Monday, June 27, 2011

Don't It Always Seem to Go . . .

Add to the long list of little 20th Century things that nobody will appreciate until they're gone: watching the odometer roll over. The darn things are all digital LEDs or LCDs now, and the enormous satisfaction of watching the tiny tumblers line up and push each other from 199,999 to 200,000, as my little '96 Honda's did yesterday, is going as extinct as the dial phone and casette tape.



Karen and I have been looking forward to it for months. Yesterday, with three miles to go, we found ourselves driving laps around an empty business park so we could savor the milestone. Slower . . . slower . . . nine, nine, nine, nine, nine . . . ZERO ZERO ZERO ZERO ZERO! WooHOO! High fives all around!

My next goal is to get the car past 239,000 miles; then I can say I drove it to the Moon. Pay no attention to that little red "Maintenance" indicator. It just wants attention.
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4 comments:

  1. MikeJune 28, 2011 at 4:45 AM

    I recently bought a 2001 Toyota Camry with 68,000 miles -- the proverbial little old lady car with a Carfax record that backed it up. But there is a check engine light that comes on. Then goes off. Then comes on. Then goes off. If it ever makes up its mind, I'll get it fixed. Or not, if that's what it decides. In the meantime, I'm driving it to the moon but, no, not in a way that will be amusing to watch. All digital, no fun. Even the check engine light is digital.

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  2. Jim O'KaneJune 28, 2011 at 8:34 AM

    Right with you there, Brian. My 2006 Toyota Tacoma just clocked 90K this weekend with me and Capt. Girlfriend in the truck heading back from a run to the casino.

    I bought the thing used in Huntsville, Alabama (right around the corner from Marshall Spaceflight Center) because it was the only truck on the Carmax website that met my mandatory manual transmission requirement. Picked it up at 30K on the odometer, and since then it's been to Florida 3 times and up and down the East coast several times more (accruing a NASA and a South of the Border bumper sticker collection in the process). She notched 80K last year at the scrub of Discovery, and I hope she'll last long enough that I can drive her back to Titusville for whatever the next manned flight will be.

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  3. Namowal (Jennifer Bourne)July 1, 2011 at 7:47 PM

    Remember when digital clocks had the numbers on little flip cards instead of lit displays?

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  4. Brian FiesJuly 1, 2011 at 10:37 PM

    Oh yes, the clocks! Good one.

    Our Honda's been great--probably the best car I've ever owned, although it's starting to show its age in small, annoying, and increasingly costly ways. But we don't talk about that within its earshot.

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