Epitaph for Aurora Dawntreader...
Jan. 7th, 2004 11:38 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
klsiegel320So, perhaps a more extended catching-up is in order, since the last time I wrote was before Christmas, and involved mostly the harrowing experience of trying to be in two places at once.
I finally made it home for Christmas week on the 21st, as originally planned. On Monday, the 22nd, I went out to the UPS Store to fax some documents related to the corporate apartment here in Jacksonville, and the driver of a big honkin' SUV backed into the left rear corner of my little gold Honda and took out the whole light panel on the back of the car; wrinkled the quarter panel almost up to the filler port; bent part of the rear under the trunk lid. The bumper was, of course, intact, since he came in above it. And he did not leave me his name, number, insurance information - nothin'.
The good news is that this meant I simply reported the hit-and-run to Prudential, and since it's not my fault, they're not going to raise my rates.
The bad news is that this totalled the car, since it was fourteen years old with 205,930 miles (or so) on it.
Of course, the good news about the bad news is that if it had to happen, this was the time of year for it.
So I'm now driving a white 03 Honda Accord, that arrived with 27 miles on it...it isn't Aurora, but it's a good car, and I'm already getting to know it a little and like it a lot. Haven't gotten to drive it much, of course - we picked it up on Saturday the 27th, and on Sunday the 28th I had to go back to Atlanta.
It was very hard walking away from that car, though - especially since in all likelihood they'll scrap it, even though mostly it's in good condition except for the severely broken back corner. It wasn't quite as bad as having my first cat put down, but there were certain similarities.
Yes, I know - it's a machine, a thing, not a creature. It has no soul, no personality, no thoughts or feelings; it is therefore disposable when used up.
But my daddy gave me that car. That car represented - to me and I think to him - his pride in my accomplishments as a student (it was essentially a graduation present). It certainly represented a certain new freedom to me - from other people's schedules, from interimable bus rides back and forth to Potsdam, from being confined in one (very boring) place with no escape.
It carried me back and forth to college that fall; it carried me through miserable weather in Rochester without fail that winter; it carried us out to Michigan to visit Bass Lake, and up through the mountains to visit our families. It carried me to the monastery that has become so much a part of my life, through all weathers and all times of day and night. There's a lot of history and a lot of fellowship that has happened in that car.
In one of Mercedes Lackey's series, there are motor vehicles that are shapeshifted elven horses in disguise. I rather liked that idea, when I came across it.
And cars do have personality, of a mechanical sort, elven steeds in disguise or not. They are reliable or not, finicky or not; nimble handling or lumbering.
So is it any wonder that I think of it as a faithful steed, rather like a knight's charger or a cowboy's favorite quarter horse? That really is how I've always thought of her - as a tall golden bay mare, sturdy and nimble, able to bear the heaviest loads with ease, able to race the wind when need demands. I admit, it's a bit incongruous, because the image I always had in mind when setting out - on the way to the monastery, say, with a suitcase and my knitting and all - was of tightening the girth and the straps on the saddlebags, and mounting up for a good gallop, when of course no horse could carry a load like that and make any speed. Still...it's the thought that counts, I think.
And now she's gone. In her place, a snowy white creature, with a beige interior - so basically white. I see her (I think it's a her, although I'm not sure I've driven it enough yet to be certain) as white shading to golden dun on the lower legs; maybe with a golden mane and tail; definitely Aurora's offspring, in a sort of way. She doesn't yet have a name; I'd been considering Snowmane until I reread his epitaph. You'll recall that Snowmane's epitaph was "Faithful servant, but master's bane; Lightfoot's foal, swift Snowmane." And Snowmane was, of course, Theoden's faithful war horse, that died of the wound dealt by the Nazgul's flying steed and in dying crushed Theoden to death. So perhaps not the most auspicious name for the new car...
Other things have been revolving in my mind...Snowswift, maybe; Moonswift; Moonshadow or Shadowswift, although being white I'm not sure "shadow" is really appropriate. I think perhaps I have to drive her a while more, get to know her and her moods, what she's like on a long run, what she's like in tight traffic or difficult corners. Perhaps she can't simply "be named;" perhaps she has to earn her name, along with a place in my heart beside her predecessor.
I finally made it home for Christmas week on the 21st, as originally planned. On Monday, the 22nd, I went out to the UPS Store to fax some documents related to the corporate apartment here in Jacksonville, and the driver of a big honkin' SUV backed into the left rear corner of my little gold Honda and took out the whole light panel on the back of the car; wrinkled the quarter panel almost up to the filler port; bent part of the rear under the trunk lid. The bumper was, of course, intact, since he came in above it. And he did not leave me his name, number, insurance information - nothin'.
The good news is that this meant I simply reported the hit-and-run to Prudential, and since it's not my fault, they're not going to raise my rates.
The bad news is that this totalled the car, since it was fourteen years old with 205,930 miles (or so) on it.
Of course, the good news about the bad news is that if it had to happen, this was the time of year for it.
So I'm now driving a white 03 Honda Accord, that arrived with 27 miles on it...it isn't Aurora, but it's a good car, and I'm already getting to know it a little and like it a lot. Haven't gotten to drive it much, of course - we picked it up on Saturday the 27th, and on Sunday the 28th I had to go back to Atlanta.
It was very hard walking away from that car, though - especially since in all likelihood they'll scrap it, even though mostly it's in good condition except for the severely broken back corner. It wasn't quite as bad as having my first cat put down, but there were certain similarities.
Yes, I know - it's a machine, a thing, not a creature. It has no soul, no personality, no thoughts or feelings; it is therefore disposable when used up.
But my daddy gave me that car. That car represented - to me and I think to him - his pride in my accomplishments as a student (it was essentially a graduation present). It certainly represented a certain new freedom to me - from other people's schedules, from interimable bus rides back and forth to Potsdam, from being confined in one (very boring) place with no escape.
It carried me back and forth to college that fall; it carried me through miserable weather in Rochester without fail that winter; it carried us out to Michigan to visit Bass Lake, and up through the mountains to visit our families. It carried me to the monastery that has become so much a part of my life, through all weathers and all times of day and night. There's a lot of history and a lot of fellowship that has happened in that car.
In one of Mercedes Lackey's series, there are motor vehicles that are shapeshifted elven horses in disguise. I rather liked that idea, when I came across it.
And cars do have personality, of a mechanical sort, elven steeds in disguise or not. They are reliable or not, finicky or not; nimble handling or lumbering.
So is it any wonder that I think of it as a faithful steed, rather like a knight's charger or a cowboy's favorite quarter horse? That really is how I've always thought of her - as a tall golden bay mare, sturdy and nimble, able to bear the heaviest loads with ease, able to race the wind when need demands. I admit, it's a bit incongruous, because the image I always had in mind when setting out - on the way to the monastery, say, with a suitcase and my knitting and all - was of tightening the girth and the straps on the saddlebags, and mounting up for a good gallop, when of course no horse could carry a load like that and make any speed. Still...it's the thought that counts, I think.
And now she's gone. In her place, a snowy white creature, with a beige interior - so basically white. I see her (I think it's a her, although I'm not sure I've driven it enough yet to be certain) as white shading to golden dun on the lower legs; maybe with a golden mane and tail; definitely Aurora's offspring, in a sort of way. She doesn't yet have a name; I'd been considering Snowmane until I reread his epitaph. You'll recall that Snowmane's epitaph was "Faithful servant, but master's bane; Lightfoot's foal, swift Snowmane." And Snowmane was, of course, Theoden's faithful war horse, that died of the wound dealt by the Nazgul's flying steed and in dying crushed Theoden to death. So perhaps not the most auspicious name for the new car...
Other things have been revolving in my mind...Snowswift, maybe; Moonswift; Moonshadow or Shadowswift, although being white I'm not sure "shadow" is really appropriate. I think perhaps I have to drive her a while more, get to know her and her moods, what she's like on a long run, what she's like in tight traffic or difficult corners. Perhaps she can't simply "be named;" perhaps she has to earn her name, along with a place in my heart beside her predecessor.
