Over the Hill

 

I think I truly get the meaning of being “over the hill”, it’s like a car picking up speed faster and faster as you head down it towards your final destination.  I think I’m about to hit the sound barrier I am traveling so fast. How long until I break the speed of light and start traveling at warp speed? I of course always knew the meaning of the term but until you are gathering speed as you travel down it personally,  you just won’t get it. I honestly have to say that the past few months only felt like they were two weeks long. I almost wondered if I had unknowingly slipped into a coma for part of them. I don’t think in my youth could I have ever even imagined that time could pass so quickly.

Since my last posting quite a bit has happened. Abate has passed all his STARR exams, and is now officially a high school senior. College in a year, oh I am not ready for that. Fantu is now a junior. She also made it into varsity choir and soccer. Abate had his first real job interview but didn’t get the job and also got his first speeding ticket. I was in the car with him and I know he wasn’t driving anywhere near the speed that the officer said. I think we will fight it. Fantu received her Learner’s Permit and has started learning to drive. This is quite the adventure as she is learning right from the start on a stick shift, yes she is learning on my Honda Fit as it will become her car in January when she gets her license. She is loving it and is doing quite well – she picked it up much quicker than Elmer or Abate did. That was at least until I decided to go ahead and purchase a car for myself now rather than wait until January. All it took was five minutes behind the wheel of my Camry and she was spoiled by the ease of driving an automatic. What had I done? She had gone from being so excited about learning to drive the Fit and it becoming her car to hating it. The excitement of learning to drive had disappeared for her. I keep telling her how lucky she is getting such a cute car and it’s so reliable and fun to drive.  She looks so cute driving it around.  I hope that once she masters the clutch she will realize just how great it is to drive.

So now I suppose everyone out there is thinking have I lost my mind buying a mid-size car, a Toyota Camry. I am after all the one cringing every time I see a gas guzzling super-sized vehicle drive past. Well not to worry as I got a hybrid and it has the same EPA gas mileage rating as the Fit. I did my research on about half a dozen cars that got the same or better gas mileage. I knew I needed something with more backseat legroom (those kids have really grown in five years). I also wanted something with a very quiet ride (Honda’s are notoriously noisy), and it had to have a five-star crash test rating which ruled out a Prius. I love the VW diesels but the reliability rankings indicate a few problems. So at the end of my search I was left with one car still standing, a Toyota Camry Hybrid. One quick look at the sticker price on a new one sent me scurrying to the used car classifieds. Weeks spent looking and a few positive leads that I ended up being too late for and I finally found a 2009 with only 49k on it. It was fully loaded with leather interior and all kinds of neat little bells and whistles. It was at the very top of my price range, but with  mileage that low it was well worth it. The only drawback to it I could see was it was silver (how boring) and it was located at AutoMax in Killeen, the mega-used car superstore with an army of “used car salesman”.  I won’t go into detail about the whole car buying experience there, but I can confidently say I will not ever return. I do at least feel like a got a very good car at a fair price. It is lovely to drive and it feels like I am enclosed in my own little world as I drive to and from work. While it is not nearly as fun to drive as the Fit (again it’s a bit boring) It is quiet. It is so smooth going down the road. It has space for five. It gets the same MPG’s as the Fit.  In fact when this car gets over the hill and coasts downhill it pops up to sixty miles per gallon. It’s the one time that getting over the hill is a really good thing!