Why I welcome scratches on my car...

A couple scratches don't stop the show!

Oh my Gosh it is cold!!!! I literally say this as I'm walking out the door and the weather smacks me in the face.  I'm not talking grab a light jacket and cute scarf cold. I'm talking long johns under your pants, big coat, over sized scarf and Eskimo gloves cold!  Here on the east coast (particularly the DC area) it gets that way.   I make my way to my car quick as possible and immediately realize that someone has not only dented but scratched my driver-side door with theirs.  I mean the paint is scraped and there are black and white marks. I hop in, start up my car, turn on the heat and off to the grocery store I go.  In seconds I have gone back in time.  Back to when I didn't have a car. I'm not talking about a car as a teen. No, this was after two of my three children were born.  Money was funny and change was strange. I had a car but not the funds to get it fixed so to get money I sold my car and just like that was car-less.  Hard times seemed to be a reoccurring nightmare at that time in my life.
 I had gotten used to making it work  and so I did.  I had a full-time job as did my husband since we didn't have a car he had to leave the house at 5am to get to work on time.  That left me to take the kids to daycare before making my way to work.  Since we were out of a car public transportation was out only option.  Let me give you an idea of my morning commute.  Initially it wasn't too much of a big deal, not having a car.  Our daycare provider wasn't that far so in the Spring, Summer and Fall I'd pack the babies in the double stroller and walk them about 20 minutes to get there.  They were very young at that age so I used our morning stroll as a fun learning adventure.  They learned their colors by pointing them out on flowers and learned numbers by counting cars.  As we waited to cross the street I was teaching them what the red light and green light meant. All of this was also free exercise for me!  So this not having a car thing wasn't such a huge deal.

Our daycare provider moved just as it was getting too cold to walk them so we started taking the bus. Every morning I bundled the kids up so much they could barely move.  I made them hot chocolate in their to-go mugs I found and packed a morning snack. Just to get to her we had to take a bus to the subway station to catch another bus to her place where we got off and walked a bit. (mind you our stop was the last so we had to stop at every bus stop in between). While we waited at the subway station for our second bus I'd distract them with their hot chocolate and snack.  They loved it! After finally making it to the daycare I now had to get to work.  So I had to walk a bit to hop on another bus to go BACK to the subway to catch my train to work.  Doing this with two young children under the age of 4 was challenging.  It was cold.  That commute was almost two hours every morning. In a car I could have made it to the daycare and to work in well under an hour.

That was just the commute during the week.  Grocery shopping was a necessity.  The grocery store was close enough to walk and too close to bus so walk it was. Don't forget, this is during the middle of the winter when it's the coldest. I used our double stroller to carry my bags from the store back home.  It wasn't a smooth path either.  I had to cut through trees and grass and parking lots. In a car that would have been a 2 minute drive.  I would have thrown my bags in the car without a second thought and gone back home in no time. I remember one time seeing a loose dog, while pushing my stroller full of groceries.  Man!  What was I supposed to do?  Leave my groceries or risk getting bitten and run the other way. Needless to say it didn't see me and I was OK.

As a christian and active in my church on Sundays we would commute to Church.  Our church has a shuttle service that will pick you up from the train station. So I'd bundle the kiddos up and we'd walk about 3 blocks to the bus stop only to have it not even show up at times.  On days it did show up, we'd hop on.  The drive to the train station was only about 10 minutes but once we were on our train we'd have to get off to transfer to another one.  Weekend schedules are much slower than during the week.  The wait time in between trains can sometimes be 20 minutes (mind you we are trying to catch the church shuttle on the other side). So we'd wait...and wait.  When we finally got to our final station there were times that the train delays made us miss the church shuttle.  We would literally get there and see it drive off. All of that getting up and walking blocks and waiting and transferring only to miss the shuttle hurt.  Just like that our morning was wasted and back home we'd head.  By the time we finally made it home half of the day was over. (wow, that was hard to type. I have that knot in my throat).

A car's horn has snapped me out of my flashback and back to reality where the heat has kicked in and I have made it to the grocery store.  I get what I need to get and I'm back in the car to leave.  As I am leaving I see a couple who has just left the store standing at the bus stop with their grocery bags.  They had at least 10.  It's the weekend so I know the wait for the bus is longer.  I just start thanking God for my vehicle.  I'm so grateful for not only a car but one with heat.  And get this I have two payments left before it is paid off!!!  So that scratch and dent on my car doesn't move me.  I don't get excited or upset or even bothered if my car has a ding, dent or anything else.  I have a working car that keeps us warm in those brutal Winter months and cool in the heat of the Summer. I can get somewhere quick without having to wait. When people get upset and are miserable over a minor car ding or damage while I don't judge I also can't relate. I could care less if the paint was scraped off by some one's door.  I don't care about bells and whistles in a car. I don't care if it has bluetooth, or wifi capabilities.  I mean we have a nice car but I don't need heated seated or a special tint.  I don't need it to be the latest edition. I don't care about name brands or special painting jobs. I don't want to spend some ridiculous amount of money on something because it's a status symbol.  I am more concerned that it is safe, and can fit my family and has enough space for me to offer a ride to those in need like I once was.  I am ore concerned with having something that can get me from point A to point B.  Every Winter I get emotional because I am so very grateful for my car. I am grateful because I remember the Winters without it.