Wonder of Wonders

I had been dreading the annual auto safety inspection that was due by the end of August on the old ’85 Volvo. I was fairly sure it would fail, my husband would convince me not to spend the money to make the necessary repairs, and I would finally have to say goodbye to the old car.

I knew there was a gas leak near the top of the tank. So I never fill it up all the way any longer. I also knew that if they smelled gas when I brought it in for inspection, they would fail it and that would be it. It was a crapshoot, but it seemed inevitable that it wouldn’t pass if not for this reason then for another.

When I dropped the car off last night, I wished I hadn’t recently bought gas but I knew there were only two days left in the month of August. (And the fine for driving a car with an expired inspection sticker is steep, as my husband recently found out with the Prius.)

I added a little note at the bottom of the drop-off envelope: “Please pass it!” And then I went home to hope for the best.

By 10 am this morning, I could wait no longer. I called the neighborhood place where we take it to find out if I needed to start looking into donating the old car to charity. But instead the technician who answered said, “You got your wish!” They were probably all laughing at my pitiful request.

Yesterday we saw someone with a similar car in the Trader Joe’s parking lot. His was a ’91 with 275,000 miles. He said it has been nothing but trouble, proving once again how very different the same model can be from one year to the next. I have never owned a car requiring less maintenance than the old Volvo.

So I guess we are legal for another year. I’m just hoping to be in this same dilemma next year as I take it for inspection. As with my aging dog, I will take just one day at a time and hope they both keep going strong.