Carstory

I sort of have a thing for cars. Despite my gayness, I recognize the make and model of most cars tooling 'round the boulevard. I've never been one for the fanciest car on the road (it's not like I pine for a Mercedes or even a Jag, for god's sake), but I have been smitten by particular cars. When Volkswagen announced that it would begin manufacturing a new Beetle, I knew I'd have one. And in 2001, I got mine. And loved it. It was the perfect car for me and my little dog, too. But Maggie has passed on, I have a big lug of a boyfriend, and our dog takes up a lot of physical and psychic space as well. The Beetle has 120,000 miles on it after only seven years (we're an intentional one car family, made several trips to Montana, and survived a ridiculous period of time when our combined commute was seventy miles per day). No longer reliable, much less comfortable, we knew we needed to start thinking about a different vehicle—someday.

Evidently that day was today, as we're now the proud owners of a 2006 Volvo V50 wagon. That's right, I'm a soccer mom. The purchase was not hurried, or made on a whim (at least by our standards). We researched, identified our needs, and found a great dealer (thanks Poquet Auto, and thanks Tom, for the referral; seriously, there is no reason to buy a car from another dealership, ever). Our baby comes home Wednesday afternoon. Eric M will let us know if it's a boy or girl (he can divine these things).

I hesitate to post these photos, because I once knew a couple who posed in front of their Porsche for their Christmas card photo (a photo which pretty much summed them up as people), but here you go: