Last week we finally got rid of the 2006 silver Subaru. This was quite a luxury car when we bought it; I went in looking for a basic Forester and wound up with a year-before LL Bean edition for the same price. Leather, heated seats, auto-AC…once we had those, we never went back.
Unfortunately, time, 165,000 miles, and kids leaving home left the car in pretty bad shape. The battery charging system went out (we got it fixed) and mice just seemed to be living in the car. So, we thought about taking it up to St. Johnsbury for a good deal but I decided not to drive it any further than WRJ (with Dee’s “guidance” :)).
Isn’t it funny how sad you can get selling a car? It always feels like you’re giving away a bit of your life. Even cleaning it (which was hard for me due to mouse activity) is sad. You put everything in the car into a box, keep the box in the garage for most of a year, and then wind up throwing out most of it. Dee was sad too. I didn’t even ask the kids; if it were up to Thomas, we’d still have our 1988 Toyota Corolla AWD wagon.
Anyway, the car buying was normal in the internet age…I know what people are spending, they know I know, etc. I was stunned that they gave me $1000 for the trade-in; I handed him the two keys and never looked back. Except…I had been there for hours with no breakfast, and it was close to 3pm. I just wanted to pop up to McDonalds. The sales guy handed me the key, but I was sure the car would not start, so I said “I need to stretch my legs.”
No one who hasn’t lived here understand the effect of melting and re-freezing snow on the margins of the road. It was the longest half-mile walk on a sunny day that you could imagine. Every time a car came towards me, I had to stop, because I was essentially skating, when not slipping through, sheer ice. I got there, ate in the store, and headed back. There was a guy standing on the road (maybe 18 degrees, no curb, no one stopping) with a sign that read “Hungry”. Since I had just spent $5000 on a down payment for a car, I reached into my pocket and made it $5010.
The walk back was easier…no traffic coming that way. No shadows; I actually did stretch my legs. I still had to wait an hour but the car is nice. And the silver one is gone.
Tom's Walks 