It's been a long time since I smelled that smell - "new car." The first thing I did was climb into the passenger seat of Tommy's new Hyundai Elantra and breathe in deeply.
I'm so happy for him - up until now he's only driven used cars...dented, peeling paint, rattling, often no air-conditioning or radio. He never complained, even in high school when the parking lot was dotted with Hummers and brand new sports cars. We had a tough time even now talking him into getting a new one. He took his time, researched his options, and I know it was still hard for him to justify spending that much money. A car is just a car, after all.
But I feel better knowing he's in a new car when he's stuck in Dallas traffic, or heading up to Lubbock to see Kirby, to Houston to his grandparents, or here to see us.
(Daniel came home this weekend, too, so he could see Tommy. We had fun catching up on movies, and shooting the rifle and shotgun in the clearing across the pond in our junk yard/fire pit/basketball court/gun range clearing. I didn't realize what a kick that shotgun had, though. It hurt my shoulder! By the way, the trashy blue car is one that was totaled twice but Tom thinks would make a good dune buggy/go-cart - project #3,327! And the horizontal metal structure is a vintage Texas windmill we plan to reconstruct...some day. )
