I’m A Patsy gets a Volvo!

My daughter, Teri, who lives in Los Angeles, is moving with her family back to Manhattan. She called and told me she’d like to give me her Volvo. I have a Toyota Echo which is cute and works well, but it’s mainly a young people’s car. I’m not in that category, so thought I’d take her up on the Volvo. I always wondered if there were only three Echos made – I saw one other one once and none since. So, I was excited to be getting a bigger car that might be a tiny bit safer. I couldn’t believe that Teri wanted to do that, but she did. And she wouldn’t take any money for it. How about that? I have very special daughters. I could find no pictures suitable for this posting with a car, so I picked this one that has cars in it and also Teri. She is participating in one of our old neighborhood parades that we had very frequently. She’s dressed as . . . I don’t really know just what, and she has bubble gum splattered all over her nose. All the neighbors would gather on the sidewalks and watch the parades pass by. The guys would be drinking beer all morning in anticipation of the parade, so some were probably passed out by parade time, but everyone had a good time.

But back to the Volvo . . . Teri shipped it up to me from LA to Portland on a truck. It took the guys three hours to load it at her house as she lives in the hills where the streets are all twisty and only about 2 feet wide. This was Thursday night and I talked to them about 11pm and they said they’d be there around 7:30am. They called in the morning and said about 11am. They got here at noon and I had already told them where to park up the street. The two guys couldn’t have been nicer. The one who seemed to be in charge looked like Black Sean on “Rescue Me,” and anyone who reminds me of that show has got to be a great guy! There were two cars on the truck, and the first one had to come off before I could get mine. That one was a black Jaguar that had seen better days. They said it hadn’t been driven in 10 years, and when they rolled it off the truck, they couldn’t get it started to get it out of the middle of the street. So they pushed it and then got mine off. I thanked them and went to start my car. I wanted to move the seat up, but I couldn’t find the handle that you reach down between your legs and pull on. I asked the guys if they could help, and they told me everything was automatic. My Echo had nothing automatic. So they helped me and I even raised the seat up. I drove it across the street to my condo, parked it and went inside and lay down! I was wondering if I’d ever learn what all those buttons were for.

The next morning I got up early and took the car out for a little ride, and I noticed there was hardly any gas in it. I nearly went off the road as I always filled my Echo before it ever got down to ¾ full. Is that OCD or what? So I stopped at our friendly neighborhood gas station that charges an arm and a leg. I told him to fill it up and he did. It was $51!! I almost screamed. That will never happen again as I’ll keep it nearly full all the time. I talked to Teri later in the day and asked her about the gadget you press to unlock the car. I had just randomly been pressing it and sometimes it unlocked or locked. Teri explained in slow, quiet tones that there were little pictures on it – one of an unlocked padlock and one locked. I hadn’t noticed them before and she understood. She knows I never notice anything. And also at the gas station, I tried to open my window so I started pressing things. I could hear windows opening, but not mine. I finally found the right thing to push.

After all that excitement, I decided to come home and lie down again. I think I spent most of the weekend on my back! So thank you, Teri - I love you very much . . . you too, Cindy.