My Old Car,
                                 My Old Friend

In 1993 it was new, someone bought it  in Eugene Oregon and a year later it  was 
sold  to me on a used  car lot with 19,000 miles on  it.  It looked and ran very 
nicely.   A thing of beauty, my loving wife  bought it for me as a very generous 
present.

I think sometimes of how many hours I've spent in it.  Imagine 50 MPH average on 
the  freeway, and probably  half at least of  the hours were off  the freeway in 
city streets.  30 MPH  might be a good  guess for speed.  Just  suppose, 362,000 
miles divided by 30MPH = 1,2067 hours.  Divide by 24 hours a day = 502.75  days.  
Perhaps a year and a half of my life driving in it.

KPH was 56 miles from my home in Santa Rosa, and I worked there for 21 years,  5 
of  which were  driving the Miata.   Imagine 100 miles  a day five  days a week, 
2,150 miles  a month,  24,000 miles  a year  for five  years over  100,000 miles 
easily.

Then two years at KOIT San Francisco, driving all over the bay area.  A 50  mile 
commute just to the studios, plus all the dirt roads going to Candlestick  Hill, 
Mt Beacon, Mt. Bruno, Mt. Diablo, Mt Briones and a bunch of other  destinations.  
There's no way to calculate it.

After that working at Globe  Wireless and BayBridge Communications.  Driving  60 
miles  to Dixon and  Rio Vista, 80 miles  to Palo Alto and  Half Moon Bay.  Many 
days going from one to another and then another.  Starting at Dixon and  hitting 
them all ending at HMB then the long road home.  Every day between four and  six 
hours of driving.

Doing  it in  all kinds of  weather, in blazing  hot 100+ degrees,  and in heavy 
rain, sometimes so dense I had to stop, being unable to see past the headlights.  
Other  times flooded roads well up to  the floorboards.  I remember one year the 
road  to Point Reyes  was so damaged the  National Guard ran us  out in convoys.  
Never  once did  the little car  get stuck in  the mud and  the sand while  many 
others did.

It has served me well all these years.

At  345,000 miles the engine  died, and I put a  "new" 20,000 mile used Japanese 
engine in it for only $3,012 - a bargain if ever there was one.

In 2005 I was  struck down  as a  paraplegic and  nearly died.   The little  car 
ceased to run.  It sat in the hot summer sun and winter rain in the driveway  at 
Santa  Rosa, and  two years later  came to Eureka  to sit in  the weeds under  a 
lean-to.  The roof rotted  through  and  the  rain  and  mist  came  in  rotting 
everything in the passenger cabin and  growing mold.  Even the control cable  to 
open the hood was rusted.  Miata sat  as an PNO, Planned Non Operation to  avoid 
paying the license, and of course uninsured.

July  30th,  2009 I  passed my  drivers license,  no longer  restricted to  hand 
controls, I put insurance on it and renewed the license plates.  It needed  four 
new tires, belts and a new roof.  A lot of restoration,  but the important thing 
was it still ran !

It  is a ridiculous thing to  say, but I feel as though  it is an old friend.  I 
have  spent so much of my life in it,  and as God has granted me healing, I have 
returned to it, and I feel in some ways that my life is beginning again.