When I first bought her (yes...her), I didn't even want her. I was having to turn in what had become my true love of a car. My beautiful sage green (and not the bold sage green color they have out now, it was gorgeous) Eddie Bauer Explorer that was loaded: sunroof, television, beautiful soft tan leather, etc...and it ran great. Never had a problem with it. Ever. Alas it was a lease (my last lease, due to the bitterness I felt having to turn it in since the payoff to keep it was astronomical) therefore, it had to go back.
I stood in the lot looking around for something new. Something different. And finally decided, who am I kidding? An Explorer is fine. Can't afford the Range Rover I want, so you know... .
That was back in 2002 and we've been together ever since. Through the years, I guess you could say we've bonded. She's paid for. She's gotten me and two kids around for a long time. She's put up with a LOT of messes (thanks to my kids and their friends). She's hauled furniture and boxes to move me numerous times. She's provided refuge when I had nowhere to go, but desperately needed to get away. She's taken people to the airport. To the doctor. To weddings. To funerals. She gave Duke his last ride in which he reached over and put his paw in my hand on her center console. She's now carried a Christmas tree and it was on this trip I learned just how serious her current "ailment" was.
After being scolded by a friend for driving around (with my kids in tow, no less) for as long as I have in it's condition and then ordered by my Dad to take it to the place he trusts when he comes in town, I finally did. Yes. I listened to someone. (:::insert sarcastic gasp here:::) And it paid off.
Poor girl had plenty of things that needed to be worked on today and I was told, "It's a good thing you brought it it. You almost had to replace the entire back end (and still may have to...waiting to see). That repair would not have been nearly as affordable as servicing it and fixing it is going to be today. You're lucky you've kept it as well maintained as you have. It's actually in really good shape."
Ahhhhh yes. Maintenance. Tends to help things, now doesn't it? Whether it's cars, homes, or even our health and relationships. Seems unnecessary at the time. "Why check? Everything's fine!" While underneath the surface and in between the crevices, where the eyes can't reach...problems grow. They cultivate and spread into other "healthy" areas. Like a cancer of sorts.
So why aren't we better about maintaining things? One guess: Because if we find something to be wrong, that means we're going to have to address it. And some people consider that to be the absolute last thing on their "things I really don't want to consider doing" list. Maybe it doesn't sound 'fun' or 'worthwhile', but we all know what effort produces. (pssssst....results!)
So last week, me and the kiddos started working out. There's a small, but great, little gym at our apartment complex and we enjoy going a couple times a week. We've declared maintenance on our bodies health in 2011! I must say, it's going to be very difficult to get through the holidays without the Christmas cookies, pumpkin bread from Girlie and everything else we traditionally bake and eat...but we're going to do our best (well, at least I am...they burn calories like crazy! Me? Not so much...).
Here's to a better maintenance schedule in every aspect of our lives for the new year. And that's not controlling...that's EFFORT in the right direction. So there...
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