Once I figure out what I'm doing with my life, I will have my new website done. See, we tried to hire this graphic designer to make some logos for me, for business cards and the website and never heard a peep back. That's what you get for reaching out within the Surfing Dude world, I guess. Well not really, another more reliable surfing dude will probably do this. I'm also still conceptualizing things a bit more, while also moving, job searching and wedding planning. It is kind of a lot all at once and in the meantime, my cats are being boarded so I spent entirely too much energy feeling lost and confused and thinking my flip flops sitting in a corner are actually Cuphead (they're not).
So rather than boring you with details of how I'm going to unravel the current jumble that is My Life, I would instead like to turn my attention to My Car.
My car is a 1994 Honda Civic, a little white 2 door with fancy features like automatic windows and a moonroof (the electronics on those features stopped working years ago). I bought Shadowfax in 2004 from a place in Boise called Fairly Reliable Bob's (for real, and I actually really like that place). The car felt really fancy and clean to me, zipping along and all fancy with its Cupholders (love those things, but yeah now those are broken too. Yes they can break). I had been driving the O'Laughlin Family's old red Jeep Cherokee which had a lot of problems and terrible gas mileage, and some bewildering mechanical defect which caused its engine to quiver at random times (my dad called this "The Quirkiness" which I still think should be the title of a horror film). I didn't like that car, and felt somewhat traumatized by city driving after my 2 year stint in rural Africa, so I affectionately named the Jeep 'Sauron' because of its evil red color. So, once I traded in Sauron for the clean white civic, I named the new car Shadowfax, after Gandalf's nice white horse.


See the resemblance?
Shadowfax and I have done a lot together. We drove all the way to Alabama and then two years later, we drove all the way back to the Northwest. And let's not forget all the time that we spent driving around on those terrifying southern freeways, where everyone drives trucks so large that you can't even SEE Shadowfax. I'd honk the horn to alert people to my presence right before they crashed into my life, but the car's beep is more of a MEEP, kind of a Muppet sound if you will, not startling at all as car horns probably should be right before some Chevy truck crushes you.
Shadowfax and I then learned how to get around Seattle, one of the most confusing cities to drive in. We've done pretty well with that, regularly pulling over to study the city map and figuring "well, we'll get there eventually". Shadowfax and I learned to navigate the parking space in the basement of the first apartment I lived in here, where there was barely space to pull in and one time we scraped the side of the large cement post and scratched the side of the car. I was scared for Shadowfax when I learned the junkie across the hall jumped off the balcony over the parking garage, scared he landed on the little civic, but he landed right on the pavement and broke his legs. That is a story in itself.
Shadowfax has had his clutch replaced, as well as many other more minor operations. We've taken cats to the vet, moved items around from one apartment to the next and driven countless times to visit the parents in North Idaho. Shadowfax's air conditioning gave up 2 years ago and I just haven't felt like paying the money to fix it. So, lately we've been driving around very sweaty and alarmed, except on days like today when I let the civic rest in the shade and take Q's pristine Xterra to work.
I went away to Boise for Thanksgiving last fall and returned to a gutted and still Shadowfax. Someone had broken into the car, stealing the stereo and as I learned later, also taking the car computer. I didn't know cars HAD a computer, but quickly learned it is quite an important part as it helps all the parts of the car work together, it is kind of like the car's brain. The Honda dealer told me it'd cost close to 1,000 bucks to replace, so I quickly went on Craigslist to find such a part. I found a guy with some crashed Civic in his front yard in one of the northern Seattle 'burbs, and Q insisted on picking up the part lest I be creeped out or ripped off in the process of getting a new Car Computer (it is true, I really have no idea what that looks like). I paid 50 bucks for the nice mechanics to replace it, they told me I was smart and lucky and Shadowfax and I have been putzing along ever since.
Seattle is a big city where violent crime occurs, but not nearly as often as some other big cities. What does happen a lot here is car theft and break-ins. I've heard numerous times that the most frequently broken-into car is the Honda Civic or the Toyota Camry, since they are all over and easy to break into. Some people, like the tools who took Shadowfax's brain, like to steal parts of make racing cars like they are in some stupid action movie starring Vin Diesel.
Well shortly before my trip to Boise this last week, I ran out to my car to make sure the face was off the nice replacement stereo Q gave me for my birthday (because I hate driving without my radio!). I found my car broken into, trunk open and everything. But nothing was gone, not even the stereo. All the person did was make a big mess, throwing around all the mechanic's receipts in the glove compartment, the bag of yoga clothes in the backsteat and the Random Crap in the trunk (out of sight, out of mind!). The car still started and has been running fine. We figured some of the weird, twitchy explosively cussing men who've been seen wandering the streets of Wallingford lately broke in looking for money and then quickly moved on. Again, Shadowfax is easy to break into.
So while I love this car, it may be time to move on and I'm starting to think of possible getting a new (well, new-to-me) car or, if I just end up teaching yoga all over the Seattle area, just riding my bike around. It would be nice to have somethign with an alarm, windows that roll down, and maybe, maybe! even a working A/C. But that may be hoping for too much!