Clunker Cash

My husband is a skeptical cynic. I know that's redundant, but that's how bad he is. Not one to trust 'a deal'. 'No free lunch', he'll say if I tell him about one. He is annoyed with marketers that push Valentine's Day and Mother's Day on him. Skeptic Supreme.

Imagine my surprise when he calls me in Vivieland, to tell me that he is going to take advantage of the government's Cash for Clunkers program. I had to believe that he turned under every rock and probably read the 135 page rule book that accompanied the process. Who was I to impede the progress? If it passed HIS test, then what a deal it must be.

In my absence, he picked out our first brand new car. I believe I was still in shock, never thinking in a million years that he would go out on a financial limb to purchase a new car.

Now the Clunker.

Our (notso) faithful work horse, a 1991 Ford Ranger has served us well these past 10 years. It has moved our two youngest to college,and our Eldest Daughter to the Big City of Indianapolis. When our son used it, who knows where it took him. (There are stories of summer rides in the country with all his friends in the back, scaring the Amish and being scared by them as well....Better to not know everything......) Auctions, estate and garage sales, we hit them all with our ol' white truck. Recently, a deer hit my son on one of his country rides and even then, my husband was able to bandage it enough to carry on a bit longer....

It was with mixed feelings that we turned it over. We kept our eyes on the thermostat. It tends to overheat. We turned around a lot. It has no rear view mirrors. The outer one that survived, was taken out by the deer. When we reached the last stoplight before the new car dealership, a considerate citizen next to us at the light, informed us that we had no left brake light. We wanted to tell him that it also had no left turn signals either, but the light changed, we thanked him and then laughed hysterically as we drove off to our sweet little Clunkers last parking date.

We learned all about our new car's bells and whistles. We learned about the air bags, the Sirius radio, the lined trunk. We turned over our Clunker's license plates and signed final papers. We inspected the new car with a grin on our face that said, 'Inspect what? Did you not see what we drove in her with?? ANYthing would be better!!'

And so it was the Skeptic Supreme and his wife joined the ranks of the other 360,000 Cash for Clunkers program, rid ourselves of our gas guzzling work horse for the likes of an American made Korean car. We followed our president's suggestion to get a little greener and really did well in the deal too.

A great way to go out, Faithful Work Horse; you scored us $4,650 toward our warranty packed retirement car and gave us years of memories as well.....

Onward to make new memories.....