Jack makes it on time again – maybe this will be a habit – – –

We’re in the process of buying a ‘new-to-us car. One day I looked out into our driveway and thought, ‘three is too many.’ We had Wendy’s Prius (Old Faithful, a 2010 with coming up for 200K miles on it) the Black Dodge Journey (Angus – think about it) and an inherited farm truck – so big we carry a stepladder to get in and out. We use that for hauling firewood from our backwoods property and carting around rubbish.

 The truck, with its raised suspension, stays because to get to said backwoods property, one has to cross through four fords of varying depth and ruggedness. It’s a little like the Billy Goats Gruff, but with bridge danger instead of troll danger – by the time one gets to ford number four, you’re above the wheel rims. Even in that Ford, fording the ford…

A good friend works the sales department of a Honda dealership an hour from us…. Friendship is important in this life, but we wanted another Prius. Gingerly addressing the question with Heather, she gave a nod.

“Leave this with me.” Within a few days she had located a low mileage Prius Prime Advanced at a good price and negotiated taking in Old Faithful and Angus as trade ins. (Ehm, loyalty doesn’t really extend to vehicles, you know; once they’ve done their time, it’s time to let them move on. And the way Wendy drives, they will probably be happy to retire from our household anyway. I have twice stopped Wendy from editing that to “The way Jack drives” by the way.)

I’m old enough to remember when cars were much simpler and you learned how to service them yourself – changing points and plugs mostly and sometimes brake shoes. The most advanced previous car I had was a SAAB 9000 but when the coke got spilled into the power window switch panel life got interesting – and so did the windows!

Our new Prius has a host of sophisticated ‘bells and whistles’ – all controlled by an on-board computer. It has heated and cooled seats, a back-up camera, a side mirror light that tells you when someone is in your blind spot. The thing practically drives itself. Best of all, it has a heated steering wheel. This is luxury enough to shake my Calvinist roots to the core. Does God approve of heated steering wheels? Well, at least God might approve of the new car’s gas mileage – stunning! It will even do 25 miles on pure electricity. I’m looking forward to getting the car, which is white. We are already looking for names. Snow White was quickly discarded. Snowflake likewise. Milky Steed is in the running. Anyone?