![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.ancientrails.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/red-car-may-2012-1000.jpg\" "\\"red")
<\/a>Things of metal and gears. \u00a0Engines and oil. \u00a0Brake cylinders and transmissions. \u00a0These are not mortal things. \u00a0They are inanimate. \u00a0Without feeling or care. \u00a0Whether they are here or there does not matter to them.<\/p>\nSo we say.<\/p>\n
And yet. \u00a0I just watched the tow trucker driver hook up my 1994 Celica, red and still shiny, a car the like of which I’ll never own again. \u00a0He has taken the red car, as I always called it, away.<\/p>\n
A rational decision. \u00a0273,000 miles, not quite to 300,000 which I wanted, irrationally, to reach. \u00a0We can’t afford two cars anymore. \u00a0And it had begun to do this and that. \u00a0Though it always had, some. \u00a0But now, we didn’t need it.<\/p>\n
The boy is gone. \u00a0Once in junior high and high school the boy and I rode in that car ten times a week, back and forth to St. Paul, every two weeks. \u00a0It carried us and kept us warm, safe.<\/p>\n
He’s been gone, of course, for years. \u00a0He went off to college in 2000 and at that time the red car was 6 years old. \u00a0I drove it to the Sierra Club, to the Woollies, to the MIA. \u00a0I drove it to Denver and down to Florida to see the boy after he went off to the Air Force.<\/p>\n
There did come a time, five years ago or so, when I no longer trusted it for long trips. \u00a0So those ceased. \u00a0Then, its winter performance began to lag, the engine knocking sometimes, sometimes tires blowing out. \u00a0So I drove it less and less in the winter. \u00a0It could no longer climb the driveway in icy weather. \u00a0Much like me.<\/p>\n
It had become old. \u00a0Not feeble, never feeble. \u00a0It could still take the big curve off 35 at 70 And now it’s gone.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Beltane \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Garlic Moon …To live in this world you must be able to do three things: to love what is mortal; to hold it against your bones … Continue reading To Live In This World<\/span> <\/a>mph, laying flat in the lane, as if on a city street. \u00a0Its engine always had plenty for passing, for getting in and out of traffic. \u00a0But it wasn’t the car it used to be.<\/p>\n