I was going to post about something else

Originally I was going to blog about the person who caused a five car accident and made me late to work yesterday but then I decided that since I'd just posted about San Antonio traffic maybe I should write about something different.

However I do want to stick with the automobile theme.

I was a very lucky teenager. Nine months after my 16th birthday my parents surprised me with a car. I actually remember the date because it was the day of the Columbine shootings. The shootings, obviously, made me quite sad but as it turns out it was nothing a car couldn't fix. It was a silver Honda Civic, about two years old. I loved that car. I still love that car. In fact, I still have that car although now it's my husband's car. In April, after driving the Honda for EIGHT years we decided that maybe it was time for an upgrade. Actually, to be specific Kent got a motorcycle and I thought that was only fair if I got a new car.

So after much, much, much research and many hours spent looking online at different options I decided I wanted a Mini Cooper. Actually I knew I wanted that all along but I wanted to make sure I didn't want something else more. I actually did want something else more, namely a Mercedes-Benz but, well, I haven't won the lottery yet. Anyway. The was only one teeny, tiny problem with the Mini. That was the teeny, tiny backseat and the two doors. I planned on having this car many, many years and it was not condusive to the babies we plan on putting in the back seat someday (properly restrained, of course). If we were going to spend our hard-earned dollars on a vehicle, we needed something that would meet our long-term needs.

This led us to either an Audi or a Volvo. We ended up with the Audi because frankly it was a cooler looking car and had a turbo. When we bought the car everyone warned us that the upkeep would be expensive. Now as I stated above I drove a Honda. Hondas are not expensive to upkeep. Plus you can do the important things yourself, like change a headlight and install new wiper blades. When people said "expensive" I figured they meant things I would never do, like, replace an engine or something. You can only imagine my surprise when I found out that you have to TAKE THE AUDI TO THE DEALERSHIP FOR WIPER BLADE REPLACEMENT. I wasn't even surprised that you had to take it in for headlight replacement after that. It couldn't get worse.

Of course life has a way of making you eat your words.

Driving into work on Wednesday my car starting making an alarming beeping noise. Apparently my oil pressure was low. What does that mean? Well gentle readers, either my oil is low or my engine is going to explode. I was hopeful I could add a quart of oil and life would be sunny again. I am no car expert but I am quite familiar with checking oil levels. I knew I was in over my head when I couldn't actually tell what the oil level was at. I figured I just add a quart of oil anyway and cross my fingers. But apparently my stupid car requires some stupid fancy oil that you can't buy at the gas station. Or the auto parts store. OF COURSE you have to buy it...where else? THE DEALERSHIP.

There is no happy ending to this story. Not even with the backseat. As it turns out, if you are more than five feet tall you have to push your seat back so far that you mush the legs of anyone sitting behind you. Sometimes cars, like blogs, have unsatisfying endings.