For Whom the Horn Honked

(For the title reference, search "For Whom the Bell Tolled" by John Donne.)

BERNICE the Sentra...may her memory ever be blessed...is dead.

IT happened that gloriously bright and warm afternoon of 2 September 2011.

I got off work, came home, and helped Sereen load Bernice for our trip to Reno for Loni Boyd Hall's wedding and for a visit to Sereen's extended family in California. We had spent a considerable amount of money in repairs to bring the car up to scratch. Sereen drove first, because I did not want her driving across the west desert as the sun set in our eyes.

WE had traveled not but a quarter mile, according to the American Standard of reckoning, before a seventeen-year-old juvenile in his mother's vehicle laden with like-minded and aged youth chose the most inopportune moment to exit the parking lot right in our destined path.

AND destiny was not to be robbed that day, I discovered, as rocket fuel (true story) propelled those life-preserving bags of air into our faces and filled the car with the most odious and noxious fumes.

IN a terror-stricken moment where methought my wife injured and our unborn man cub irreparably harmed, I leap'd from our slain vehicle, (seriously now) and pulled Sereen from the car to make sure she was OK. As soon as I got her out of the car, she calmed down. The rocket fuel that they put in the air bags (it makes them deploy faster) left her with a few minor burns and bruises, but she--and the baby--are fine.

BEHOLD--pictures:

KIND of disappointing, eh? I was expecting something a little more epic, too, but my back and neck and Sereen's neck still took quite the hit. Oh well. At least the chiropractor's bill is on the kid's insurance. Rock on.

OWING to the loss of such a fine and faithful steed, we found it requisite to acquire a new (pain in the) asset. (I hate dealing with car repairs...)

WIFE and I found a vehicle much misunderstood by others--though the paint job is uneven (you won't be able to see it in the pictures), the interior (quite frankly) jacked up, the interior bearing a most funky smell, and the windshield cracked, it bears a fine engine with many horses beneath the hood.

BEHOLD--Dash the Mirage:

And since we bought this car for half of what the insurance company is paying us for the other car, we have many repairs to make (windshield, tires, brakes), and I am happy to make them. :)