My first car was a 1985ish Honda Prelude. The speedometer didn't work and I didn't notice it when I bought it. So I have no idea if it worked when I bought it and then a week or so later, when I noticed it wasn't working, that it had broken. So I did what I normally do and just shrugged it off and kept on driving. I did get pulled over once for speeding and I talked my way out of it by telling him my speedometer didn't work. He was nice enough to not ticket me and told me to get it fixed with the money I just saved. Or learn to keep my speed down. I did neither.
I'd like to think that I talked my way out of that because I batted my big green eyes at him and he fell under my spell. I'm sure that was not the case. I was a sniveling mess...
So I bought this car in 1990, just after I turned 16. My parents gave me the money (God knows why, other then they wouldn't have to drive me everywhere. And that's a stretch because I didn't go anywhere). I went to the mechanic that my parents had used (really used, if you've read my post about my luck with cars, you'll see where this is going). He sold me the car and I had like $200 left over. I think I bought the car for $2,000, if that much.
Within a week, it was back in the shop for the starter. There goes the $200...and then the speedometer, but I just ignored that.
Living in Wisconsin, it gets cold....very cold. My heater/radiator would freeze up and wouldn't start. There were a couple of times that it would just die in the middle of the highway. I would quickly start it again, hoping that going 60 mph wouldn't kill me or anyone else in the car. So I had problems with the car. But again, it is what I'm used to with my family. We have horrible luck with cars.
So in 1993, I moved to Kansas and brought the Prelude with me. She was good for about 2 years. Good meaning she didn't blow up. There were still issues, I just choose to ignore. And I know I did not have an oil change in those 3 years...I think I put oil in it every 6 months or so because the light would come on and so I knew that it required oil and so I just poured it in. Then it started leaking oil all the time so I just kept adding it.
I admit that I am a lousy car owner at the time. It got gas and new windshield wipers but only because I had to. I never got an oil change, I did not buy new tires and I never washed it. The air conditioner would work sometimes and the heater was not the most reliable either. I wore a lot of sweaters in the winter time and all windows rolled down in the summer.
So about 2 years into living in Lawrence, KS I was driving along 9th street and all of a sudden I couldn't go over 40 miles an hour. And then the power steering started going out. I was in the left lane and I couldn't get over to the right to get off the street and so I kept driving along until I could pull off to the left. By this time I couldn't get over 20 miles an hour and was getting a lot of one finger salutes. I returned them because fuck them for not knowing something was wrong. Who the hell were they to get uptight about my disastrous situation. Fuckers....
I managed to pull onto a street that ironically was in front of the old apartment that my boyfriend at the time and I lived in. I also had 2 very large Golden Retrievers in my car that I had just taken to the vet for a couple that I was friends with and was dog sitting. And it was about August, 3pm in the afternoon. Harshly hot. So I got the dogs out of the car and I started making calls. I called my boyfriend at the time...he was in Topeka (about 30 minutes away), I called my folks but both of them were not around. So I resorted to my boyfriends Dad. How embarrassing was that? He drove out to pick me up, I had refrained from mentioning the dogs and forgot he had leather seats in his Caddy...I had a blanket in the car so I put that down. And we all trudged to the house I was sitting for with the dogs.
I don't think I ever thanked boyfriend at the time's Dad. But I also didn't think about how I was going to get around. I just figured someone would take care of that. I was that self centered.
Now, I had to deal with the car. It never became an option to get it fixed. I never thought about getting it fixed. I just knew it was going to be more money then I had. Which was about $6. So I did the next best thing. I had my boyfriend at the time drive me over to the car. I took out all the crap. Made sure that I grabbed the hair scrunchies off the stick shift! And then I pulled out the title and then closed the door and walked away.
And when I say I pulled out the title, that means I left the title on the drivers side seat, did not lock the door, and left it on that street. I walked away from a car that probably would have been a great car if I had taken care of it. And it could have been a simple fix....but I tend to just walk away or hid from things I don't want to deal with. I drop it like it's hot and split. And I do not think about it twice.
I then made my boyfriend at that time drive me everywhere for about 2 months. He suggested early on that I get a new car so he could work better, but I ignored that. After the 6th week, he told me that I needed to get a new car...It took me another 2 weeks to decide to start looking. And that was only because he told me he wasn't driving me anywhere any more. Bit harsh but alright. I found my next ticking time bomb at work. Some guy was selling his car and would take payments from me. I DID pay that off...one of the first things I ever paid off at that time.
I told this story to my ex (husband) and he got the biggest kick out of it. He could not believe that I just walked away from it. I tried to explain to him that it was just the thing I did. If I was done with it or just didn't want it anymore, I dropped it.
Since then? I have not abandoned a vehicle or a dog. But I definitely abandon bills, books, sometimes friends (shame on me) and most definitely diets and dudes.
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