I was about to announce the completion of my author’s edit of Ozias, Prince In Peril, when the garage called with the news that my car is shot, kaput, unsafe, and generally all washed up, time for it to be replaced.
“We’re being tested,” Patty says.
Now I have to go back to the hospital, in a few minutes, for radiation treatment. Not that I was going to do that much driving, but gee wiz. It was my Aunt Joan’s car, a 1995 Ford Taurus. So it’s almost 30 years old. I could’ve used a few more years out of it.
What’s next? How long is this test, anyway?
I can say no more, just now.
(“It’s only a car,” she says. “It’s a material thing, it can be replaced. It’s not the end of the world.”)
My hip hurts.
I think this is the saddest post you’ve ever written. “My hip hurts” is analog for so much pain — although people outside of New York and New Jersey probably don’t understand this kind of sardonic pathos. I’m so sorry. I continue to pray.
I’ve always thought St. Teresa of Avila had a NY-NJ sense of humor. One (perhaps apocryphal) story about her is the time everything was going wrong with her projects, and finally as a last straw the cart she was riding in to get to one of her new convents collapsed. Lying in the road, she cried out, “Lord, why do all these terrible things keep happening?” A voice from Heaven said, “Teresa, this is how I treat my friends.” And Teresa replied, “Lord, maybe that’s why you have so few of them.” Saints can get away with jokes like that. And I hope so can New Yorkers and New Jerseyites. Blessings to you, Lee.
Thanks, Phoebe–and thanks to St. Teresa, too.
I drove a Taurus back in the early 2000’s until it gave up the ghost. Buying brand new cars is like throwing money in the trash can, so I go for program cars or older.
I’ve never bought a new car. Up until now I always acquired my next car from a family member. But nobody’s left anymore.
All I can say is that the best car I’ve ever owned was a Toyota. Cars are a pain.
Yep, cars can cause more trouble that almost anything, but thankfully they can always be replaced Prayers continue.
I was kind of attached to it because it was once my aunt’s car.