/mike

You know when you’re just hanging out, not doing much and your mind totally wanders off to a place you least expected? I do. One of those moments actually happened today as I was waiting in rush hour traffic. On a completely unrelated note, why do they call it rush hour when we all know that it bloody well lasts longer than an hour?

Back on topic — if there is such a thing in this particular post. My random, out of the blue thought for today was about cars. Weird huh? Rush hour. Cars. I don’t see the connection either. Anyway, I started thinking about just how many cars I’ve actually had. Don’t get me wrong here, I’m no rich bitch that goes out and buys a new car every other week or anything but I have had a couple.

The first car I ever owned was a hand-me-down from my mom. It was an ‘82 Honda Civic hatchback. The motor was pretty much shot since every week I’d go fill up with oil and check the gas but it was my car and it was a standard. I could bag the shit out of that car and nobody would car. Hell, I even took it off-roading a couple times.

The next vehicle I had the pleasure of driving was an ‘80-something Pontiac Parisian — and yes, that’s probably spelled wrong — that I inherited from my grandfather after he passed away. So I went from this little beater that I could zig zag through traffic to a big, white boat that would just chug down the street. I was unstoppable in that thing and it was great.

Of course, all good things come to an end and we sold that car. Next on the list was an ‘85 Ford Tempo. Woohoo, can you sense the fake enthusiasm over there? Out of all the cars I had this was probably the worst. Not only was all the leather cracked all over the car but the radiator blew up on me twice. It wasn’t any old time it blew up either. Both times it was winter and both days were school days.

Then came graduation from high school. Oh, did I mention I’m probably older than you think I am? Well, I am. Anyway, I received another car for graduation. Now now, you’re probably thinking this is when my rich parents went all out and bought me a BMW or something like that. Wrong again kids. My parents are rich so I found myself a nice Chevy Sprint LE. You’re right, another standard hatchback. How did you guess?

That particular car did me well. I was loving life in a small car, zipping through traffic and fitting in otherwise difficult parking situations. It was grand.

Then, I got a job or two. College was over and I became a working stiff. Lucky me. I did the service industry for a while but found a job working some retail/design for a local computer store. Money was good and I wanted a new ride. I’d had the Sprint for about 5 years so it was time for a change. My timetable seems to be around 3-5 years for new cars.

After a short trip to the bank and a long, painful trip to the dealership I ended up with a 2001 Honda Civic. Two-door. Standard. Black. Mmmm, can you taste it?

How many and what kind of cars have you had? Maybe I should start a meme?