Suburban Perversions

I've just fulfilled a long-time dream, and hooked up with a 17-year-old. I think I may be in love. She's beautiful. I wonder what I shall call her?

She's a 17-year-old Volvo 240 DL, and yes, we're back to being a two-car family. A two-Volvo family, forsooth. Suburban perversion, indeed. But with Hal going on graveyard shift soon, and all the general errandy stuff that we need to do relating to the house, it turns out that getting by on one car is a bit tricky.

And besides, I'd never actually taken out an auto loan solely in my name before. In fact, I was thinking about it, and this may actually be the first time I've bought a car entirely on my own, start to finish, without partner participation in the process. How weird is that? I might become a grownup yet.

And there's something marvelously bourgeois about the Mercedes-esque lines of the late-vintage 240 sedans. It makes me feel positively extravagant. Heck, the car has power windows. I've never had that before. (And in fact, I suspect I may live to regret that part -- I'm not big on gimicky electrical bits that can break.)

I do repine a little, not having bought a car that had the leather upholstery, but then how could anyone tell it was my car if it wasn't covered in dog hair?