On Monday morning, I was driving to work and a woman came a couple of feet into my lane, causing our side view mirrors to collide as I drove past. I was not a happy camper, particularly because my car has only been in my possession for a little under 3 months. But it was very nice and warm outside so I was pretty chipper despite the unhappy start to a day on which most of the rest of the world is on vacation. Unfortunately, my entire side view mirror was ripped off, so I had to drop it off at the body shop and was given a rental. Let me preface this by saying that my current Ford Fusion (Colbie) is the largest car I've ever driven - before her came Polly (Grand Am), MIA II (Civic), and MIA (Mazda 626). Other than that, I've, on occasion, driven my parents' Civic and Accord.
Right, so I'm not exactly a large-car afficionado. I was picked up from the body shop by Charlie of Enterprise Rent-A-Car. A little bit about Charlie: he went to open the car door for me, but finding that it was locked, went to the driver's side to unlock it. He was about to come back around, but I told him it was fine. He was very kind and told me how he always opens doors for his wife of 56 years like his mom taught him. He then told me how they had met in high school and were together for seven years before their marriage since she was in nursing school and he served in Germany. (We had a little bond since Dan and I also met in high school and are getting married seven years later.) He started telling me about his 4 daughters, all of whom are in their 40s and 50s.
It then dawned on me to ask if he minded telling me how old he is. He jovially told me that he didn't mind at all, and that his daughters had just thrown him a surprise 80th birthday party!
Wow! Eighty years old and he's still driving cars for Enterprise! What a guy!
He picked me up in a minivan, so I initially thought I might get that car, but then we walked by my current ride: a black Jeep Laredo Grand Cherokee.
This car is MAMMOTH.
So here I am, having never driven any sort of vehicle that would qualify as "large," and wearing my little pink shirt. Ha.
It handles surprisingly well, and it's kind of fun intimidating the small cars.
