Saying Goodbye...To The Vibe

 In a matter of weeks, our family went on a buying spree...not for clothes or food or pet supplies. No, everyone living in our house (except me...) bought a vehicle. That's the fun news. The sad news was saying goodbye to a couple of vehicles that served our family well for almost fifteen years.

That's longer than most pets live.

The car we traded in was my beloved 2004 Pontiac Vibe (really, a Toyota Matrix...). I loved that car. It was my second Vibe, nice, compact, reliable car. Three of our four kids learned to drive in that car. It brought me to my brother's house through a blizzard, and it survived hitting (and killing...) a deer. It always started, except when the battery was dead, and it never left us stranded.

Yes. it had problems. The driver's side window shattered more than once. I even replaced the door, but it didn't fix the problem. The catalytic converter was dying, and we destroyed the AC in its last year with us. We didn't exactly trust it at freeway speeds, but around town when you don't need to be able to roll down the window and you don't need all-wheel drive and you don't need air-conditioning, it was still a great ride.

But, it was time. What makes me most sad is the car has most likely seen its last owner. Sure, it could give some high school kid a ride to and from school and possibly a date. But, we traded it in and I don't know what happens to those cars.

We relied on that car so many times in the past decade and a half. The car was my friend, a tangible thing that offered comfort and safety. I know people have emotional connections to their vehicles. It's natural, and for me, this is a perfect example of how that happens. Our time with our Vibe has come to an end. It completed its mission, and did a damn fine job doing it.

Oh, we also got rid of our van, but that's another blog post.