Daisy, Daisy…
I drove the Frog Hopper to work today. NO, IT WAS NOT SNOWING! THANK YOU MA NATCHER! I swapped vee-hickles with Mouse yesterday. Daisy lit her check engine light over the weekend. Daisy used to be “my” vee-hickle but at some point in ancient history Mouse needed a car. I mean something besides The Indefatigable, which was at last succumbing to, uh, fatigue. So we gave her Daisy and I obtained the Ninja. Anyway Mouse and I have swapped vee-hickles for a couple days and The Pensioner took Daisy in for service today, riding The Bus for at least part of the way there and back. (Daisy is fine, at least as fine as a 13-year-old vee-hickle can be. She does have a rather unhealthy appetite for oil…)
I didn’t have anything to write about today but sometimes the day-to-day trivia brings things to mind and what came to mind was the insane period during which we originally bought Daisy.
It was June 2005 and we had been kind of scouting around for a Honda Civic but for reasons I can’t remember, it seemed the particular model we were interested in would not be available for a couple weeks or whatever. In the middle of searching for Daisy, My Brother The Engineer died. He had serious health issues but his death at that time was unexpected, at least to everyone but him. There was a mad scramble. My octogenarian parents lived in the yooperland and could not make the 5-hour drive to SE Michigan for his funeral visitation unassisted. Soooo. I got up at 0-skunk-30 the morning after my brother died and drove the Dogha (AWESOME 2001 Honda Accord) up to fetch my parents.
Drove up, took them to Clyde’s for lunch, then out to the moomincabin where I SWAM (in late June), and then back to the Dillon House where I clearly remember back-to-back re-runs of “The Munsters” blaring in the living room while we yakked in the chitchen.
Of course, after the funeral, I had to drive them back. Wouldn’t you know the POC’s failing A/C completely crapped out right then! The problem is that by this time we were ALL heading up for 4th of July weekend, etc., but not all on the same day. I couldn’t take my parents up in the POC because at their ages, they needed A/C. The Indefatigable never did have A/C and it was bordering upon disintegrating although I think it did make some good trips up north after that. I’m blocking the details about all the logistical issues involved but multiple groups of people needed to travel in multiple vee-hickles on different days and the Dogha was the only truly road-worthy vee-hickle available to us. Figuring all of this out was making my brain hurt.
And then… Like magic… Or maybe it was The Engineer steering things from over on the other side… Like, “I’ve inconvenienced all these folk by dying without notice, maybe I can at least help them out with their vee-hickle.” He was a car guy his whole life and worked as an automotive engineer. Anyway, out of the blue, we got a call from Howard Cooper Honda and, miraculously, Daisy had turned up! Cute little blue Honda Civic with AIR CONDITIONING! I drove my parents in the Dogha because it was a more comfortable car for elderly passengers. The GG, Lizard, and Mouse took Daisy.
I don’t really believe that people on the other side steer our lives in any way or even have any capacity to think about relatives and friends who are still toiling on this beautiful world we call Earth. But you never know. I miss you brother. Where art thou?