessed.
When I moved from Andersonville to North Center, I used her spacious three-corpse trunk to help move my things - between poop stinky, my parents' van, and the zillion wonderful people who showed up with their hatchbacks, we got everything moved in 3 trips. I remember expertly parallel-parking her in front of my new $800 two bedroom apartment with the most amazingly deep tub and thinking "I hope no one wrecks her."
The night I insured Poop Stinky, after 3 months without, I felt like I had beat the odds.
I moved again, some 4 months later, into another fabulous North Center apartment after the ceiling fell into the deep tub of the aforementioned two bedroom apartment. I could no longer afford to insure the lovely mercedes and relegated her to the driveway of my parents' house in the suburbs. The drive up Belmont from the city to the 'burbs was wistful - her luxuriously smooth ride, her smooth leather seats, her faint smell of mold (from the gap in the window insulation that let inches of water into the back seat), her plastic glued-on instrument panel labels... I could feel myself missing everything about her as we pulled into the driveway. I knew I was going to sell her - I couldn't ever really afford to insure and park and keep her in the style she deserved.
The night I suburbanized Poop Stinky, I felt like I was leaving my puppy at the pound.
and now, a year after being abandoned in a driveway in the suburbs, "for sale" sign sun-faded in her window, exhaust system a bit wobbly and poop stinkiness all but dissipated, someone has bought her.
just in time for me to need money for my sister's wedding present.
and just in time for my unemployment insurance to run out.
Now that I've sold Poop Stinky, I'm surprised how much I feel.
I feel like she's taken care of me, providing me with income at just the right moment.
providing me with transportation at just the right times, and with the giddiness of ownership at other times.
I feel like I should have kept her - driving a 1990 sable is a huge step down from a 1980 mercedes.
I feel like I shouldn't be so sad after the sale of a car.
I wish I had been able to drive her, one last time, before coming home to find her gone. sold. a stack of cash on my desk with a signed bill of sale where the keys used to be.
ah well, at least I still have the photos. and the memories.
and Mae (my current car, the aforementioned sable with the lacy rust on her underside and a propensity for overheating in the middle of intersections) will grow on me in time, I'm sure. like the mold that used to grow in Poop Stinky's back seats.
I am proud to say I am able to push Mae through those intersections. to give her the much-needed weekly drinks of power steering fluid. to change her tires as they go flat, one by one.
my father, in his infinite car-building-repairing-owning wisdom, tells me that Mae is better for me than Poop Stinky. More reliable. which probably means more reliably frightening. or more reliably requiring some sort of repairs that will provide learning experiences for me, the one with finite car-building-repairing-owning-driving wisdom.
but, pride, learning experiences, and reliability aside, all I'm thinking is,
Dammit, I miss my old Mercedes.
Posted by Heather at May 31, 2003 08:53 PM
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Comments
Haha(ha!) - I'm not sure why, but I completely wasn't expecting someone to be /standing/ on their car. That made me laugh for some reason.
Just surfed here randomly through the ChicagoBloggers links.
Posted by: sEn^ at June 1, 2003 11:32 AM
That was damn funny.
Every car needs a name.
Posted by: brian at June 2, 2003 09:57 AM
And your "new" car's name seems appropriate as well.
Does it run? Mae... mae not.
Posted by: Jeff at June 2, 2003 12:08 PM
I know how you feel. Last year I hit a deer with the '86 Saab that I'd been driving for the past 10 years. Leaky sun roof, no heat and one working windshield wiper, but I loved that car. But it was time. Even in the end, she took care of me-- totaled, but we managed to limp home, and I got $1200 from insurance when I really needed it. The Honda civic that "replaced" her is also "better for me" but has some big tires to fill.
Posted by: bobbie at June 4, 2003 10:29 AM
For some weird reason, I read this entry and felt oddly sad for you and Poop Stinky. The end of your time with P.S. but the beginning of the Mae Era.
Fun car names, by the way... Oh, and for your first commenter -- what girl doesn't have a picture either standing or (why, I don't know) sitting spread-eagled on the hood?
Posted by: El at June 7, 2003 12:37 AM