Submitted by Niki T...09/30/02

As of this summer, having driven Max's mother's car home from Wichita, we are now a two-person five-car family. However, all are in working, insured condition (though none so pretty as the one you display) and all are used in a given unique situation. Yellow is the scruffy hauling truck, Red is a "lifeboat" at the county property in case of periodic breakdowns, Blue is Max's regular ride, White is my buzz around town, and Black is comfortable for the long haul, such as my recent Grad gift for my niece, a four day camping trip to the Washington coast.

No bitterness here. : )
Niki

Submitted by: Donna G...12/05/02

When my husband and I bought a 1999 Chrysler Cirrus, it was decreed by him that it would not touch a dirt road. Dirt roads were to be avoided at all costs even if it meant not arriving at our destination.

One night I walked to meet him from work, and I took a dirtroad shortcut. I arrived at the store where I knew he would stop about five minutes before he did. One of my friends was there and offered me a beer from her six pack. I was very thirsty from my walk and didn't bring any money so I gratefully accepted the offer. Well my husband showed up and the beer wasn't finished yet so he said he would be right back.

I waited about twenty minutes and then started walking back home. From the store to the house it is a three mile walk if I take the dirt road shortcut and five miles if i take the paved road. The first interstection I wait half an hour just in case he went to my cousin's. When a friend came along, I asked if my husband was at my cousin's and she said no. She lives just across the street from the cousin so she would know. I know he hasn't passed me on the road so I start walking again. It takes an hour and a half to walk home as it is all up hill. Numerous people stop and offer me a ride that I refuse because at any time my husband will be coming and he won't know where I am.

I arrive at the shortcut and no husband in site. I debate taking the shortcut because I know he doesn't want the car on it. But I figure that being a wife, I have priority over the car. I make it four-fifths of the way when I see a truck coming from the other direction that looks like ours. How could it be our truck when my husband hasn't gotten home yet? Sure enough, it is and am I pissed. Turns out he was at my uncle's house (no relation to the cousin, up a very steep hill from the first intersection) and couldn't break free from the conversation. He tried to say it had only been half an hour but when I broke down the math for him, he didn't have a leg to stand on. He knew I was walking on the dirt road when he didn't find me on the longer stretch of highway. So he took the car home and came back in the truck.

I was so mad I wouldn't even get in the truck. He went to turn around and found our neighbors broke down on the road I just hiked on so he gave them a ride home. He came back to see if I had cooled off yet but I was still steaming. He said that he was going to go to the store then to get a submarine sandwich so I decided to get in the truck to get one for myself.

He turns the truck around and heads for home. I asked him what was up. He said if I was coming home, there was no need to go store to get something to eat. Needless to say, I didn't cook him anything when I got home either. I knew he was mad because I had the audacity to have a beer with a friend in public. He knew I was waiting on him to come back and pick me up. It was a very long time before I would even speak to him and it almost got him divorced. Now I take that car on every dirt road I can find just to make up for it.
Donna G

pending...

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