Saying Goodbye to an Old Friend

This week, I had to say goodbye to my 1997 Mustang, Megas.  Back on August 4^th, I was in a car accident.  I was going south on DeSoto when I crossed through an intersection.  I had the right of way, but an SUV heading north made a left turn right in front of me.  I slammed on the beaks, but I couldn’t prevent the collision.  The impact was on the right front fender and front bumper.

I was able to drive out of the intersection, but it damaged my radiator, smashed out my headlight, and forced the front fender into the driver’s door so I could barely open it.  The fender also scrapped the front tire.  Fortunately, no one was seriously hurt.  I did go to my chiropractor just to be sure.  He said on a scale of 1 to 10, I had a 2 whiplash.  He’s taking care of me for that.

I towed my car to my mechanic, which has a body shop next door.  The cursory estimate to fix was north of $7,000, more than the car was worth, so it was totaled.

I bought Megas back in 2011.  You could say he was a rescue car (like a rescue pet), but he rescued me as well.  I had my dad’s Contour, he left it to Kris when he passed away.  One day, coming home from work, I heard a clicking coming from under the hood.  It was my water pump, but by the time I got out of the fast lane and off the freeway, I had burned out the engine. 

My mechanic at the time, Auto Matters, said a new engine would cost between $2,000 to $2,500.  But he had a car someone had abandoned – a 1997 Mustang.  Someone from Las Vegas had brought it to his shop, he had done $1,500 work on it, and then they just abandoned it.  My mechanic went to court to get the title and he was willing to let me have it for what he put into it. 

I have always loved Mustangs.  My second car was a Mustang.  I had gotten it after the Space Suttle Challenger disaster, so I named him Challenger.  So, getting another Mustang was more that I could have hoped for.  I named him Megas, after Megas XLR, the Cartoon Network show.

For 14 years he took me to work, church, countless Writer’s Conferences and Special Speaker Events.  I drove him in every kind of weather, ate in him and even napped in him.  Someone didn’t want him anymore, but I sure did.  He rescued me when I couldn’t afford to fix my Contour.  I would have kept him as long as he ran if it wasn’t for this accident.

On Wednesday, they came to pick him up.  As part of the settlement, the other person’s insurance company sold him to Copart, where his parts will be used to give other mature Mustangs a few years more life.

He’s now on that great parkway in the sky.  A free-spirited Mustang driving into eternity.  He joins his big brother, Big Butt, our Windstar, who stopped running several years ago. 

This is the first time in my life that I don’t have a Ford.  My dad had always had Fords.  I don’t know what my next car will be, but I will never forget Megas.

R.I.P.

Dennis

289th blog completed.

Second Steampunk novel: 17,747 words.  Chapter Five done.

Second Steampunk screenplay:  157 pages.

First Steampunk screenplay:  Updated with notes from the novelization.

First Steampunk novel:  77,546 words.  Completed until an editor reviews it.

Third Steampunk screenplay:  38 pages.

This week should have been my Third Quarter Goals reviews.  That will be coming next week.