Cars

My friend Gloria who worked with me at Sire Records many many years ago, once said to someone about us - "we weren't made to drive, we were made to be driven." I never bothered to learn how to drive when living in NYC. It was just unnecessary, and I didn't want to have the hassle of having to park the damn thing. It was so much more convenient to either walk or bus it. But when I got to Toronto I felt hemmed in - by the cold, by having to walk 10 minutes in below zero weather to wait for a bus while pregnant with my first child, etc. I decided to learn how to drive at age 28. Driving in that city was a breeze, people were polite and there was hardly any traffic. We bought used Volvos - because Hubby deemed it "the safest car". Now in Israel, we took a huge bank loan to finance our first car - a Hyundai lantra wagon. It's been nicknamed the Batmobile. We've had it nearly 8 years. I hardly drive it, because Jerusalem is chaotic and everyone cuts in front of you, just because they want to get there a second quicker than you. The car has been through the mill. It's been to the pound. It's been repossessed. Before that happened Hubby would "hide" the car several blocks away from our place so the repo's wouldn't find it. One of the repo men spotted it on a job site and off it went. We hired a lawyer, who was an excellent wheeler (no pun intended) and dealer and he managed to get it back for us within 3 months. We had to pay 3 months of storage fees though to get it out (Now we have a neighbor going through the same thing - hiding his huge truck blocks away from where he lives). I felt liberated without the car, strangely enough. I didn't have to shell out enormous $ for gas. And did I feel healthy. We walked everywhere. We have to pay for auto registration each year, which is a hassle, but cars have to undergo a test each year and if they don't pass, you don't get your registration sticker, and if you don't get your sticker, you get fined heavily. Hubby somehow managed to forget to register his car for 5 years until he got caught. Pleading "Not knowing the language and culture and laws" got his court fine lowered and he is finally up-to-date. Then there are the hitchhikers. I'm always telling Hubby "pick them up" and he drives passed them, while I notice the look on their faces after they've been "passed over". He tells me "there's no room in the back" even though it's empty, or "there's too much equipment in the car". My Chassidic friend once told us that if we do something good for someone with our car - like pick up hitchhikers - we'll have less problems with the Batmobile. I tell him that. My son, when riding with dad, tells me Hubby does pick up hitchhikers but they're "only women". :-)