I had a first tonight.

I've owned my car for 3 and a quarter years and 45000 miles (28 February 1997, 260 on the odometer, it was a Friday with blue skies and afternoon temps in the mid seventies). It's a Honda del Sol VTEC, which is odd because I thought they were awfully silly looking when they came out. But I'd always wanted a British Racing Green convertible, and when I went to the Honda dealership to go look at the much more practical Civics there was a del Sol in the showroom and a bug planted itself in my ear and said, repeatedly, "why, exactly, is it you think you need a car with a back seat, again?"

Y'see, when my sister was looking to buy a car a few years before that, she ended up getting a Buick Reatta of all things. It was cool. It was the hard top variety, but it was cool nonetheless. And when she got married in 95 and moved to the Caribbean my parents bought it from her (they couldn't bear to see her sell it to a stranger, I think) and it became my car.

Before that I'd been driving an 87 Buick Somerset (blech) which I had mistakenly gotten my parents to buy me in high school, not realizing that they would have bought me the Mustang I rightfully should have had, if I'd only asked. So the Somerset did pretty well until it hit 60k, at which point it went to hell. But that luckily coincided with the advent of the Reatta, so the parents were going to sell the Somerset and that was that.

It didn't sell. A year later, they still had it, and after I hydroplaned on the Turner Turnpike (going in a straight line, even, but on a patch of road that curiously was being resurfaced the next time I was on the Turnpike a couple months later, and I also noticed that there was more paint on the Jersey barrier than the Reatta had left) and totaled the Reatta it (the Somerset) became mine again.

Interestingly, the insurance settlement from that plus the leftover insurance settlements from the two times I'd been rear ended (the bodywork ended up cheaper than the independent appraisal, both times) meant that my parents got back as much cash as they'd paid my sister for the Reatta. That's after I drove it for a year, too.

Anyway, a month or two went by and I decided I'd had enough of that Somerset and it was time to buy a car. Went to the dealer, saw the del Sol, drove the Civic, went home and figured out how much a car payment would be and dropped the whole car idea.

A few months (and a raise) later, I got the bug again, went back to the dealer, got a real quote on the Civic, called the bank to inquire about a loan, called the insurance guy to get rates ... and found out I could afford the car but not the insurance. Interestingly enough, I had him run the numbers for the del Sol while he was at it, and the difference was less than 10%. It seems for a 25 year old single male, a Civic coupe is seen as a sports car for insurance purposes. Chastened by the cost of insurance, I once again decided I wasn't up for the car thing. But I also realized that if they were calling the Civic of all things a sports car, then that argument against the del Sol was tossed out the window. Or the open top, for that matter.

The rate of decline of the Somerset increased to the point that I pulled out my trusty spreadsheets, figured out that it was going to cost me $300 a month to keep the Somerset alive once I factored in the transmission, steering, and engine work it needed, and decided at that point that I didn't need to justify things anymore. Bought the car.

Not the Civic, mind you, the del Sol. A green one. It's not British Racing Green, but it's that dark sorta bluish green and that's good enough. And it's a targa and not a convertible, but the whole top comes off with no annoying T-bar in the middle, and it's only got two seats, and it kicks ass. I said the day I picked it up, "if it continues to make me as happy in the future as it makes me now, it's worth every penny I'm paying for it." It does, and it is. And I really said that, you can check with Amber. Provided you know who Amber is, that is. She was there.

Anyway, 3 and a quarter years and 45000 miles later, I've had a first.

It's been misty and spitting rain the past couple days, but it had cleared up enough for me to take the top off for my drive home this afternoon. I took off early today so I could go home, get the kitten, and take him to the Animal Welfare place. (They said he was the best-cared-for stray they'd seen, but I digress). That done, I headed over to Toys 'R' Us to see if they had the particular Koosh gun that I ordered from thinkgeek (it's discontinued, and thinkgeek isn't clear on how many they'll be able to ship to fulfill outstanding orders, if any), and then I thought, "I'm right next to Circuit City, why don't I see if they have my new teevee?"

I killed far too much time inside there, really. I picked up a power strip, then I played with the new Sony version of the TiVo (the remote really is better than the Philips, but the software is still the same and they still don't have an automatic two-minute fast forward for commercial breaks ... I mean, duh) for a while, then I looked at teevees. They've got all the teevees showing CCTV (boy, I bet they thought they were clever), but even so, it's difficult to get a handle on the picture quality of the various tubes. They must have used cheap cable or they don't have a good signal amplifier or something, since some of the screens had actual snow mixed in with the picture, showing that they were getting weak signals. They didn't have the model I ordered anyway, so it's moot, but of the ones they had one of the Sonys (Sonies?) had the best picture. It also had the best reception so I don't think that's fair.

I paid for the power strip. I went to the entry/exit vestibule. It was raining. Not just spitting, pouring in that way I've been complaining it doesn't ever seem to rain in DC. Cats and dogs. Coming down thick and fast. And I looked where I'd parked the car, to see ...

The top was off.

Luckily, the car was made with that eventuality in mind, so none of the interior should be damaged and the seats will be completely dry by tomorrow (the fabric's "water resistant" but they were indeed wet, as would be my back and ass). But still. It's all wet. I took some towels out when I got home, and the driver's seat is pretty much dry already (thanks to me sitting in it for 20 minutes driving home). The passenger seat is mostly dry now, and I wiped down all the other surfaces. Oddly, the carpet didn't seem to have gotten all that wet, due to the angle of the rain I guess.

Well, there's a first for everything.

It's supposed to get to 91 tomorrow. I'll park the car outside and bake it dry.

link (2000-06-15)