Learning to Drive: Lesson: Regular Maintenance/Check your Blinker Fluid







3/13/18

I know, I know; there's no such thing as blinker fluid.  It was a joke running through my mind as I took my car in for it's maintenance.  This is something I have rarely done over the years, and was often terrified of the questions posed to me by intimidating and, to my way of thinking, patronizing men.  (I realize this was a projection of my fearful ignorance upon these perfectly polite mechanics.) "Do you know how filthy your cabin filter is?" I would find myself apologizing for the state of my cabin filter,,something I wouldn't recognize to this day; even if you threw the filthy thing at my head. I felt like a walking posterboard announcing, "Go ahead and take advantage of me. Offer me the premium blinker fluid."

But I digress. I did take the car in.  My cabin filter passed with flying colors, praise be.  I got the car ready for a road trip.  Not just any road trip.  NEW ORLEANS. That's right, my sister and I took off for a few days of laughter, eating, strolling, drinking..all the joyful debauchery of that crazy and lovely city.  Driving southeast to the Big Easy, my worries, concerns, stress, just fell away.  We ate a lot. We drank enough. We walked. We brunched at The Court of Two Sisters, (obvious, I know) We rode a streetcar. We took Lyft. (We even have an unbelievably hysterical survival story involving us, Pat O'Brien's hurricanes, mulitiple crossings of Canal St, and a driver named Jimi.) It was for me, (and Karel) refreshing, renewing.  Maintenance.  The same thing we must do for our cars in order to keep them rolling and reliable through the years.


We had such a wonderful time that we stretched our final day as long as we could.  Staying so long that we returned home driving early in the morning, fueled on gas station coffee and sunflower seeds. Just like college.  But older. And more tired. (And, ok, nothing like college, but it was still fun, dammit.) It was glorious. It took me two days to wake up, but still, glorious. After I had dropped my sis in San Antonio and began the final four hour northbound drive home, those pesky worries: money, work, money, apartment, money, love, money, happiness, money....snuck back into the car. But I made them sit in the back seat.  The front seat was for me, my extra large Buc-ees coffee (Sorry Heidi.), my bugles (Eyes on you Melanie.), and my smiling, laughing wonderful new memories. A sister's getaway.  I can't wait for the next one.


Yesterday, to combat those freeloading worries, I balanced the books and I took the plunge. I put the down payment on my certification class for yoga.  I began a massive cleanse of things I plan to take with me when I move, verses things I plan to sell or give away.  I began an earnest look at apartments. I'm driving smoothly...I even think my cabin filter is in great shape... whatever that is. 😏

This is one of several "maintenance" trips that I have planned and I promise to regularly plan.  It might be a long walk through my beloved River Legacy; like the one I took this morning as I chased signs of spring,,and cardinals. It might be meeting a friend for a meal or drink and a long wonderful chat.  It might be a roadtrip to Snow's BBQ with great friends and a cooler of beer. It might be a long drive to the town of my alma mater, Fort Collins.  I vow to keep a regular maintenance schedule.  It is my promise to my new self in my new life.  I used to say I wanted to be "running when the sand ran out".  Now I see that the word "running" has more than one meaning.  Eureka.💙

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