'Lo Flo

Praise God and pass the waffles. My car is back from the shop with a new clutch pedal assembly installed, new coil springs for the struts, a misaligned rear drivers side door, and a fresh coat of 'tude. Flo Focus is back in action, boppin' along to the barrio beat. My roommate will kill me for saying this (he ditched his car... or rather his car ditched him and he opted not to get a new one for various political and environmental reasons) but you never realize how much you miss your car until you go without. Granted, I wasn't without A car. I was without MY car. There's still a sizable difference.

For many people, their vehicle acts as an extension of themselves. At least, I guess it does. I mean, it sort of makes sense, don't it? We buy them with exactly the specs we like and then customize them just so by adding new radios and kick ass tires and blah, blah, blah. We hang fuzzy dice from the windshield and throw St. Christopher on the dashboard (if I were him, I'd be pissed. Think of all the exhaust and A/C fumes old St. C must inhale.) Then, we go and deface them further with bumper stickers that express our deepest thoughts and profanities. Last but not least, we name our beloved vehicles.

As you no doubt know from my mention in numerous other posts (including the above linked one) my car is named 'Flo.' Old woman in a diners name, I know, but I find it apropos. The rental car I received, also a Focus, was unlucky enough to earn the name 'Foul.' No, I technically had no business naming the thing as it was just a rental, but the stale cigarette reek and the layer of dirt covering the exterior made it special. Plus you can't compare to an original. Maybe I should have named it 'Fake,' but really, that's just not nice. That would be like naming your first child 'Desmond' and your second child 'Not as good as Desmond.' Or something like that....

So yeah, after a considerable ransom payout, Flo is back in my life again and I couldn't be happier. Well, yeah I could, but my level of joy has been raised considerably. When I'm around her, I just wanna skip... er, drive. Just hook up the iPod and wander aimlessly... which is what I'm going to do now. Latah peeps.

P.S. Oh, and just so you don't think I would write about something so mundane as getting my car back from the shop (I can see Andrew now. He's saying to himself, "Is that it? Does that count as a blog post?") without leaving something actually interesting for you... well, here's another reason to celebrate. Hapland 3 is out. Have fun!

P.P.S. Yeah I solved it - but with help. Spoilers are out there, but I'll be damned if I'm going to post one today. Maybe later in the week. Don't give up so easily, people!