Oh such sweet naivete!
His resolve was first tested in about the second year of our marriage when some yahoo broke into our 1990 Geo Metro by way of the rear window to...get a better look at what we didn't have? The car was twelve years old. There was nothing worth stealing so they didn't steal anything. It wasn't worth it to me to fix it, but we had an infant, as Babe pointed out, so we went and paid more than the car was worth to replace that flippin' rear window.
The second opportunity came about ten years later when my kid sister was learning to drive. Actually, let me one second. So, Babe had just bought a brand new car. We hadn't even made the first payment yet when Miney took a lava rock from the garden and used it to scribble flowers and doodles all along the sides and back. It was lovely. Babe was speechless.
Literally.
He just looked at her and silently shook his head. So this came on the heels of that. My kid sister was learning to drive and pulled into our driveway. At my encouragement she pulled into the garage, but I overestimated how much room she had and she took off the driver's side mirror. The poor thing burst into tears while I laughed hysterically. Babe heard the noise and opened the garage door where he stood in silence for a long moment before he shook his head and closed the door.
Shortly thereafter (I'm talking days) we had the side mirror taped up because we haven't yet had a minute to take the car in for repair, Kid sister had to take Eenie to school, and for reasons I will never understand, she decided to roll down the rear window and the whole piece of glass abruptly disappeared into the door. Well we couldn't leave the window open like that so Babe dutifully went to get a plastic bag while I am rolling in laughter because we have become everything he never wanted to be.
We did get those parts fixed. However, I feel it's important to remember where one comes from and priorities. Our van was new when we bought it. It is now fifteen years old. The tops of the arms rests on the doors have broken off. I'm not trying to spend $500 per side to get them fixed. The black piece that holds the antennae flush to the van broke off a couple of years ago. We duct taped that, and we used fancy tape. Covered in Minions.
When the tape became sun worn and crumbled off, we bought a new part on Amazon. It doesn't exactly fit, but it's close enough. Ennie got her purse strap caught in the latch of the glove compartment. Babe broke the door when he tried to get it out. We duct taped it until the tape melted off. After that, we replaced the lock. The lock didn't have a key so once we closed it we couldn't open it again so we haven't used it for a while.
The AC fan will only turn on when the passenger kick the underside of the dashboard so Babe bought a new fan and in the process of attempting to replace it he realized he needed to get into the glove compartment. Well...
The fan didn't fit, we were going on a road trip and he needed to put the glove compartment back together.
I've never been so proud!
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