2/24/2008


Today was the day. When I opened the drivers side door, I instantly felt shaky and my neck and back started to hurt like it was right after the crash. I was prepared to feel a little sad, saying goodbye, but not prepared for an actual physical reaction. It was really strange. . .


If you look closely at the center of the picture, you can see the light blue thing hanging down under the headlight. That, my friends, is the wiper fluid tank, and it is completely full. How do I know this? On the morning of the accident, I was trying to spray the windshield to clean it and nothing came out. I just assumed that it was frozen, but brilliant Sarah in the seat beside me suggested that we buy some fluid and see if it needed to be filled up.
Now, I've never done anything to the van except fill it with gas and clean it. Sarah, however, talked me through it. She told me what fluid to buy at the gas station, and held the hood up because we couldn't figure out how to make that stick thingy fit in the right holes to prop it. I was so proud of myself, but hey- at least I'll know how to fill it up in our new van!


I initially thought there wasn't much to take out, just some maps and a couple of bags to be donated to the Goodwill store. I was pretty suprised when I opened the sliding door and saw the front bumper, other assorted bits of the front end, and what looked like several shovel-fulls of road gravel and broken glass! I guess that's one way to clean up the road after an accident. . .


Finally, here's Marvin, trying his hand at stereo-removal. We had recently purchased a stereo and our insurance company said that since it was an after-market, it was considered personal property and we could remove it. We were excited, because the new (used) car that Marvin just got doesn't have a working CD player in it, so we'll put this one in.

The only other thing that I wish I could have taken out of the van was our Lakeside sticker from the back window. It makes me happy and I look forward to summertime every time I see it. We'll have to wait till August when we go again to get another one. We're still "Lakesiders", though, even without our sticker!

I didn't cry when we drove away from the van, but I cried later after dinner. I don't know what it is about the van; I guess I spend so much time in it, taking the kids here and there and we spend long hours in it going on vacation- it just starts to seem like another room of our house. It's so silly to get so attached to a mode of transportation; it might have been especially hard because we weren't selling it purposefully to another family, we are just being forced to sign it over to the insurance company so they can sell its parts.

I thought I'd be able to settle for another color of van as a replacement, but I'm thinking I may change my mind. . .
Or maybe the tan one, fully loaded, with leather seats that we looked at over the weekend will change my mind back again?
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1 readers took time to leave a thought:

Homegrown Tribe February 24, 2008 at 9:24 PM  

it doesn't look at bad as I had imagined... Honda vans hold up good. :) Ya know... we looked at a gold van today and they really aren't that bad. It would be so nice to have those power doors....... oh yeah... and dvd.... :)

I can not believe they put that bummer and crap in the van. That's stupid.

I'll call you tomorrow... we need to get together. Maybe goodwill. *grin*

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