And Then There's Maude

Those of you who have been reading my blog for a while may remember that I was required by the mortgage company to sell my beloved blue sports car in order to qualify for the loan on this place. If you don't remember this, I urge you to take notes as you read. You never know when there may be a quiz.

Since then, Paul and I have been sharing one car, which is fine because we only have a 1-car garage anyway. Also, we are just a five minute walk from the nearest light rail station for those times when we may not have the car available. This worked out okay for a short time, but I grew tired of carpooling with Paul as his daily start time is 6:30 am. Those of you who know Paul will understand that if his start time is at 6:30, then he wants to arrive by 6:00. I don't know what takes place between 6:00 and 6:30 in that office every morning as none of his other coworkers ever arrived that early. Whatever it is, it is apparently important enough to drag us out of bed every morning at 4:30am .

Last week, I felt I had had enough sleep deprivation and decided to figure this train thing out. It turns out that I can grab a train in the morning at 6:55 and still be to work by 7:30, giving me an extra hour to sleep. Unfortunately a transfer to a bus is required and let's face it - I'm not a bus person. Nevertheless, this past Saturday I bought a monthly transit pass to save a few bucks on my daily commute. I had resigned myself to riding the bus and was even thinking of wearing Walmart bags for shoes like some of the other passengers I have seen at bus stops.

On Sunday, we were invited to take a drive up to Idaho Springs, a quaint mountain town, to have breakfast with my father and his wife. The plan was that we would all ride together in their car which is a comfortable Lexus SUV. Instead, they showed up in their 1998 Mercedes E320, a car they purchased new and have babied ever since. We thought it was odd that they brought the Mercedes, but they don't drive it much these days and we just thought they wanted to stretch its legs and let it breathe as it spends most of its time all cooped up in their garage.

Even stranger was the fact that they were insistent that we do the driving. We tried to talk them into taking our SUV as there is plenty of room for all, but they were oddly insistent so we gave in, piled into the Mercedes and headed for the mountains.

When we arrived at our favorite restaurant, I tried to return the keys to my father so he could drive for the rest of the day, but he refused to take the key. Instead he said something to the effect of, "Keep the key. It's your car now." My jaw dropped and we tried to refuse, but they kept insisting that they no longer had any use for the car since, unbeknownst to us, they had decided to buy a gorgeus new sedan the day before we all got together. Eventually, we gave in and accepted the car.

By today, we finally got used to the fact that the Mercedes was ours. The car has a button for everything - even lowering the rear head rests. I drove the car to work today trying to get used to all those buttons embossed with their puzzling German symbols. She's not nimble and she isn't young, but she is a fierce German frauline for sure. Paul has decided that the car's name is Maude; a German name meaning "strong in battle". Maude told me on the way home today that she has always wanted to go to Las Vegas. "We'll see Maude, we'll see. Now put your rear headrests down."