I LOVE MY CAR.

I drive a Honda CRX-Si. It's an awesome, peppy little thing that looks kinda like a space pod and has custom rims (put on it by the previous owner) and a sun roof and a fucked up paint job and a loud cassette stereo system. I am SOOOOOO with it.

It's also got less than a year to live.

When I bought the car in 1994, I knew it had been in a wreck before it came to me. I later came to learn it had been totaled before it came to me. I guess that shortened it's life by quite a few years. Hell, I still get great gas mileage, but it's burning up oil like college students smoke pot at a Radiohead show.

My car has been looking kinda skanky for a couple years now, which is nice because then nobody wants to break into it. Nobody wants to valet it either. About a year ago, the front bumper started to fall off, so I strung it up with a giant rubber band until I could take it in to my friend's body shop. He put a big screw on either side and we called it Frankenhonda. Recently the cover of the left turn signal fell out, and the whole electrical works would come sliding out, hanging there like a dislocated eyeball. Sexy!

On my drive back from the Bay Area this past week (a wonderful trip I'll have to write about later), I stopped about a hundred miles from home to gas up. The guy in front of me kept looking at my car funny. Finally he said, "Um, your car..." "Oh, "I said, "Is that thing hanging out again?" "Yes, " he nodded. So I went to shove the light fixture back in and saw that it wasn't hanging out... Upon closer inspection, I noticed that the entire underside of my car was hanging on the ground. Not the actual pieces, but the huge piece of plastic that covers the pieces. I shoved it back onto something, hoped it would stick the last 100 miles (and did I mention I drive 90 on this particular route?) and jumped back on Interstate 5.

Well, it didn't, but it didn't completely disengage either. I dragged the thing in to the mechanic this morning, heads turning all the way because my car sounded like the roar of the ocean during a storm due to that wedge of plastic dragging on the asphalt. I pulled in and the guys waved at me. That's when I knew: it's time to get a new car.

Considering I have no money to do such a thing at this point, I'll just hobble around town in what I've got. It's good as long as I don't go long distances. I don't know what qualifies as long distances yet, but hopefully it's at least 30 miles or so. I don't go much further than that these days anyhow. And maybe when I get a new car, I'll get one of them hybrid things. The Honda Insight, I'm thinking, since they're back on the market. As soon as they make them with a sunroof, I'm there.