It's just a car

The time has come. I knew it would. Every four years. And still I'm sad.

I've had a long and interesting history with cars. My almost first was a red Mazda 808 that never came to live with me because a freak hailstorm smashed it to smithereens before I even got the keys.

I then waited six weeks for my first official car, another red Mazda 808 that stayed with me for 13 years until I shamelessly and inexplicably traded it in for a new Holden (Aussie car). Got $5,500 on the trade-in, the same price I paid all those years before.

Silly me. That 808 was a keeper, but I was seduced by the new, white, slightly larger Holden, which I sold for much less than I paid for it when, two years later, I moved to Canada.

Here in this winter wonderland, I leased a metallic blue Ford Aspire. Nifty little vehicle that was written off two years into our relationship when it ran into the back of a truck. Oops!

After two more years of renting cars on occasional weekends, the decision was made to lease another vehicle - for four years. Other than needing one to get to and from my freelance contracts, we had plans that required access to transportation on a more regular basis.

Several brands and models were up for consideration, and after much test driving and viewing from rear windows, we finally settled on a Honda CR-V. We, as in the two humans and the two canines - definitely a family decision. And what followed was a love affair with the 2000, 2004 and 2008 models - black, black, and glacier blue, respectively.

The 2008 is the one Sydney liked the most, although not for the colour, since dogs are colour blind. She wasn't all that fussed about the other cars as a result of two bundles of newspapers falling on her while we were delivering the local paper when she was only a young pup. She wasn't hurt, just spooked, but it scarred her car days for life.

Until this one. For some reason, she was relaxed and content, happily sitting and watching the world pass by. Quite the contrary to her usual tense, anxious, pacey and chatty demeanour. Tragically, Sydney died one month after we got the car, and driving it for a while afterward was heartbreaking.

But now the time has come. That lease is up. A new car is on the horizon. And although I've tried to dismiss my angst associated with the imminent separation by saying to anyone who will listen, "It's just a car", I know in my bones that it's not ... and I think I know why.

I think that at the end of the day, it's both just a car and more than.

True, the car has been good to us. Never stranding us on the roadside, never breaking down in the dead of night or the dead of winter, never buckling under the weight of all that home reno stuff, always keeping us safe and warm while taking us from point A to point B, and always looking good in the process.

But it's also been an integral part of our lives for the past four years. The comings and goings, the ups and downs, the people we've met, the places we've been, all the shopping, the presents, the dreams, the work and the adventures. And yes, there is a tinge of sadness that it was the car Sydney liked the most.

Thank you and farewell, 2008.

So, now it's time to embrace and experience another four years in a different car. This time a luxurious grey Honda CR-V 2012. Smart, sassy, safe, technologically advanced, and equipped with bonus and practical bits and pieces. Yep, looking forward to another great relationship.

As a footnote, we are thinking about extending these four years into a lifetime by making this one our own from here on in. That decision will be made in 2016, and who knows where we'll be then and what we'll be doing, or who else will be part of our more than.