My Baby is Gone!

No, not my human ones. My first real car was taken away this morning to be donated to the Purple Heart Car Donation program. We had been thinking about going down to one car for a while to see how we could manage, and when we looked at the monetary resale value of a 1994 Saturn SC2 with windows that would not roll down and an engine that overheats if you don't run the AC, donating it started to look real good. The tax benefit will be nice since we don't have a house payment to our advantage right now.

Anyway, I never thought about how hard it would be to say goodbye to a car. Granted, I have had this car for 14 years, but still. It's a car. A car that carried me safely across the country on two solo trips and me and C back and forth from FL to NY, FL to AL, NY to VA, and NV to CA. A car that, despite the little issues mentioned above, never broke down or even had a flat tire in 14 years. And it was not only my car, as C began driving it as his primary vehicle back around 2000. He was the one to get up early this morning to meet the donation people. He was the one to do the hard job of letting her go. And you did not hear it from me, but I think some tears were shed. It's silly, but true. We loved that hunk of steel and glass and plum polymer side panels.

Here she is in all her shiny new car glory back in 1994:

Goodbye sweet Saturn. We will miss you. We trust that what value you have left will benefit some hurting veterans and that your absence will help us to live more simply that others may live.