R.I.P. Dolores

At 7:15 pm last night, Jonathan noticed that our beloved Dodge Neon, Dolores, was not parked in her usual spot on the street in front of our apartment. Glass littered the pavement, testifying to her violation and subsequent kidnapping. I immediately ran outside and called the police. While I was on the phone, a police officer drove by, and I flagged him down. He graciously stopped and filed a report for me. A mere two hours later, the policeman called us to let us know that our Dolores had been involved in a hit and run accident in West Dallas and was being towed to an impound station. Her status: undriveable. Alas, poor Dolores, I knew her, Horatio.

Here's to Dolores, the POS we bought the day after Christmas, 2003 to tide us over until we could afford something better right after we moved back from France. In turns out, she didn't merely tide us over. She was worth so much more than we paid for her. Despite her hail damage and mismatched bumpers, she was the perfect car for us. Paid for and reliable, we only had to do routine maintenance on her - replacing tires, belts, and her battery. She never gave us any trouble. She was a great car.

I think we're going to try to live on just one car for a while. I'm not working, and we're trying to be as environmentally conscious as we can. I can totally drive Jonathan to work and pick him up again. The weird thing about this is - I'm not even really upset. You'd think I'd be mad. I was madder when they broke into her and didn't take anything. They just left her shattered and windowless, and it seemed so meaningless. This time, I feel nothing. Them's the breaks, I guess. We live in a bad neighborhood. We're not dumb enough to leave anything valuable in the car, so we didn't really lose anything except the car. And, like I said, I'm not even sure we need two cars.

I'm not sure what happened in the hit and run. I certainly hope no one was seriously hurt. I'm thinking Dolores got hit since she was obviously at the site and since they are towing her. Or maybe the thief hit something and ran away from the scene. Whatever happened, I think I'm really most thankful that we had already reported her stolen, and they couldn't accuse us of being the hit and run driver.

As crappy as it is that our car was stolen, I think the fact that we noticed it was gone within 10 minutes of its theft (our neighbor was walking his dog around 7 pm, and he swears it was still there), and also the fact that a policeman just happened to be driving by at the exact moment I was calling to report it are a blessing to us. The police know we weren't driving the car when it was involved in the accident. Our insurance has the police report number to verify it. We are going to be fine. Even if we had to buy a car tomorrow, we have saved money that would let us make a down payment, and Jonathan's salary would allow us to make a second car payment. And my situation makes it so we don't have to afford it. This is not the worst thing in the world. We are actually blessed.

Anyway, I'm sad for Dolores. I wish I could have driven her until she died of natural causes. I'm sad I don't even have a picture of her to commemorate her passing. I will miss her. She was a great car.