Bye Bye Baby and A Message To You

I meant to blog about this earlier, but as usual other things got in the way. So a little while back, we had to say goodbye to Baby, our trusty, long-suffering minivan. I can't count the number of transmissions and back bumpers that we've had to put on her over the years, but she was a good van. She saw me through five years of perpetual moving back and forth between school and home. She diligently transported my brother's kart to the track on weekends. She was once able to fit all ten members of my family and my uncle's family on road trips (how we ever survived hours in the van like that, I don't know). She witnessed my first and only accident (shhh...). Now, after nearly twenty years of faithful service, she's been traded in for some government cheese that was put towards my dad's newest toy, his hybrid Fusion. He's having the time of his life with this car, which is hilarious to watch. After almost two months, I think he still has yet to put more gas in it. If you're in my old neighbourhood, and you're stuck behind a blue-grey car that's going just under 40 km/h, that's my daddy, trying to run on just the battery. As such, I have decided to christen this newest member of our car family...Boomer.

But he's not the only one with a new vehicle. After I've wept over the loss of Big Five, made fun of Beige Beauty, maimed poor Bullitt, complained for years about Barnum, and stayed rather indifferent about Beethoven, I have FINALLY put my money down on...

Everyone, this is Rudy. Rudy, this is everyone.

I've been waiting for this for years. Literally, because when I wanted to get a new car I had to wait for the sufficient funds to become available. I had originally had my eye on a different car for a very long time, but my brother had been badgering me about considering the Cinquecento long before it was commercially available here. And after riding around in one while I was in Italy last year, it made me seriously think about it.

So why the name Rudy? First of all, the movie of the same name is one of my favourite sports films of all time. I can watch it incessantly. And it's about a slightly smaller-than-average guy who, through extreme determination and perseverance, lives his dream. Secondly, it can be considered a shortened form of "Rudolph". Make your connections as you see fit. Finally, and most importantly, it allows for its own theme song. One word: awesome.

"Stop your messing around, better think of your future"