Of course, we got a bit disillusioned with each other after the first eager runs around town.

There my first mistake in traffic and I accidentally scraped his bumper down to the metal against a hydrant I hadn’t seen, and he wouldn’t open the driver door on the first try for a week.

Then I let the interior go for a bit, letting the dust settle into the dashboard and all my school stuff got dumped and left in the back at night. He didn’t seem to go as smoothly from the stops or stop as attentively at the lights.

I’d complain about him to my friends, about the maintenance and the work and how much gas cost.

But when Linda asked if I was going to trade him in, I thought about it and stopped complaining quite so much.

Someone keyed his door one night, and I just knelt down and cried. And then spent hours sanding, priming, filling, and then repainting the damage. He seemed to purr the next time we went out together.

We’ll do fine in the long run. I guess I just needed a reminder of what’s important.