That's tough but maybe next time, whenever that is, you can get one with better gas milage. That's what happened to us, went from an almost huge Chevy station wagon to an almost tiny Dodge. It didn't last as long as Dodges were suppose to back then.

(But then I have the worry of what brand and make and model to buy---they don't make Chevy Cavaliers anymore, and the replacement model wasn't quite right even before GM became Government motors.)

((Of course, I've got other things to spend on. I've got to pay my Christmas bills, pay my local property taxes, and sometime before spring get a new lawnmower...if the rumored new John Deere place opens up closer by than the old John Deere place.))

*****

However, I have had old cars that have self-destructed and weren't worth fixing. Helps if you have time for research.

I will say that after my most recent repair, which was just a few days ago, I asked my mechanic what the best cars are today. Mind you, I've known him since I was ten and he's a very honest guy who has kept all of my old cars running. And he said that 'Honda and Toyota were still the best, but the American cars were catching up. But no matter how sweet it looks, he wouldn't touch a Dodge with a ten foot pole.'

Oh and by the way, to those who celebrate, Bingle Jells and Cherry Mistmas!!

Gas mileage is an important factor...but so is the head room and having a pretty good radio / media player. I look forward to having something to connect an iPod to in my next car.

Head room? Well, after an accident that totaled one car, there was a big outward dent in the roof precisely where my head would have made one if it had gone up and hit the roof---but I wasn't injured, didn't black out, and don't remember actually banging my head.

*****

especially if the car tells you its name.

But I have thought about having one of my various characters name their car. Of course come to think of it, she is the only one character whose car I describe. In none of the other projects do I even say what type of car or what color it is. Looks like something to work on in the revising process.

My last one was called the Maroon Maroon, because it did all sorts of funny stuff. (Like randomly run the windshield wipers.)

Honda Accord 278,000 miles! 32 MPG all day long!

That was a pick-up not a car.

A few years ago a few people around here did that type of thing. Some blocked out all the letters except for TOY. That was usually done with pick-ups. I can't recall any other words formed but there were a couple.

http://www.roadsquadron.com/Cars/Hwing/

Yes, he actually drives it around Los Angeles!

I thought so when I saw those lasers, a X-wing fighter but in this case what a Null wing fighter?

But he doesn't dress right.

But a huge amount of years ago there was a group of Star Trek fans that drove around a major US city in a Metro van disguised as the Enterprise. Complete with a Captain's chair. They wore costumes and had phasers disguised as laser sights.

Was he dressed as the big-forehead klingons or the weird eye-brow ones? It could be he was a time traveler trying to fit in? Or perhaps he did the tried and true "knock out the guard and take his clothes" thing.

As for my car I think it may just live up to the title "Flaming Sword" which is a particularly important piece of hardware in a story I wrote in highschool. (And I'm going to rewrite it one day.)

I've been thinking about where to put this and it hit me here...duh.

One another thread we talked about a back story for the Treehouse. And I added that there is a Bar Spyder Roberson (I think) wrote about but my local Barnes and Noble has all kinds of interesting characters in it. Today I saw Willow, from Buffy. I've seen her before, she works there. She lost some weight maybe grew an inch or three but still basically the same. And at the Starbucks in the store I was waited upon by a Vampire. No fangs, yes he smiled real bit showing me all his teeth, but that is easily taken care of. Good thing its cloudy and rainy here.

This has been going on for around five years. The first one has a great shot of Voyager flying through a lightning storm right above an ocean. Besides the fact that there's a reason I have something for Voyager, I have a scene just like it in my first novel. Of course it's not Voyager or any other Star Trek ship but still it's amazing how similar the two scenes are.

There's even a book out with, I think, the first three years of pics and a half page story that goes with each pic. I would have loved to do those half page descriptions.

So now to what I want to say, I wish they would have a calendar like that for SF over all. I would love one with a month with David Weber's Honer Harrington ships. Of course all the ships look pretty much the same in that universe. But there could be one from David Drake's Lt. Leary series, maybe from R.M. Meluch's Merrimack series. I'm sure they could find another nine.

There's the Sub turned starship that is part of a series by John Ringo and another guy, I forget his name and I don't have my books handy. A scene of it breaking the service of the ocean on its way up would look neat, especially with that horn like thing sticking out of its nose. There's a full explanation of what it is in one of the books. But it's full if tiny holes and the way the holes break up the water somehow allows the sub to slip faster through the ocean. Unless all of that is just techno- babble. For me it's hard to tell if all the scientific stuff is real, tecno-babble or as I think both.

but I'm amazed at how hyper the Democrats and some media people are getting at the idea of having the Constitution read. Some are totally freaking out, it's well amazing. They even made up a new catch phrase for the occasion. Those using the phrase must not have been paying much attention to those who talk have been talking about the Constitution, at the same time it sounds like some of have forgotten we are a Constitutional Republic.

Now back to our regularly scheduled comments

Oops, I was in a hurry. I did that during lunch at work. I thought I would be in and out but it didn't work out that way.

At the beginning I should have added On the House Floor the new Republicans want to read the Constitution. I hope the rest now makes sense.

The GOP leadership may have done it for PR stunt but most of the newly elected representatives more than likely did it to send a message that they really were going to follow it.

But no matter the reason why I see no harm in reading it. And positively no reason to freak out over it. You may have heard about Walmart giving 1,600,000 dollars to seven cities to help fight hunger. We are getting 100,000 of that here. I don't care if it is a new way for Walmart to advertise or not, it is money freely given and it will help many people. The constitution is a document that needs to be read every so often and as I said it did no harm to read it.

As to understanding it. Most of it isn't that hard, it was written to be easily understood and for the areas that aren't, we have the Founder's writings to help us understand it.

But here's a good point by point of the "controversy":