Happy Birthday Jack!

One year ago this weekend, I went to a fancy car dealership and picked up my very first brand-spankin' new car.
I have never in my life purchased a brand new car, and don't expect I ever will again (something about the expectation of living in some sort of debt for the rest of my life and not being able to afford anything more than a rust bucket on wheels). But for now, I am young(ish) and independent and carefree and, more importantly, have the bucks for a decent reliable automobile*. (That's a BNL reference for you. Not that I'd ever purchase a K Car, even though they were very reliable automobiles way back in 1985, and my parents had one. I think I'll stick with the Toyota thing - its been working for me so far.)

If you know me at all, you know that I don't rush into decisions - especially ones that will cost me $$ every month for 4 years! I knew exactly what I was getting into when I was handed the keys for my brand new shiny car. I had researched it, and drooled over every detail on the website for months before I finally went to take it for a test drive. Picking up my brand new car was awesome and exciting! It had exactly 7km on it, and it was all nicely waxed, and had that new car smell.... ah! And it just felt like a 'Jack' (not that I ever actually call it that, in fact, there was a good 6 months or so there that I even forgot that I had named it - it is just a car after all).

And man! I managed to keep that thing clean for about as long as it remained scratch-free (stupid dog), and now its got a good 33,000km of pure driving adventure on the odometre. Its lost its new car smell over time, but it still makes me smile when I walk up to it and it unlocks itself for me and I get in and push the start button on the dash.

And just think - another 36 months, and it'll be all mine!