Personality Quirks

My husband has this 'thing'... A personality quirk, a habit, an annoyance... I'm not sure how to describe this 'thing'.

He will not buy a new or almost new car. No way, no how.

He got sucked into spending a ridiculous amount of money on a car back before he knew me, back when he was making ridiculously good money as a machinist. He spent and spent and spent on that car, and then changed jobs and was stuck with it for a very long time.

Consequently, WE will probably never purchase a car from a dealership.

In the 11 years we've been married we've had 10 or 11 cars. When the old car dies, Jake finds a car in the newspaper and we go track it down. The one we've got right now was purchased in a restaurant parking lot...

And it's dying. Like all of them. Each car has lasted a year, maybe two. Then we have to figure out some way of unloading it and getting into another half-dead car. And we don't know a Miracle Max...

He's owned ridiculous cars up here. A Dodge Omni with half a seat in the back (We have 2 children). A cadillac so old my mom might have been born in it. Cars that guaranteed there was no way I could drive around Fairbanks in the winter without a cell phone, just in case I have to call for somebody to come rescue me.

Don't get me wrong. I become kind of fond of each them. In a derogatory sort of way. I found myself rubbing the dash board of our current junker this week and whispering, "Come on, old girl, you can do it!" as we tried to merge with the traffic on the Expressway...

I love my Jake, but I wish he'd figure out a different method of dealing with transportation...