Goodbye Old Friend

I got a new car yesterday. That in itself isn't that  big a deal. It's a great car-minivan actually. It's really nice, rides great, has every option known to carmakers and was reasonably priced. The really big deal was the car (suv) I traded in for it. Oh, I know it was time, but it still wasn 't easy to let it go. Even after 11 years, 198,388 miles, 7656 hours of driving, and the threat of a failing transmission ( and other repairs needed-too many to mention), I still was ready to fight for it. My husband was worried there would be a catastrophic, perhaps dangerous fail, plus he resented replacing a vehicle one piece at a time, often to the tune of $1000 or more.
When I got that car, #1 son was only a lowly 8th grader. My girls were 8,  4, & 2. We were a family of seven, expecting number 8 in a few months. That car carried preschoolers, grade schoolers, high schoolers, and newborns. It carried grandmothers and uncles and aunts. It carried many friends and lots of groceries and cargo. It was thrown up in, and peed in. It endured spills, and splatters. It had any number of sticky substances ground into its carpet and seats. It housed tons of paperwork, and paper treasures made by loving hands. It proudly wore stickers from all our schools and universities.
You spend that much time with anything, or anyone, you get attached to it in some fashion even if it is an in animate object. The service writer at my car dealer began to refer to me as the car whisperer because anytime the car had a problem I could identify where the noise was coming from pretty accurately and even have an idea of the possible cost of repair. For example, anything with the word "pump" in it would run around $600.
Although I had resigned myself to the fact that I needed a new vehicle, I couldn't help but feel like I was having a faithful old dog put down and then replacing it with a new puppy. The only consolation all I have is that perhaps someone else will take in my car and get a few more miles out of it.
So here I am with my bouncy puppy minivan and it is shiny and pretty and it does have all the features. It's comfortable but it's not entirely familiar yet. However experience has taught me that a few weeks in the seat day after day in the carline and treking down the highway will get us better equated get us better acquainted . We will develop that relationship.