We were taken for a ride

Last Saturday, May 12, 2007, was just one more in a series of anniversaries. This time it was the 12th reminiscence of J and The Old Guy getting married on the beach at Treasure Island in Florida's St. Petersburg area.

So we went out and bought a car.

Neona the Canuck Neon finally croaked. She had transmission problems: couldn't get out of second gear. She couldn't run her engine fast enough to sustain the effort, and even when she got revved up, it didn't last. Slow down and she'd shift back to a more comfortable second gear at 40 miles an hour.

Her steering was starting to falter, and her rear struts had long since been bent out of shape by The Old Guy's habit of carrying too much home improvement material in her trunk. Take her over a railway track and you bent your sacroiliac.

Perhaps worst of all was the total lack of air conditioning. The medical report was that they'd have to remove her dashboard to get at the non-functioning heat exchanger. So to get her to where she could be considered roadworthy again was estimated at around $1900 US.

Well, we did lay out $200 about three weeks earlier to replace a leaking oil pan gasket, but that was where the bucks stopped.

We didn't start out on Saturday to buy a car. We went to look at a Scion, the boxy offering that J wouldn't find fitting, but fortunately, the new models were coming in but hadn't yet arrived. So we moved on, past the Toyotas to the Hondas. And whaddya know: the salesman found a 2004 Honda Accord with a mere 40,500 miles or so on it for us to test drive.

It was love at first flight. I had forgotten what a real car felt like. Power to spare, but a gas sipper, and working air conditioning (an impressive selling point in these parts). Electric windows and, get this, an electric sunroof. So THIS is how the other half has been living all these years!

So now the Honda Automobile Corporation is down by one car, but the Honda Finance Corporation is rubbing its hands at the beginning of a five-year relationship. Or to put it more ironically, TOG has to work for five more years to pay off the car he needs to get him to his job.

And Neona? Well, her trade-in value boiled down to $500 US. I guess that's the floor price they're willing to pay anyone who brings in a junker. So she has been replaced in TOG's heart and soul by a brand new girl: Wanda Honda. How fickle he is.

Even though the new car is a thing of beauty and a toy forever, J topped it when she presented TOG with a small radio-controlled sailboat. That was right on Target! What presents of mine! Perfect fit for the 16-foot swimming pool that has yet to be reinstalled for the summer. On windless days, we can take out one of our floor fans to the water's edge and keep on tacking.