ex-Autos

As I'm riding the train into work with the licence plates of our former Acura in my bag, it it sort of feels like carrying remains around - it's all that's left of this thing that carried my family around for four years (except paperwork of course).

It didn't die on us, thankfully, but still we had to get rid of it. it no longer worked for us, as our family of four grew to five (plus a dog, two cats and a frog) we were just too tightly packed.

This was my wife's car, so I didn't have the same emotional attachment to it, but i do understand that attachment and the pain of that loss. It's not like the loss of a pet, but it is definitely greater than most inanimate objects because you've done things in them, gone places with them and they are part of a shared memory more than say a watch.

I was a late bloomer to driving and owning cars, so ending that relationship is a fairly new experience for me. In fact the first car that I really owned and used on a daily basis, died as a result of me flipping and rolling it on the Hutchinson River Parkway in Westchester County, NY. That was a fairly emotional departure, but the car after that really surprised me. I had owned it for a year and it had become the third (and unnecessary) car. I gave it to charity and was totally shocked when I misted up watching it get towed away off to become "parts."

That car became unnecessary because we bought the Acura that has now been replaced by a minivan, which will someday become unnecessary or will just no longer work for us or will just no longer work.