The Lights are Going Out ...

I drive a turn-of-the-decade Jagualtima.

It has problems. Eccentricities, really.

Wildcard steering, for one. That's what I call it. Every once in a while the car decides to swerve wildly from side to side for no reason. It was kinda scary the first time, but I just smile when it happens now. It's like a game. I pretend I'm a space cowboy that's been hit by enemy fire. But really I'm just trying to stay in my lane.

Like this, only less mature

It also has a cranky CD player that only plays when the ride meets its ridiculously high standard of smoothness. It reminds me of an old girlfriend of mine. She annoyed me almost as much as the car.

There's an electrical issue that makes components stop working from time to time (It's only fair, I suppose, because I, myself, stop working a lot). This is probably the most interesting issue, since one of the things affected is the bell that goes off when you leave your lights on. I turn my lights on day or night, so this eccentricity is especially charming to me. Not that I don't like waiting two hours for a jump start from AAA. It gives me a chance to spend some quality time with the Jagualtima.

Recently, the interior lights have started to go out. The first to go were the lights around the automatic shifter. The lights that show you the different gears. Does anyone really use all those gears? I mean, I've got D and R on my faves bar, but who the hell uses L and 1 or 2? Anyway, I just guess usually instead of turning on the dome lights to see if I'm in the right gear. When I'm wrong, the engine just revs in N. Usually. Sometimes I fly backward in R, wondering why the trees around me are going the wrong way.

The next lights to go were a couple of the lights around the state-of-the-art climate control system. And the other day, the entire climate control bar started pulsing on and off as I drove. Sometimes it goes off completely.

I've got this weird premonition that these dying lights are touchstones marking the slow death of my car. When the last light goes off, the car will shudder, stall and let out one last, long blast of exhaust.

 I'll miss you, Jagualtima. God knows why, but I'll miss you.