Got Gas?

OK, not that kind of gas!! Gasoline! Tonight as I was leaving work, I looked at my gas gauge and thought (with one eyebrow raised and a slight head tilt), hm...I wonder if I can make it home with this much gas. The gauge was at the "Get Gas Quick" line. I, of course, just had to tempt fate. The GGQ line isn't quite 1/8th a tank. Really, I'm not sure what it is. To me, it means "got gas." So, the entire drive home I stayed in the slow lane. Every time I accelerated to a normal speed (normal being above 70) I would have to make a conscious effort to lift up on the accelerator. It about KILLED me!! Because my speedometer doesn't work *ahem* I would gauge my speed on the gear, the traffic around me, and how the engine sounds. At one point I knew I was going too slow because a Prius passed me. A PRIUS! But I stayed around 65-70 and guess what! I made it home (approx 32 miles), with gas still in the tank!! WOO!!!

I'd like to point out now that I have never, ever run out of gas. I've never been stranded anywhere with a broken down car. Wait, I take that back. One of those four or five times my alternator went out....but I digress.

Since my plans for tomorrow have been canceled, I'm thinking about going car shopping. I've been planning on buying a car for some time and have finally saved up enough $ to do so. However, I'm freaked out by car salesmen. Just driving by a car lot and seeing them all out there in their cheap suits with pagers and cell phones attached to their hips while they casually lean against a wall or railing...looking for victims, *shiver* just gives me the creeps. Seriously, I just shivered. Goose bumps. (ok I just edited this copy for spelling errors and got the shivers again)

But, I think it's time I start at least looking. I'll give you a run down later of the cars I've selected for test drives. (SO excited!!) I've been reading car magazines and looking online because my poor little car...well, she's not doing good. My current feisty Japanese car has several ailments that do not bode well:

1) Must hold stickshift manually in 5th gear when accelerating (almost three years now)

2) Speedometer doesn't work

3) Odometer doesn't work

4) Ignition switch is going out ?? (it makes a terrible sound when I start it; the radio doesn't start and the air won't come on until I turn the key back a fraction of an inch)

5) Driver side window does not roll down

6) Passenger seat held in by one screw

7) Smokes white plumes embarrassingly when driven for first few miles

8) Various cosmetic problems that can be overlooked: only two hubcaps on one side, paint on hood is fading to metal, broken parking light (I hit a parked car HAHAHA), sun damaged dash severely cracked to hell, pleather seats ripped due to metal bars coming through, pleather siding on inside of door walls ripped off in places i.e. damaged beyond control, a few minor rust spots, scrapings in paint from SOS pad (not a good idea after all), small cracks in windshield.


However, the car does have some strong points:

1) It drives

2) It gets me to work

3) It has a car alarm

4) Thumpin stereo

5) Four cool blue speakers (albeit, held in by duct tape)

6) New, top of the line tires with replacement warranty

7) Tinted windows (starting to bubble a tiny bit)


Car alarm you ask? Yep that's right! GRR! I live in the "Near Ghetto" (this is a term I've just learned at work, "near" apparently is interchangeable with "approximately"), which means yes, my car too has fallen victim to thievary. I'm not sure why the thieves left it two blocks away in an alley. Was it because it's so freakin cool, they were not hip enough to drive it? Was it because the car was on empty? Alas, we will never now. (On a side note, isn't it weird that spell-checker wants to replace "freakin" with foreskin? Why? WHY?)

My car still has the scars from the break in, though. And a bouncer I call, "The Club." If a thief gets past The Club, then he just might run into his backup, "The Car Alarm." It's rather embarrassing when I'm anywhere near other people and I go out to my car and "beep." Which is pretty much everywhere because, hello, people are everywhere. So, while I love this little car that I learned to drive in, hauled wood, bales of hay, Christmas tree's and moved all my belongings from OR to SD in the tiny trunk and back seat...I would be crushed if, well, she were crushed in a car landfill *sniff* I think it's time to start looking for a solid replacement.

*sigh*

This replacement better drive fast. And have a big gas tank.