All Cars Go to Heaven

Friday was our last day of school before break. I was looking forward to the day. All I had to do was input a few grades, go to the high school Christmas party, and go home at noon. Since my wife would not need our good car that day, I decided to take it instead of our mortally wounded mini-van. I should have taken it as a divine sign that the driver's side door was frozen shut. Alas, I forced open the passenger side door and pushed open the driver's side door. It was cold. The entire car was covered in a thin layer of ice. I let the car warm up. Just as the first warm drafts of air began wafting into the cabin, the car cut off. It cut off and refused to restart. My gut told me that it was the end. It was the same feeling that I had the other two times that I have had cars give up the ghost under my foot. Actually, on the other two times it was the same car on two separate occasions, but that is another story. I left our good car's carcass there to thaw in the sun and got into the mini-van. It too was covered in a thin layer of ice. I gingerly let it warm up a bit and turned on the wipers to help break up the ice. Half of the wiper is still glued to the windshield, but I made it to work.

With the cloud of an auto-funeral hanging over my head, I tried to enjoy the day and the party. I discovered another of the little known benefits of teaching freshmen: the parents are still in a middle school mindset and are generous with their gifts. One of the nice things that my school does is take up a cash collection and distribute it equitably to all of the teachers. This avoids any problems with favoritism, bribery, or etc. Every year I get an envelope filled with cash. I count on it for Christmas shopping. It is so much better than another "Best Teacher in the World" apple-shaped ornament. I got $175 in cash this year. In addition, individual parents gave me:
$50.00 American Express Gift Cheque
$15.00 Atlanta Bread Company Gift Card (lousy service-good food)
$5.00 Zaxby's Gift Card
$50.00 Publix Gift Card
A ubiquitous tin of shortbread cookies
A ubiquitous bag of chocolate turtles
A box of See's Chocolates (oh man these were good--great; I am glad that it was a small box; best chocolates I have ever had)
A bag of homemade cookies

A grand total of $290 dollars and 7,540 calories! It may not be much in the way of a Christmas bonus by the business world's standards, but it does make one feel appreciated.

Back to the car. The word came Monday that it had indeed expired. We had been counting on that car living a few more years and buying new one to replace the van. My son burst into tears when his mother told him that the "blue car" died. He was desperately worried about his smiley face stickers, "Did my stickers die, too?". The news that we were buying a new silver car only made him more upset, "I don't like silver, I like blue." I am sure that we will be reaping the theological whirlwind of this event in the middle of some night real soon; we just need to let these ideas percolate around in his curious brain for a while.

Today, I bought my first new car. It is a 2006 Toyota Corolla. It had seven miles on it when I signed the papers. It is a beautiful thing. I drove it home and have not driven that carefully since I had bought my children home from the hospital. In fact, the "blue car" was the car in which I drove my children home from the hospital. I will not dwell on that, or I too shall be crying over smiley face stickers. Money will be a bit tight for the next 63 months, and we only have one car. But it is Christmas, my children are thrilled with the holidays, and there is joy in the world (and one more dark chocolate--marshmallow--caramel in my box of See's).


Peace