In Memoriam

Wow - this year has flown by. I don't know that I have much to say, but I've recently been asked by a couple of folks who I'm REALLY bad at keeping in touch with to "update the damn blog already" so I thought I would - here's all the news that's fit to print.

BUT FIRST - a disclaimer. I think that there are times in your life that are for action, and there are times in your life that are for letting all those actions and reactions sit and stir around in your head, percolatin' as it were. Apparently, this last 6 months or so has been the time for action, and boy has it ever! So...when not in the "percolating period" I find that I do very little writing - and that's my excuse - for not writing, for lacking wit and insight in this post, etc.

...after 11 years and 146000 mls, I think I'm about to have to say goodbye to my most constant traveling companion - Morgan, my silver Mustang.
Once, in 2005, when we roadtripped from MS-->Chicago-->Milwaukee-->Cleveland-->New York City-->North Carolina-->Nashville and back to MS, I stopped for an oil change in North Carolina. They discovered there that when I'd gotten the last oil change in MISSISSIPPI, the techs had neglected to replace the oil cap. Not only was there no damage - the oil cap was still sitting there under my hood - waiting for someone to notice it.
We've traveled on long, grueling road trips with no stops - 13 hours overnight straight through to NC for a wedding once (and back 2 days later). 20 hours to Denver (although we stopped overnight in MO). I drove that car off the lot in August of 1999. Drove it from Jackson to Vicksburg, then back to Clinton for a movie. I wish I remembered what the movie was.
I got in the most serious trouble I've ever been in in March of 2003 in Oxford MS in that car - had to leave him at a gas station while some other folks gave me a ride.
He's seen me through 2 relationships I thought might be the one...and he drove me out west to home in the arms of the one who is.
He's gotten me to interviews on time, and despite my lack of direction - we always find our way to where we're going.
We've been together for 11 years straight (minus the 9 months I lived in Chicago), and Morgan I don't really know how I'm going to get used to driving another car. It won't ever be the same...I'll probably end up with some 4 door sedan that drives well in the snow. It won't hug corners or accelerate with the strength and pure ambition you've got.
This past weekend he pulled out his most magnificent feat to date. On the way up the mtn in traffic at 6pm on the holiday weekend - Morgan started to overheat. We rushed forward to the closest exit and when we pulled up in Georgetown, he started to steam. But rather than give up - we armed ourselves with gallons of water bottles and started up Berthoud pass... Morgan made it up that mountain and back down again AND got us to the emergency room when there was a slight incident with a knife and an avocado over the weekend.
There's nothing that car can't do. But alas - the owner's manual stops telling you how to take care of your car at 150,000 mile and I can assume that Ford doesn't believe there's any possible way he might last that long. And the last 2 years have been full of numerous repairs and system overhauls...I think it's time to think about moving on. (Everything I've ever let go of has claw marks in it...this will most certainly be the same!)
But here, Morgan in your honor, a list of the trips we've been on (the ones I can remember at least)
- countless trips to St. Louis and back (once with most of the contents of my life as well as two other people packed inside)
- many times from St. Louis to Memphis or Vicksburg to Memphis
- all over Mississippi
- Jackson to the MS and AL gulf coasts
- Jackson MS to Raleigh, NC
- Vicksburg to Chicago
- Chicago to Milwaukee and back
- Chicago to Cleveland OH, by way of the Canadian border where we were unceremoniously denied entry and the contents of Morgan's trunk were mocked (I SAID there were a lot of shoes!)
- Ohio to NYC
- NYC to Chapel Hill, NC
- Chapel Hill to Ashville, NC
- Ashville to Nashville, TN
- Nashville to MS
- Jackson, MS to Denver, CO
- Denver to Santa Fe, NM