One Step at a Time

Whew! Everyone here is still in one piece. I'm a bit frazzled though. This has been a crazy two weeks and not in the best way. It's really starting to sink in how lucky I am to still have my Sports Fan alive and relatively normal.

The Sports Fan's recovery is going well, though it is slow. It is a process. One that takes months and months and months. It's unbelievable that someone else can impact our lives so seriously for so many months. Our hearts are heavy and not just because this is a long, slow process. Not only because we're losing precious months, maybe a year of our lives because of someone else's uncaring moments of inattention while (not) in control of their potentially lethal vehicle.

There's an ache where our CoopahS used to be. :( We're no longer MINI owners, at least for the time being. We've begun to discuss what the new one should look like, what color it should be, what features it should have... and for me, the all-important question of what the wheels should be. And in our hearts, the answers are always CoopahS. Therein lies the trouble. We can't have another R53 because now they make R56s instead. It's a different car with a different engine, etc.

The person who ran that red light took something very precious from us. We'd never lost the excitement for CoopahS that we felt the very first time we got into him at the Moritz showroom in Dallas. Every month or so, we'd pack our little guy full of stuff, folding chairs, luggage, art supplies and knitting, cooler, cameras, etc. and go on another Motoring adventure. We did that for four years, always with the thought in mind that someday he would retire to the garage and become strictly an autocross car that got trailered to the track once a month while a newer MINI of some sort became the Sports Fan's everyday driver. Then we'd never lose the excitement of our first MINI.

Was it squished in that accident two weeks ago or did it evaporate in that intersection with the spirit of our little guy? Or maybe it was killed. Could a small flame still burn in our hearts for motoring adventure in another MINI? It remains to be seen. I want it to be there, but I guess I won't know until another MINI arrives in our garage.

CoopahS in the Moritz showroom, ready for our first motoring adventure!

I just want to resurrect a little of that enthusiasm so we can start to feel normal again.