cars | BulgingButtons

January 30, 2018
by BulgingButtons 5 Comments

So, Did You Hear About my Car?

My car got an owie in the parking lot at school. Someone was distracted and, well, wouldn’t you know it, now there’s a blemish on my vehicle.

It’s kind of a scrape, more than a scratch. It’s not exactly a ding (more of a dang), and it isn’t truly a dent. I think owie is the best word to describe it.

My car has plenty of miles on it, and quite a few years as well. Sort of like me. It still works great, though, and it’s paid for. Frankly, I like it, even if it is a bit past its prime. It’s solid. Reliable. And I feel safe in it, at least most of the time. When I don’t, though, it’s not the car’s fault. It’s the maniacs who are whizzing past me, or worse, stomping on their brakes for no apparent reason. Those people, sheesh!

So now there’s all this stuff to do to get it repaired. Thank goodness for insurance. It’s remarkable how many phone calls and emails have already gone whizzing back and forth, and it hasn’t even gotten to the shop yet.

My poor car. It’s been so good to me over the years. It’s seen me through three moves, two schools for me, four schools for my son, and several road trips to Vegas, California, and all over Arizona. It deserves to look as good as it possibly can, given its elder car status.

It may not be a classic, but it’s what I’ve got, and I want to take care of it. I can’t wait until this process wraps up, and I no longer have to see my dear car sporting its nasty owie.

February 26, 2015
by BulgingButtons 1 Comment

Throwback Thursday – Cars, Expanded Edition

Not my actual car, but close.

Yes, I’ve talked cars before, but this post goes into a little more depth about some of the vehicles in my life. My grandmother drove a sensible blue four-door Ford sedan, complete with a big pillow to elevate her on its bench seat. My other grandmother drove a kick-ass Pontiac GT with sweet bucket seats and a hideous olive green coat of paint. They both traded their cars in for more sensible brown cars in the later year. Too bad.

My father loved Fords, until the T-Bird. He had Fords for years, up until he bought a 1973 Thunderbird for my mother, complete with a Landau roof. It was the palest green color imaginable, and it was a lemon. It seemed like that car was constantly in the shop, and not just because our dog chewed up one of the armrests when my mother ran an errand with him one day. That car was just trouble, I could tell the first time my mother closed the door on my leg. Besides, who gets a two-door when they have kids?

After my father’s love affair with Ford subsided, he became an Oldsmobile man. At one time he owned three Toronados, blue, maroon, and my favorite, dark gray. I loved that car. My dad even put vanity plates on it with my name on them.

Several Oldsmobiles later, my father moved up to Cadillac. I’m not sure if that was his idea or my mother’s, but not long after he splurged and bought a Mercedes. It was shocking. My father had ranted and railed against Mercedes for years, however, he presented one to my mother for her birthday.

Personally, I’m a Toyota girl. After three hand-me-down Oldsmobiles (including my beloved dark gray Toronado), I finally got a car that was new just for me, a Toyota Camry.

Again, not my actual car, but close enough.

That was a great car. We put 206,000 miles on that car over the course of 13 years. That car visited the Atlantic and the Pacific, more than once. In its final days it could no longer provide air conditioning, a must in my desert Southwest home. I was sad to see that car go, however, its final gift was $6,000 on trade-in. That car paid for itself.

I’m on my second Camry now, and at 135,000ish miles it’s going strong. Sure, it’s from the middle of the last decade, but it’s paid for and I love it. This one hasn’t been to the Atlantic, but it’s seen the Pacific several times, and it knows the way to Vegas too. I have no plans to replace it anytime soon. True, I like some of the new features that cars have now, but this car is terrific, and until it’s time to put it out to pasture, I’ll be very content with it. It gets me and family where we need to go comfortably and safely, what more could I really need?

August 21, 2014
by BulgingButtons 1 Comment

Throwback Thursday – Cars Edition

It seems that most of the cars I remember from my childhood had something peculiar about them. This is no surprise, since oddities stick in the brain. Here are some of the cars I remember.

1. My grandmother’s sapphire blue Ford LTD. She was tiny, so she drove around on a pillow. It was a square thing and really old. Like her. Well, except for the fact that she wasn’t square.

2. My other grandmother’s Pontiac Grand Am. It was a hideous olive green color, but what a cool looking car!

3. Mom’s 1973 T-Bird. That was the car that I got my leg closed on. It was an almost white shade of light green, and the dog chewed up the armrest when my mother took him to run errands one day.

4. The Oldsmobile station wagon. This is the car I learned to drive in. It was enormous, pale yellow, and complete with faux wooden paneling.

5. VW Bug, before it was a punchbug. My friend’s mom had one, which later became her brother’s. I loved riding around in that little bug.

6. The earliest version of the Honda Civic. Back in those days Honda’s were only motorcycles. A Honda car was weird, and very tiny. I remember being squished in the backseat of one on the way to a concert during my teens.

7. The Lincoln Continental, for some reason, bugged me. One of our neighbors had one, and I thought it was the most gawd-awful looking thing around.

8. VW Thing. Another neighbor had one of those, in bright yellow. For some reason I found this car preferable to the Lincoln. Go figure.