Raarrrg. Siddown kiddos, before you read this…

I had my whole afternoon planned out. What’s left of afternoon after work, that is. I came home and changed out of what passes for business casual and grabbed a couple of Plum Market bags and trucked on over there. It was a beautiful afternoon and I had a nice, relaxing walk over there and back. Or, not quite. I got to about a block away from the Landfill and noticed that there was a flatbed truck and several fine gentlemen in the street, one of them the neighbor across the street. I knew what was going on. We have sold The Indefatigable and those fine gentlemen were here to pick it up and our wonderful neighbor who seems to see everything that happens around here had come over to make sure that somebody wasn’t making off with The Indefatigable while we were not home. Thanks neighbor!

Sad but true. The flatbed truck was legitimate. The GG was still at work and I was set to the task of emptying The Indefatigable of all of its bird bones and aminal skulls and other flotsam and jetsam and cosmic debris. And then. Finally. The GG got home. He said good-bye to his old friend and the flatbed truck hauled it away.

I was not in favor of purchasing that particular vee-hickle back in 1992. I didn’t think it was practical for a family of four and I would’ve rather spent vee-hick-ular cash on upgrading minivans more frequently. I caved and the day we went to pick up The Indefatigable, Mouse was not quite five and Lizard was seven and Mouse had just been diagnosed with an ear infection so we had some of that gooey old pink antibiotic fluid with us at the vee-hickle dealer. I drove the old red minivan home and the GG drove his new vee-hickle. I think we each had a kid with us. I can’t for the life of me remember which kid was with who.

The Indefatigable was not originally named The Indefatigable. It was originally named The GG’s Midlife Crisis. I will remind him about that if he ever starts looking at sports cars or convertibles or whatever. You only get to use the Midlife Crisis excuse once! When the jeep was three or four months old, the GG was rear-ended on the southbound I75 SUV Speedway one Sunday afternoon. He had gone north alone that weekend and he was unhurt but I shudder to think what might have happened if our tiny little girls had been in the back seat. The jeep was drivable but required a few weeks in the body shop to get straightened out, etc. It was at that point that the GG’s brother Don dubbed it The Indefatigable and, although I was initially skeptical, that name stuck. Thank you, Don.

Fast forward. Please somebody quit hitting that blasted button, willya? Both of the beach urchins learned to drive in The Indefatigable and drove it throughout high school and college whenever they were home. I loved to drive it in the beginning but have become less enamoured of it in later years as various problems developed. Holes in the floor and door. Enough play in the steering that dry pavement felt like ice. You name it. We own newer vee-hickles and I don’t have the patience for a persnickety old one. Although I will always miss driving it around with two kayaks on the top. Kayak Woman!!!

Today was the day. The buyer is another one o’ them thar slackers over at the EPA. He really, really, really plans to fix it up and actually drive it again. That’s one of his hobbies. It has gone to a good home and, with any luck, we will see this vee-hickle again. Click here or on the leaf/sky photo for more.

Aloha

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 30th, 2008 at 8:27 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.