Dear Jesus, please send us a car

Monday, July 24, 2006

Over the last few years, I've been thoroughly impressed, and, well, humbled by the Lord's interest in our cars.

After we moved back from Chicago, we needed a vehicle. Not so necessary in the big city, where everything was walk-accessable or L train-able. We were moving back to Ontario with no place to live, no jobs and no car to get to our no-jobs.
Rather jokingly, I would say that I really only had two requirements: that it be red and it be standard. I love driving stick.
We moved back in the late May of 1999. I was offered a job pretty much immediately and James started his new job shortly into July. At the same time, my uncle decided he wanted to sell his meticulously cared for Honda Accord Wagon and gave us first dibs.
It was red.
It was standard.
They gave us a real deal.
Done!
It was a 1991 and had somewhere in the 200's in km. We drove it everywhere, including out west when my brother graduated from Briercrest and twice back to Chicago. Then when James started working in London, it did that 1hour+ commute twice daily. That was 5 years ago. It got a break when we moved to Brantford, as now I needed a car for Jairus' appointments and various other reasons, so we got James a little wee car to buzz off to London with. He missed driving the wagon, but now it was mine! That car brought Jairus home from the hospital and various other firsts in our family.
When I got pregnant with Verity, I started realizing that the wagon wasn't going to fit the bill anymore. Three carseats would not fit in the back seat and while the age of the wagon (meaning, no air bags) meant I could drive with the three kids, putting the infant carrier in the front seat, we couldn't go anywhere as a family. That is, unless I squeezed my little self into the 11 inch space between Jairus and Honour's carseat. Since we had no money, and didn't want to go into debt to get a mini-van, we decided that would have to do.
I guess the Lord had other plans though, because shortly after Verity was born, Jamie's little bug died dead. We decided we would have to go into debt and started looking for the cheapest mini-van ever created. On a whim, I looked on auto-trader.ca to see if any of my dream vans--Honda Odyssey's might be listed. Wouldn't you know, there were 3 within our very low price range. We went to Toronto to check them out and ended up buying the wagon a big brother.
A 1995 Odyssey. The first year they made them. Red.
I was thrilled. And Jamie got the wagon back. That was last summer.

So now the wagon has just under 600,000km on it and my uncle is impressed every time he sees it that it's still going.
Until yesterday.
Well, even yesterday it was still running. Cousin Dan the mechanic came over to check it over, 'cause we were hearing a some concerning squeaks and shudders. He delivered the bad news that he thinks it would be unwise to put any more money into it. The stuff that needs to be done to it right now would vastly outweigh the value of the car. And since we're typically people that put off car repairs, when I say need, I really mean need. So we started thinking last night that perhaps it's time to move on and put the wagon out to pasture. Or find some mechanic who might love on her a few years more. These wagons are somewhat rare (Honda doesn't make them anymore) and we often hear of people buying up even the really old ones. There wasn't a dreadful rush, but we figured we'd be taking care of it all this week.
Until this morning when the clutch died. James barely made it to work. How he's getting home still remains a mystery.

How we will get another car for him remains a mystery too. Remember, we just moved. That translates into, 'the bank just gave us a heap of money'. Don't know if they'll give us more, and then there's our underlying aversion to debt. Why does it seem impossible to live without it? We were getting so close.

So, if anyone knows of a trusty car for sale, can you give me shout?

Preferably red. Standard. A Honda?

Even I know when I'm asking too much.

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