Sigh and Yay

Here’s Arthur:

Completely unsuspecting that I’m about to betray him today. He’s been a very good car. He’s gotten me through 3 years of graduate school, 1.5 years of the “real world” and 1.5 years of part real world and part grad school. His original mission was to get me through to my PhD, and he probably would have done it, too, if I hadn’t taken some time off. But with the two flats in the last month, and especially with the nearly $1k work that needed to be done with him, I thought it might be time for him to retire. Sigh.

We took Arthur to the Toyota dealership today to test drive a new Corolla. I think he started to get nervous when we pulled in. He was a bit relieved when we left after the test drive, but that was short-lived, because we were only heading a mile down the road to the Honda dealership. He breathed a deep sigh when we left the Honda dealership after test driving a Civic, and probably felt pretty good when we stopped for lunch down the road. But, he knew what was coming when we headed back to the Toyota dealership. To his credit, he took it well. He didn’t whimper or cry (which is more than I can say about me). He did give me look, and I tried to reassure him that he’d been a great car, and that I appreciated all the time he’d put in for me, but that didn’t seem to make him feel much better.

But, here’s the new car that’s now parked in his spot:

Don’t get me wrong — I like the new car. I just need some time for the loss of Arthur to pass.