July 6, 2004

• Ode to My Car

  Ode to My Car: The scratches aren't TOO bad. (From a distance)  Some existed when I took this picture on Easter Sunday 2004. I bought my Eclipse in Oct. 2000. I saw my first one in 1996 (with this body style, my favorite, including the new "racecar look" of the 2005 model.) and remember saying: "I'm going to buy one of those in a few years." I sat in the show model (waited my turn along with a 100 or so other folks) and imagined myself behind the wheel. I also sat in Chevy Cavaliers and Chrysler Sebrings but this was the next convertible for me. The Eclipse Spyder says "Own me."  I  owned a 1992 Geo Metro convertible at the time, one of those "funny looking little cars" that always got people to inquire what the hell it is sitting at some stop light. It was paid for in 1996, and one day it's battery went out, and I decided to go buy my "middle age crazy car". I was going to buy a 2000 car new, for the New Millennium, part of my plan to "reinvent myself" which I did by starting AllThingsMike on the web as well.  Business was tremendous in 1996 through 2000, and I had just broken up with Regina, and had borrowed some money, so I used five grand for a down payment on my dream machine. The 2000 Eclipses didn't have a convertible, which came back in 2001, but 2000 was almost over, so I bought a 1999, with my favorite body style. I kept the Metro, and finally sold it for $300.00 to one of my neighbors. It needed a convertible top by that time, and I had it tarped and filed a non operational permit.

  I will eventually replace the air dam on the Mitsubishi, with a custom version, and also spring for some of those custom taillights to remove the logo. Then a paint job, possibly silver, or maybe just a more metalflake version of the teal color. To repaint is roughly $1200.00, but if I do, then I have to be able to park in the garage. Cancerboy and I talked about that this afternoon. He doesn't think I can get the car in there even if I throw away all the Betty Boop Collector boxes which I don't know why I'm hoarding. I figure I can, but I don't savor attacking that problem right now. I love my car, and it will shine again, so help me. Come to think of it, I need a new stereo for it too, since my Nelly CD blew the front right speaker. I just use the back speakers now, and what I really  need is one of those "subwoofers". Heck, I have two subwoofers in my garage I don't use. I could probably hook up my own amplifier just like with the quadriphonic setup in the Flukeswagen in 1973. But I'm older, now, and don't want to hassle with actually having to "work" on it myself. I'll have a sound shop refurbish the system. Well, he says, as he finally pops awake, yes, you will have to do "all this" someday, but not today, so stop dreaming, and go finish that Clinton book you promised yourself you were going to read. (Finish, ha.  It's over 900 pages long, and I've slogged through about a hundred of them. He's still introducing all the folks he knew in his family, the friends of his family, his extended family, the friends of the friends of the extended family. I hope there aren't chapters entitled "Constituents" "Staff", etc, etc. At 900 plus pages, I know I picked the wrong "light summer reading" exercise after three years of not reading a word in print except for newspapers and magazines. Still have to start a novel, though. I haven't read a novel in about four or five years. Waiting for that Da Vinci Code to go into paperback. Well, that was quite a ramble for today, all so I could post a photograph before retiring. Now the photo is dwarfed by the words. (Don't swerve on to another tangent, Mike, shut the he** up.)

  Hey, there are some people reading me, so I would like to personally thank everyone who's stopping by this little Xanga endeavor. Please use this site as a stepping stone to the vast AllThingsMike Universe, accessible through the AllThingsMike Webhub link (The logo of WhenWordsCollide) or the "links" to the "individual lands" over to the left. I'm in Fantasyland right now, usually a day of "lows" (yesterday) is followed by a day of "highs". Then I went out and saw my car. But that's where I stepped in........

  (Other photos of my car on this Xanga blog are here.)

  (And while we're at it, here's one of my "arty" shots "with clouds")

  • 9:39 pm
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