Saturday, November 19, 2011

Lamont's new old Volvo station wagon.

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Lamont came over Sunday to take me to the grocery store and to show the new old Volvo station wagon to me. He told me he parked here in particular because he knew I would want to take a few pictures of the car, so he figured the fall foliage should be in the photos, too.

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The car came with that Thule pod and the rack! Wow! How cool! Well, he said that maybe all of the decals made him look more like a soccer mom than ever. Somehow I don't think anyone's going to mistake my son for that, just his car. Ha, ha.

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One last photo to share with you. It better shows the actual color of the car. He's now the third owner of this vehicle, which I think is super.

Now for the story of why Lamont has a new old Volvo station wagon. (After the story, see photos of the old old Volvo station wagon.)

For the past few years, Lamont has enjoyed driving a 1989 Volvo station wagon, when he didn't walk to wherever he was going. He bought it from Kailey, Leland's girlfriend. The Saturday night before Halloween, three weeks ago today, he drove along a shadowy, curved road on the way home from a friend's apartment--I think it is a two-lane road, too. In front of him, a Ford Econoline van stopped all of a sudden. He stopped. It started again. He started again, wondering what was going on. The van stopped again; he stopped again. Just as he was about to blow his horn, the van's driver put it into reverse and rammed the front end of his Volvo. Alarmed, he locked the doors and rolled up his windows. Who would get out of the van? Turned out it was a woman who admitted that she was trying to find somewhere and thought she'd driven past it, so she backed up! Ruined his car is what she did. Totaled his car is what she did, $3000 to fix it, which of course didn't make any sense due to its age. She does not want to ever meet me.

That Volvo station wagon had been the car that Lamont drove to take Mama to all sorts of doctor and physical therapy appointments. It was the vehicle we picked up and dropped off my brother at the airport when he came to town to help move me to my new place after she had died, early January this year. In November, 2008, it was the car that took Lamont, Leland, and me to the woods, mushrooming. Earlier that same month it had taken Lamont, Mama, our friend Lucy (visiting from Mississippi), and me on a great tour of the Columbia River Gorge and over to Hood River, Oregon, then south around Mt. Hood and back to Portland. And since then he's driven it out of town several times camping and/or bouldering, having fun with his brother and/or friends. For his 36th birthday I had given Lamont a repair of the passenger window motor and a general tune-up of that car. All of that for naught now--blast that irresponsible woman. Good memories remain, however, and serve to dim the aggravation.

Also dimming the aggravation. The woman's insurance put him in a rental car and paid him $75 less than he needed to get the new old Volvo station wagon. Serendipitously a woman where Lamont works had the car for sale. By the end of the second week of dealing with an insurance company in a different time zone while working 40-hour weeks, Lamont got that money from Farmers and sold his old car to this wonderful repair place just east of where I live, Atomic Auto, for a fair price. He ended up with the new old Volvo station wagon and $25.

The new old Volvo station wagon checked out fine with the Atomic Auto guys (they were the ones who fixed that window, etc.), has half the mileage on it that the old old Volvo station wagon had on it. For all of us, this entire event turned out so much better than we could have ever hoped. Prayers answered.

Now for some photos of the old old Volvo station wagon and our mushrooming trip. If they make you hungry for all of the trip which was quite a lot of fun and very successful, the posts are on November 26, 2008; November 28, 2008; and November 30, 2008. You won't believe the forest and the mushrooms and the ferns and the trees and the guys.

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Lamont and Leland arrive at our old apartment--I was waiting out front, excited about our pending adventure.

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Lamont and Leland in the old old Volvo station wagon, as we pulled away from the curb.

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Lamont and Leland getting ready to hunt chanterelles.

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Just before we started the hunt, the guys posed for me.

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Once we got back to the old old Volvo station wagon, hours later, the guys posed for me again. Look at our mushrooms!

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We got wet, but who cares? I didn't fall down once, thanks to my wonderful sons. And I found the very first golden mushroom, too!

9 comments:

alex said...

lovely wagon. i remember when these were staples around my neighborhood.

i recently read that Volvo will stop importing wagons to the US next year. the end of an era.

Clytie said...

I am just glad Lamont didn't get hurt! What a crazy lady!

But at least he has a nice "new" car, and I love the rack and pod!

I am impressed and jealous of the mushrooms. I've always wanted to find some in the wild, but since I know absolutely nothing about telling them apart, I only take pictures of the ones I do find.

Lamont's story reminds me of a lady I saw who started across an intersection, and when she saw the light turning yellow over her head, she stopped right in the middle. When the light turned red she BACKED up and wiped out TWO cars that were waiting behind her! I swear when some people get behind the wheel they put the car in "drive" and their brain in "neutral". Sigh.

Stefan Jansson said...

Hmm. Looks like he is a spy as you removed the licence plate.

Leif Hagen said...

My wife and I bought a new Volvo V70 wagon in Minneapolis and picked it up at the factory in Goteborg, Sweden with our 3 daughters! I drive it to work daily and love, love it! Our Hagen Wagon is blue!

Chattahoochee Valley Daily said...

Great memories and great shots...Your son knows you well; posing his car. I love it. Thanks for sharing.

Michaele said...

I enjoyed this story. I love how a car is not just a car and a Volvo is certainly not just a Volvo. Wonderful photos. No mushrooms to hunt around here : (

parker said...

Nice looking wagon sitting there in the beautiful leaves of fall! Sounds like your sons keep pretty good tabs on their Mom. And those mushrooms look wonderful. That is a large haul you guys made! Solid gold good eats!

Randy said...

Great post Lynette. The first shot looks like the car was showered in gold. Looks like a big mushroom haul. Good job!

Roland said...

That is quite a bit of wild mushrooms. I can only imagine what they taste like with some pasta with cream sauce!