car_obituary epitome of incomprehensibility You died two weeks ago. It was Sunday, Jan. 25, and I was inside you with my parents, near their friend Sybil's place downtown. Dad found suddenly that your brakes didn't have enough force behind them. He drove you very slowly to Sybil's apartment and we stayed there until the CAA came and towed you to the nearest garage. Public transport took us to where we were going - the movie Boyhood at the Dollar Cinema - and the next day after you were taken to Dad's regular garage, news came back that you were ailing on multiple fronts: gas tank leak, oil leak, plus something with your brakes. You could run for another year, the mechanic said, but you'd cost around $1,500 to fix, so Mom and Dad sorrowfully let you go. RIP, 2001 Suzuki Esteem. You were a good deal as a secondhand car, though virtually indistinguishable from your predecessor, another green station wagon - a Ford Escort. Goodbye, faithful car. I will remember you fondly as I'm waiting for the bus in the cold, even though I can't drive, no one's likely to drive me places where I'm just going by myself because I'm an adult, and I generally think your ilk should be used more sparingly because of environmental concerns, but still. I'll miss you. We can't replace you. Your type is hard to find. We won't just push aside our grief and buy another car. None of us can afford it. Your absence may make us better people, but there will always be an empty spot in my parent's driveway where your memory will forever linger. Here is an article paying tribute to an older - and, it seems, uglier - version of you that appears in a TV show. It's the least I can do. http://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a32707/suzuki-esteem-better-call-saul-premiere/ 150211 ... epitome of incomprehensibility Retrospecting... Definitely multiple systems failure, but I don't think it involved the oil tank. I was getting mixed up with the book I read recently, Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor, where the main character buys a car that's already pretty much falling apart. An oil tank leak was one of the things wrong with it. It's funny. I'd just listened to an interview about the phenomenon of false memories: people can "remember" things that never happened to them. Usually not in an extreme way; usually you'd just add to your memory things you read or heard. Anyway. My mom's sharing a ride to her work. My father's always taken the train to his. Me, I take the bus and would anyway. Likewise, my brother going to school (next year he might be away in Nova Scotia for university). So it's not really so bad. They borrow a neighbour's car to get groceries. Car-owning expenses, gone. (But eating-out expenses are up a bit, since it takes longer to get to places and it's easier to buy food than bring it along.) They'd been planning to go carless before, but now it happened - rather inconveniently, but what can you do? Some are born carless, some achieve carlessness, and some have carlessness thrust upon them. My spell check thinks I mean careless. I could car less. 150217 what's it to you? who go blather from