Friday Five

1. Do you have a car? If so, what kind of car is it? I have a '99 Dodge Neon, which will finally be completely paid off come the end of this year. Yay! You can see pictures of it here, taken shortly after I bought it.

2. Do you drive very often? More than I'd like to, really. I try to walk a lot of places, both because walking is the only form of exercise I actually get and because I genuinely like to walk. But too often I'll decide that it's too hot or takes too much time or that I'll have too much to carry, and I'll end up driving instead. I haven't put all that many miles on the car, though. I live in a very small town, so most of the places I go (work, the grocery store, etc.) aren't more than a mile or two away. Once every month or two I'll drive up to Albuquerque to run errands or visit friends, but that's about it.

3. What's your dream car? Didn't I just answer this a couple of days ago? As I believe I said then, cars really just don't feature very heavily in my dreams. I suppose my dream car would be one that is highly fuel-efficient; has lots of cargo space; has a CD player, A/C, and conveniently placed cup holders; and never, ever, ever breaks down. No, wait, actually, if I'm going to be that unrealistic, my dream "car" is a Star Trek transporter. Then I could go anywhere instantaneously and never have to drive again! Bliss!

4. Have you ever received a ticket? Nope. Well, I did get a citation once... I went to make a left turn without looking properly and ended up pulling out in front of a pickup, with highly unpleasant results. Totalled my poor little Turismo. The cop gave me the citation basically so there would be paperwork proving the accident was my fault. There wasn't a fine attached to it, though. I think the cop figured I had suffered enough.

5. Have you ever been in an accident? Way too damned many times, though mostly just fender-benders, thank goodness. The two worst accidents I've been in -- and the only two where I was driving -- were the above-mentioned Totalled Turismo inicdent and the time I rolled my pickup on the highway. That latter event is probably the single most frightening thing that ever happened to me, but I walked away from it with nothing worse than bruises. (The two passengers I had in the truck were a lot more banged up than I was, but they were ultimately OK, too, mercifully. The experience we had a Socorro General Hospital was actually far worse than the accident, but, frankly, the less said about that the better.)