Well, of course.

I swear the smell of fresh castings and o-rings and gasket sealer awakens a certain appetite in my otherwise happy Brick. The satisfactions brought on by the taste of *premium* unleaded and fresh clean oil, of leather treatments and waxings and continual fussing are all temporal, easily undone by the smell of just one new part, completely unsettling an otherwise steadfast and reliable collection of Swedish steel. Not to be satisfied with just one, to become almost childlike, demanding and unrelenting, and the one turns to one more, then to another. A whole ton of Undeniable, calling for attention *right now*. All of a sudden you've got FCP and IPD and even AZ (WTF!) on your speed dialer (again).

Or this time, maybe she knows I've got to sell her.

Pretty dumb, huh.

Maybe she remembers the time I first found her, neglected by an owner who forgot how to love her, broken engine mounts and oil everywhere; missing foglight and a whole lot more, but proud and straight, gathered together in waiting.

She brought me home a hundred miles that day, and then some, and not a protest at all about old belts and dirty oil. Not a miss or a bump, and she asked me to trust her.

After a hundred hours together out in the garage and a few skinned knuckes on both sides I suppose we've gotten to know each other pretty well. Her way is always the way it has to be, familiarity with it a boon to me.

Two years and seventeen thousand miles, and she never left me disappointed, driving with my baby boy and the lovely Mrs. Shifted, navigating through narrow rivers of SUV and semi-truck steel where a breakdown could have made the whole day bad; in Chicago, through the tunnels and the heat and the eighty mile-per-hour rush without skipping a beat, sure-footed through the blizzard at I-196 when we counted 16 cars spun out by carelessness and distraction; time and time again bringing us home.

Soon it will be time to say good-bye.

The engine stopped right in the driveway the other day, hall sensor suddenly failed, as if she wanted to stay right here, for a few more hours together. The driveway, of all places. Only in dreams...

Today there was more, PBlaster on the nuts and feeling a good ratchet and wrench in the hand and on the metal. Now she wants a steering shaft, the whole assembly thank you and not just the lower coupling, which is all I have been able to find among the usual suspects.

Anyone know of a source for the thing? Both u-joints are kind of shot and I want to make her happy one last time.

This one I'll miss.

Shifted

P.S. sorry about the rambling; I shall miss the Board as well...
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'87 745t 217,000; '93 Toyota MkII; '73 Suzuki Jimny (Brute) LJ20 360cc