Today we gather together (or separately as the occasion may be) in remembrance of the life and adventures of The Fit. The driver never bothered to give it a name, so henceforth, as it has always been the case, we will call it by its model: The Fit.
When the driver bought The Fit everyone had their doubts: that thing is so tiny you will hardly fit; tiny will get squashed; front wheel drive can't handle snow; manual is a pain to drive; a used car, are you out of your mind; so on and so on. Besides the driver, The Fit did not have many supporters in the early years.
The relationship between The Fit and its driver was strained at first. Some of the stories are well documented. The driver was an amateur with no experience of how to properly treat a manual car. The first two weeks were the worst, the driver had no sense of proper gear selection nor could he ever time the clutch right. The car was ready to hurl him off into the road, it gave all sorts of fits. Then there were all these reckless ideas the driver had, all these unreasonable expectations. Like the time he took The Fit up slope on what was obviously the wrong gear, it had everybody breathless alright. Or the time the driver thought it a good idea to slip and slide in the snow and almost smashed the car into a fire hydrant.
And those are just the stories that have been documented. How about the time the driver managed to get The Fit stuck in the snow three times in the same gas station, in New Mexico. What was the driver thinking? And why did everyone blame the car instead of the driver's judgement? And why was it even snowing in New Mexico? The number of grievances in that first year grew faster than the miles in the odometer. The Fit did not understand, life was so unfair.
Then the unexpected happened: The Fit and the driver were like one. Nobody thought this relationship could blossom, except maybe the driver -- certainly not The Fit. Neither The Fit nor the driver can tell the exact date of when it happened; it must have been sometime after that first road trip from Wisconsin to Arizona -- yes, the one through New Mexico. Thing were simply different: The driver could actually engage all the gears correctly, just as good as automatic; the gas mileage began to improve hitting an all time high of 42 miles to a single gallon; the driver's unreasonable expectations became exploratory experiments; and the reckless ideas, adventures. Oh, how they had adventures. At eighty thousand miles, The Fit had been to more places than most cars have even dared to dream of visiting in their entire life. There was nothing The Fit and the driver could not do -- almost. Getting stuck in the snow never really went away, but nobody focuses on those little detail in the middle of an eulogy.
The Fit and the driver circuited the nation. There was not a place the driver went The Fit could not take him: From Florida to Maryland; then Wisconsin; then Arizona, California, and Texas; then Utah; and 20 other states they visited in passing. The amount of space inside the car was more than enough for the driver to pack his stuff and drive across the country. They drove through plains, mountains, and desert. They encountered all sorts of weather - down below 0 and up over a hundred 100. Oh, and the adventures, so many adventures: like the time they circled around Kansas to drive around a snow storm; and the time they were hit by a flash rain shower that made every car disappear around them; and the time they decided to go through unpaved country roads to see how close they could get to the Mexican border, and gas was almost out, and they had gone so far it did not make sense to go back, so they kept on going.
Alas, the adventures came to an end. In the most unadventurous way -- driving from work to home -- but such is life. Tiny did get squashed, but The Fit protected his driver and the driver is quite alright. In fact, the driver went on with his errands that very day, and the next, and every day after that, not missing a thing except his Fit.
And so to my faithful and loyal companion, through all our solitary adventures, those told and untold, rest in peace.
Sincerely,
The Driver
When the driver bought The Fit everyone had their doubts: that thing is so tiny you will hardly fit; tiny will get squashed; front wheel drive can't handle snow; manual is a pain to drive; a used car, are you out of your mind; so on and so on. Besides the driver, The Fit did not have many supporters in the early years.
The relationship between The Fit and its driver was strained at first. Some of the stories are well documented. The driver was an amateur with no experience of how to properly treat a manual car. The first two weeks were the worst, the driver had no sense of proper gear selection nor could he ever time the clutch right. The car was ready to hurl him off into the road, it gave all sorts of fits. Then there were all these reckless ideas the driver had, all these unreasonable expectations. Like the time he took The Fit up slope on what was obviously the wrong gear, it had everybody breathless alright. Or the time the driver thought it a good idea to slip and slide in the snow and almost smashed the car into a fire hydrant.
And those are just the stories that have been documented. How about the time the driver managed to get The Fit stuck in the snow three times in the same gas station, in New Mexico. What was the driver thinking? And why did everyone blame the car instead of the driver's judgement? And why was it even snowing in New Mexico? The number of grievances in that first year grew faster than the miles in the odometer. The Fit did not understand, life was so unfair.
Then the unexpected happened: The Fit and the driver were like one. Nobody thought this relationship could blossom, except maybe the driver -- certainly not The Fit. Neither The Fit nor the driver can tell the exact date of when it happened; it must have been sometime after that first road trip from Wisconsin to Arizona -- yes, the one through New Mexico. Thing were simply different: The driver could actually engage all the gears correctly, just as good as automatic; the gas mileage began to improve hitting an all time high of 42 miles to a single gallon; the driver's unreasonable expectations became exploratory experiments; and the reckless ideas, adventures. Oh, how they had adventures. At eighty thousand miles, The Fit had been to more places than most cars have even dared to dream of visiting in their entire life. There was nothing The Fit and the driver could not do -- almost. Getting stuck in the snow never really went away, but nobody focuses on those little detail in the middle of an eulogy.
The Fit and the driver circuited the nation. There was not a place the driver went The Fit could not take him: From Florida to Maryland; then Wisconsin; then Arizona, California, and Texas; then Utah; and 20 other states they visited in passing. The amount of space inside the car was more than enough for the driver to pack his stuff and drive across the country. They drove through plains, mountains, and desert. They encountered all sorts of weather - down below 0 and up over a hundred 100. Oh, and the adventures, so many adventures: like the time they circled around Kansas to drive around a snow storm; and the time they were hit by a flash rain shower that made every car disappear around them; and the time they decided to go through unpaved country roads to see how close they could get to the Mexican border, and gas was almost out, and they had gone so far it did not make sense to go back, so they kept on going.
Alas, the adventures came to an end. In the most unadventurous way -- driving from work to home -- but such is life. Tiny did get squashed, but The Fit protected his driver and the driver is quite alright. In fact, the driver went on with his errands that very day, and the next, and every day after that, not missing a thing except his Fit.
And so to my faithful and loyal companion, through all our solitary adventures, those told and untold, rest in peace.
Sincerely,
The Driver
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