A Sad Ending For Our Trusty Old Friend

Amazing how easy it is to become so attached to a hunk of metal. It's kind of like the scene in "Cast Away" where Wilson the volleyball drifts away and you cry for Tom Hanks character who's become attached to this inanimate object-- that has become a very real friend.

Shane was in an accident on Saturday -- he's alright and the people he hit were all just fine... the other car barely had a ding. Thank goodness. More than anything, both of us were crushed by the loss of our trusty little car that had taken us over so many miles in our life together. Shane's eyes teared up as the tow truck pulled away. $3000 worth of repairs is more than the car is worth all together, sadly, it's time to lay it to rest.

Our 99' Nissan Altima was our first major purchase as newlyweds after our first car broke down in college and was our only car for 7 years. This car drove us around the University of Utah as undergraduates and brought our babies home from the hospital. It took the long journey from Salt Lake City to Washington D.C., to Texas, and back to Salt Lake City. It had 160,000 miles and at least 160,000 memories.

Shane's true attachment to this car only came in the past 5 years when he relied on it more and more, but was too poor to really fix it like it needed fixing. The most endearing part of the Nissan story was the bond that was formed between the raggedy, sleep deprived, resident, and an honest, good-ol-down-home- mechanic named Clint.

Shane and Clint forged their friendship when the rack and pinion in my car broke down... (I have no clue what a rack and pinion is) and the dealership wanted to charge us $1200 for it.

I called around until I found Clint, he charged $600... perfect. We pulled up to a run down garage with a few broken down cars in front, some very humble digs. It was a place, where, quite frankly I was a little nervous about leaving my car. But we were desperate and took a chance on a guy who we knew nothing about. Turns out, he was a great guy and a great mechanic.

Clint soon learned how cheap we were and was a master at coming up with creative ways to fix car trouble... After Shane hit a raccoon Clint stapled the bumper together and tied it on with wire. Bada bing-- just like new. The red-neck fixit jobs gave this car it's endearing quality.

On the coldest day in Texas (it really does get freezing cold in Texas once in a while) the window was stuck in the down position and our buddy Clint, jerry-rigged it back up in place and told us where we could find a cheap part online. We brought the part to Clint and he installed it for no charge. Everyone needs a Clint.

On the lonely long drives to small town E.R.'s in the middle of the night, the Nissan was Shane's trusted friend. It survived many harrowing experiences as Shane drifted off to sleep from time to time in his constant sleep deprived state. While the rest of us slept comfortably in our beds, the Nissan was keeping Shane company at the crack of dawn...and brought him home safely at all hours of the night, for many years. That car was a trooper, that car was a friend.

Goodbye Wilson.