Marriage or my Honda?

Seriously. I think I have had enough of my car. It has become so heavy on the pocket, seemingly only shirking the contents of my wallet to… thin air.

I have a ‘98 Honda Civic. I like my car. It is black, has nice rims, has nice thin profile tires, and driving it is a joy. Oh and there’s also the sentimental value of the car: I’ve had many unforgettable memories and journeys in my Civic. However, for the past 4 years, in some part due to my recklessness, this car has shown me the dark side of the moon.

I have spent so much on my car in the past 4 years. Just last month I paid 1500 Jordanian Dinars to have the body of the car repainted, changed a lot of mechanical parts in the car, replaced a door, two windows, changed the head lights, fixed its electrical wiring and alarm system, got new car mats, changed the oil, replaced the wipers with brand new ones, pumped gas for the air condition, fixed the read-window heaters, and much more. Oh and I also got 2 new tyres for the car.

Driving it like a lord would back from work a police man signals me to stop. I do. I was smoking and so I assumed it had to do with the smoking. Turns out it didn’t have anything to do with my cigarette which I gulped down when the police man pointed out I was stopped because of my seat belt. I always wear my seat belt, so I wondered why I had forgotten it that particular time. He then asked for the license and pointed out that my car’s license had expired. He was kind enough to let me go with a warning, but the next day I paid 280 JDs to get it licensed again. more than 70% of what I paid was for tickets that had accumulated over the past year. So that’s almost 2000 JDs I spent on my car just these past 2 months.

And after all that, my youngest brother Ali got his license recently and he took my car for a spin. He burst one of the tires and now, my back bumper is hanging to the body without screws. Having paid 1500 just recently… I decided not to fix anything. My brother has vowed to fix it, and I know he will, but the fact that no matter what I try and do with the car it still finds ways to get back into bad shape amazes me. It amazes to the point where I just want to sit idly and watch it driven by someone else who had just bought it from me. Yes, I’ve had plans and recurring dreams that I should get rid of it.

But believe it or not, when I wake up in the morning and go down the elevator and walk towards it, I fall in love with it all over again. Abu Ahmad, the man who takes care of our building, washes it for me every morning. I pay him for it, sure, but seeing it clean every morning… especially with the new paint coat, makes me want to keep it forever.

So as you can tell, I’m torn…