One more nail in the coffin

And so concludes another chapter in the sad passing of my beloved wife.


This is the actual car.

I feel depressed about it.
Like it’s one more step in accepting the horrible fate that’s befallen me, the death of my wife of over 44 years last April.
I’ve committed to purchasing the “pre-owned” 2012 Ford Escape pictured above.
“Doncha mean ‘used?’” I always ask.
At least it wasn’t “pre-enjoyed.”
I still have the two cars we had before my wife died, a 2003 Honda CR-V, and an All-Wheel-Drive 2005 Toyota Sienna minivan. (The CR-V is also All-Wheel-Drive.)
But two cars for only one person seemed silly. I could have sold the Sienna and kept the CR-V, which I’m very happy with; but it’s 10 years old, and not very dog-friendly.
There’s no dog-swallowing gap behind the front seats, and I have a flat floor with plenty of headroom.
But folded up the rear seats block the rear-door entrance. A dog has to jump around the folded seats, and my dog has fallen.
I didn’t feel attached to these cars; the delay was logistics.
Getting trade-in values for my cars, and finding cars to look at.
But now that the deal is consummated, I feel depressed.
And of course my wife will never see what I purchased, a fact that got me crying as I drove home the other night (Thursday, February 28th, 2013) after consummating the deal.
A number of factors were at play:
—1) The car had to have All-Wheel-Drive. This staves off blowing out my driveway. With All-Wheel-Drive I can usually negotiate snow up to eight inches deep.
I’ve only had to use my snowblower twice this Winter, and one of those times was a little less than eight inches.
We’ve only had two substantial snowfalls so far. The first I blew out was about 14 inches, the second time about six or seven — more was predicted.
All-Wheel-Drive also makes it possible to chase trains in difficult weather-conditions.
Two Winters ago I drove up an ice-encrusted farm-track as if the ice didn’t exist.
Two months ago my brother from northern Delaware was driving me around in his BMW sedan to chase trains.
We started up a similar ice-encrusted track, and had to turn around — a track my CR-V would have conquered.
—2) I need an SUV to chase trains, namely the under-clearance that seems to come with an SUV.
Years ago we chased trains in my friend Phil Faudi’s (“FOW-dee;” as in “wow”) Buick. But farm-tracks were worrisome. We had to make sure his car didn’t bottom.
With my CR-V I don’t have to worry about that.
It has about a foot of under-clearance. With Faudi’s car it’s about eight inches.
We were driving in Altoona toward a dip that would bottom a car. Faudi became alarmed, but in my CR-V I just drove over it without drama.
—3) I’d like a car to be small and at least semi-sophisticated.
My all-knowing blowhard brother-from-Boston, the macho Harley-dude who noisily badmouths everything I do or say, loudly insists I buy a full-size Chevrolet pickup; every 400 miles, 30 gallons.
Such a vehicle would also be as big as an aircraft-carrier, and would require two moves to park at the grocery. (My E250 was like that; we called it the “Queen Mary,” because it was like docking a ship.)
I get to drag around perhaps 2,000 pounds I rarely use. —How often do I need a pickup bed?
And groceries get stored outside, unless I got a pickup with an extended cab. —That’s more weight to drag around.
Desiring “semi-sophisticated” rules out various Jeep products.
And there are similar vehicles that are non-Jeep.
The Jeep Liberty looks interesting, but it’s solid rear-axle. The Liberty is also no longer made. They stopped making it a few years ago.
The Geo Tracker is also interesting, but like Jeep it’s solid rear-axle. —I think the Tracker is no longer made either.
A solid rear-axle is antediluvian. The Ford Escape is independent rear-suspension.
—4) Most important is dog-friendliness.
Which is why I preferred the previous Escape over the new Escape.
The bottom seat-cushions fold forward filling the dog-swallowing gap, and the rear seatbacks fold down leaving a flat floor with plenty of headroom.
Would that my CR-V was like that. If it was, I’d hang onto it.
And so it goes. I’m committed to trading my two vehicles for the used Escape. Both my vehicles were purchased new. I considered a new Honda CR-V, and the new Mazda CX-5 SUV.
But both are not as dog-friendly as the previous Ford Escape. The new Ford Escape I don’t like, and it really isn’t better than the new CR-V.
Not too long ago my local postmaster, my wife’s boss when she worked for the post-office, let me look at the Escape she had just purchased. It was the previous Ford Escape.
I was blown away!
“Why can’t they all be like that?” I cried.
It was the most dog-friendly SUV I’d ever seen.
Here I am buying used, when my previous cars were new.
But the previous Escape is preferable to the new SUV offerings.
So now I have to not start crying when I look out into the garage and see only one car, the Escape.
Instead of the two cars my wife previously drove.

• A “dog-swallowing gap” is a gap behind the front seats a dog can fall into. It’s usually a foot or more wide, although less is just as dangerous.
• “All-Wheel-Drive” is always on. “Four-Wheel-Drive” has to be activated.
• RE: “Chasing trains......” —I’m a railfan and have been since age-two (I’m 69). —The idea is to beat a train to a location where it can be photographed.
• “Altoona” in PA is where the old Pennsylvania Railroad began its climb over the Allegheny mountains. It’s where I chase trains. —Pennsy no longer exists; it’s now owned and operated by Norfolk Southern Railroad. The line is still very busy.
• “Solid rear-axle” design has been around since before the Model-T Ford. The rear-wheels are connected by a solid axle with a heavy differential in the center to turn the drive-rotation 90 degrees, and provide differentiation in turns — the outside wheel turns faster than the inside wheel. Such an arrangement disturbs both sides in bumps, even if only one side hit the bump. The heavy differential also has momentum. “Independent rear-suspension” breaks the axle into two independently-suspended halves, usually with the differential mounted solidly to the car. With such an arrangement, only the bumped wheel is disturbed, and no longer can differential momentum affect handling. IRS (independent rear-suspension) usually handles rough pavement better than solid-axle, but solid rear-axle can be made to handle quite well, as in NASCAR. — I had a Vega with a solid rear-axle that was very well located and handled fine, except it was a bear in rough-pavement curves. The rear-axle would hang up due to differential momentum allowing the back-end to jump sideways.