A little automotive motivation

When I asked my mechanic whether I ought to drive my Volvo to Louisville this weekend, he laughed out loud. Snorted, in fact. "You've already driven that car farther than I would drive it with a leaky head gasket," he said.

I was a little offended on behalf of my trusty and beloved Volvo, but he has a point. Do I really want to find myself stranded in Podunkville, Kentucky, with a fused engine block? No I do not--and besides, AP is paying reasonable travel expenses. So I rented a car, a silver Volkswagen Jetta that is already wooing me away from clunker-mania.

It's not perfect: I can't comfortably rest my elbow on the window frame, and the seatbelt rubs my neck in a way that's bound to get annoying during a 300-mile drive. But on the other hand, everything works. Let me say that again: Everything (!!) works (!!!!).

The cruise control works. The seat tilts and shifts easily (although it won't rise up any higher, which would help with the seatbelt problem). The radio comes on and stays on without randomly shifting to CD whenever the air is a little damp. The AC works. The fan works without sounding like someone's shaking a coffee can full of pebbles. The gas gauge works, like, all the time, so I don't have to guess how far I can go before running out. The windows open--and shut! The wipers work, and I can even squirt wiper fluid on the windows with a flick of a switch instead of reaching a Windex bottle out an open window. 

Automatic door locks? Check. Broken headlights? Not a one. Floor mats? Clean, although not for long if the weather stays wet. And--get this--it has cup holders. Yes! Cup holders! How have I lived without them for so long?

After driving this Jetta for a week, I'm bound to resist readjusting to my 1995 Volvo. Problems I've learned to live with will suddenly become unbearable, and then what will I do? I can't keep the Jetta, and I can't replace the Volvo right now.

But a girl can dream, can't she? All I have to do before I can buy a new(er) car is pay off one more ugly chunk of debt--which is why I'll be spending the next week shut inside an immense torture chamber with 1000 other English professors reading AP essays. Maybe I should take along a photo of my Volvo just to remind me why I'm doing this, a little automotive motivation. If reading AP essays doesn't drive me crazy, it may at least drive me toward new wheels. 

And cup holders. Did I mention the cup holders?