my ride

Saturday, mar. 15, 2008   |   0 comments

UPDATE: Oops! After a long, fine, six-year ride, I finally sold my cute, ridiculous car. As of February 2004, I am completely footloose and carfree -- tune in for glamorous tales of urban hiking and grocery hefting.

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My old Honda, which served me well since college, was battered beyond recognition by crazy people and stereo thieves. Then one night, some totally drunk, insured (?!) person plowed into my left fender and then refused to pay the $200 that it would cost to get the wheels rolling again (I was far beyond caring about cosmetics at that point), so his insurance company declared my car totaled and gave me $3000 for my four-dollar car.

I determined that I was going to buy something nice and dependable with the money, something with power steering and doors that actually remained shut. So of course when I spotted this insanely cute red-striped car parked right there on the street with a flirty little "for sale" sign advertising a so-convenient-it-had-to-be-a-sign price tag of $3000, I bought the hell out of it. And for the next six years I was the sometimes proud, sometimes very sad (having the clutch go out spectacularly in the middle of an intersection, in the middle of a rain storm, in the middle of Los Angeles was a particular low), owner of the ridiculously impractical 1966 Ford Cortina!