By the way, since you are all just dying to know, here’s a picture of the 72 VW Beetle I brought back to Texas. My mom owned it for, gosh–fifteen years? Is that right? She got it when I was a Junior in high school. 1984? So that’s what? Seventeen years? There’s a dent in driver’s rear fender. I put that there when I was a Senior. And now that I own the car, I will fix it. In fact, there is much work to do on this little bug. Floorboards are starting to rust; headliner is tearing in the back; backseat has all but disintegrated; windshield is cracked and all window seals are brittle and crumbling; paint is faded and detailing is, well, not so detailed anymore; blinkers are on the fritz; passenger sun visor is missing; driver’s sun visor hangs by a single, terrified screw; driver’s window crank system is stripped; chrome pieces missing here and there from exterior. Basically, it’s all cosmetic. But like I said yesterday, the engine is only five years old (rebuilt at 232K). If I can get another 232K out of it I’ll be one happy Beetle owner.

Anyway, I plan to do a tremendous amount of work on this car. I sold my 1961 Ford Falcon for $50 thirteen years ago and I still have guilt riddled nightmares about it. One that recurs: I’m driving through town and I see it and it’s fixed up beautifully and the owner pulls a shotgun on me when I try to buy it back from him. I won’t get rid of the bug. Ever. I’ll fix it up just like I had wanted to fix up that Falcon. I’ll even repaint it myself. Originally, I thought I’d go with white. Pure, sparkling white. But Ari has convinced me that eccentric colors really work well on old bugs. Bright yellow. Lime green. These colors just don’t look that good on other cars. So I need to decide what it’s going to be. But whatever it is, it’ll have to look good with bold, phat whitewall tires. Mmmmmmm. Now I’m all giddy again.