My Car Says 'Thanks'

The other day, my car looked at me and thanked me. Over the course of a semester, I put a lot of miles on the car. I usually am on the road either three days or five days and I put about 100 miles on the car, round trip, when I teach.

The car I am currently driving is a leases vehicle and we paid to put 15,000 miles annually on the car. Certainly putting 300 to 500 miles a week on the car adds up and makes it difficult to stay within the allotted mileage. Then I think that I am doing this for an adjunct position and that with gas and mileage, I am probably losing money, but that is a different story.

During the winter break, I try to reduce the amount I use the car and bring the mileage more in line with what it should be. Still, this is usually just about a month off, and while it helps, it does not get me to where I need to be. The summer, however, is three months off. That more than helps and I am hoping it will actually get me to where I need to be. Since this is the first summer I have experienced since leasing the car, I have nothing to base it on, but I am hoping it will get me on track.

In any event, while I am trying not to use that car much this summer, I still need to use it a little to keep it fresh. This morning when I got into the car, it popped the hood on its own and said “Thank You”. I was a little surprised, but appreciated its manners and appreciated the fact that it recognized what I was trying to do.

Now, if it can only teach those manners and courtesy to my students!