Best Laid Plans...

This is my car.  It's a 2009 Ford Focus, purchased by me in 2011.  It was a lease return, with just 13,000 km on it.  It had lots of nifty bells and whistles and a sticker price I could afford.  Negotiation brought the price down further and I left the lot feeling happy with my purchase.  

Little did I know...

This vehicle has been the lemon everyone encounters at least once in their lives. It is notorious among my circle of friends. Every time I want to go somewhere, I play car roulette.  

Why do I keep the car?  Sometimes - fairly often actually - I ask myself the same question.  The answer's complicated but basically comes down to sentiment:

During the last few months of my husband's life he was in a lot of pain.  His lower back troubled him constantly and the pain meds he was given caused him terrible vertigo.  He couldn't lie down to sleep because the room started spinning, and he was often nauseous. We discovered that if I tucked him in the passenger seat of the car, turned on the seat's heating, wrapped a warm quilt around him, rolled down the windows, and drove, the heated seat helped to ease his pain, the fresh air calmed his vertigo, and the car's motion eased him to sleep.  Right up until 2 days before he died, we went out driving every day.  We traveled thousands of kilometres in that car during that time, and shared some precious moments.  There are a lot of tender, bittersweet memories tied to my car and I'm just not ready to let it go.

Since I'm not ready to part with it and I'm pretty much stone broke these days, when my car breaks down I park it until I can save up enough money to fix it.  I've become quite good at finding creative alternatives when it forces a change of plans. 

This long weekend was a case in point.  The car may have foiled my camping plans, but the weather was beautiful and springtime here in the Cowichan Valley is a wonderful thing.  I made a point of getting out and enjoying my surroundings as much as possible, and managed to fit in some visits with friends and family too.

I'd hoped to share lots of camping trips with you this year but since I'm pretty much dependent upon transit, foot travel, and rides from friends for the time being, I've decided I'll take you along with me on my local adventures. We can explore southern Vancouver Island together.  Look for my first post later this week.