Automobiles; then and now

With that title, it may sound like this will be a major retrospective, but that is not the case. This is merely a brief tribute to my fallen Honda CR-V (her name was Suzy-Q) which I loved. She went many places during the 3 1/2 years I had her; she went to Yellowstone, Devil's Tower, Mount Rushmore, Prince Edward Island. She travelled through 15 states and 5 Canadian provinces. She was everything a vehicle should be. And she protected me as we played pinball through the snow after we got ran off the road. I had a small bruise on my knee. She had more than $7,000 worth of body damage. And I was still able to drive her back up onto the road. A moment of silence for a fallen comrade.

This is actually at the body shop where they did the estimate. The only difference between this and what I saw after I squeezed out of the door that wouldn't open all the way is that the back parts of the headlights were still there. The front parts of the headlights were definitely gone. If you look closely you'll see that the hood doesn't line up right, but you'll also see that the windshield, which I only replaced in November, made it through intact.




This shiny new automobile is the one I am leasing. Its not still as shiny as it was when I took this picture, since it is now covered with snow poop, but so far its a good little car, with good gas mileage, sirius satellite radio, and a display that will tell you your average miles per gallon, the number of miles you've got left in the tank, and the temperature outside, which is nice to know.

It was a bit of a saga getting a new vehicle, because for some reason, here in my fourth year of medical school, mere months from graduation, I have a terrible debt-to-income ratio. Pretty much the worst its ever (hopefully) going to be. I'm fortunate though, in that I actually have income, unlike the overwhelming majority of my classmates. But you can get a lease a car when you can't get a loan, which is apparently because its easier to take the car away if you aren't making your payments if its a lease. I guess its actually kind of hard to repo a car, when it comes right down to it. Anyway. Fun times.