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My Profile
Retro-retrospection - 2008-10-06
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1:04 a.m. - 2008-07-21
I did get my new glasses on Friday and have been grooving on how well I can see things. Especially how well I can see the new car in the driveway. Not a 'new' new car. New to us. Sort of. It's actually a very familiar car, it was my MIL's until Saturday. Then it became ours. A complete shock, btw, this even though Mick and I helped her pick out a brand-new vehicle on Friday. See, the dealership where MIL works offered her a deal too sweet to pass up and since she is turning 70 at the end of the month MIL thought it was time to buy her last new car. I hate it that she's even thinking like this, but since she keeps her cars for at least 10 years the nifty Mazda she bought on Friday might very well be the last new car she buys. For certain it's the only up-model she's ever bought, MIL is strictly an econo-box buyer. The 10 year old Escort we inherited is definitely an econo-box, but a very, very welcome one. Mick was dropping a $100 in the tank of his truck every week going back and forth to work and my darling Jet just has too many miles on her clock to be Mick's daily driver. Jet would be dead by October if Mick were taking her across the county and back every day. Me? If I put 40 miles on her in a week it's a lot. With proper care Jet will last me for years, but Mick was needing something that could stand the 300+ mile weekly commute and not suck the life from our bank account. MIL's (now our) Escort fits the bill admirably. Mick's new commuter car will cut the gas tally by at least half, maybe even two thirds. Even with adding another car to our insurance the overall savings will be substantial. Anyway, on Friday we met MIL at her workplace and spent her lunch hour test driving various models. MIL was all for getting Mazda's econo-box 4-door sedan, which was basically a new Escort, but we persuaded her to get the 5-door. Not much more money, but a whole lot more car. If she was serious about this being her last car then for pity's sake she should for once get herself something with power windows and a bit of comfort! What had she been scrimping and working so hard for all these years if not to finally splurge a tiny bit? MIL was no easy sell, in season the woman is still wearing the winter coat she bought in 1972. She'd sell one of her kidneys to buy Wolf a trinket, but she will NOT spend anything on herself. After much coaxing and loving persuasion MIL was finally agreeable and the deal went down the next day. Mick met her at the house to take her down to pick up her snazzy new ride. Papers signed. Keys and plates handed over and back to the house they went. For some weird reason Mick drove the new car back to his parents' house. He got out and handed the keys to his mother, whereupon she handed him the Escort's keys and told him to take the car with him when he left. It was ours now, may we drive it in good health. MIL's generosity overwhelms. The woman is kindness itself. Not only huge things like giving us her car, but all the time in so many ways. There is always a can or two of Diet Coke waiting for me in her fridge. Clipped out magazine and newspaper articles she thought might amuse and be helpful. She never fails to find some way of telling me how much she enjoys my company and Wolf's. How delighted she is to see her son so happy and how proud she is he's gotten himself such a catch. MIL worried about her boy, just as I do mine, and Mick's joy in this new life of ours together makes MIL's heart swell with contentment and love. I get knocked over by it sometimes. It makes me look over my shoulder hoping to see the one she really means. Me? Um, hello? LA the life ruiner? The one who always got that huge 'what can't be cured must be endured' sigh from my ex-MIL? LA, whose very name got sarcastic eye rolls and a sneer? And Mick's mom is glad of me? Thinks I'm wonderful to and for her beloved son? Hell, even my own mother thought I was a waste of space and a horrible burden, what I am supposed to do with a mother-in-law that thinks I'm swell? I guess carry on doing what I have been doing, which is to love my guy and his mother as honestly and openly as I can and try not to embarrass myself with a lot of slobbering Wayne Campbell "I'm not worthy!" stuff. To Alex's bride I am the archetypical evil mother-in-law. She hates my guts and can't keep my kid far enough away. But to my own mother-in-law I am a jewel and a pleasure.
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