So my lovely Subaru is mine no more. It was starting to exhibit some of the difficulties that go with age, so we decided to let it go while it was still worth something and go for a newer car.

Yes, that's right, I now have a fancy new...well, not new but a low-mileage late-model...Honda!

I realize that doesn't sound very exciting, but this is what it looks like:

from motorstown.com

Yep. It's quite fancy and sporty looking...it doesn't look exactly like that one because it doesn't have tinted windows and it has a moonroof, but close.

Anyway, I have never had a fancy car. My husband has always had the fancy ones because I really like to have a dependable car. Something sensible. But when we knew it was time for a replacement, a Honda is not what we were looking at. Not at all, because around here, usually they've been owned by a twenty-year-old who rips his car to shreds before wrecking it and getting a new one.

I was looking at a used Nissan Juke. Not necessarily the same kind of car as this one, but it had good reviews and low miles and the price was right. But when we arrived at the place and they had this car, it was like angels were singing and there was a beam of light on the Honda.

Of course, it was also 9,000 degrees outside, so maybe I was just suffering from heatstroke, but you never can tell.

Anyway, the Nissan had a big old gash on one side (which, for some reason, wasn't shown in the pictures on the dealer's website...big shocker), so it was out of the running. They had some newer Subaru station wagons, but I thought it might be nice to try something a little bit smaller with better gas mileage.

And we fell in like. I think my husband fell in love, but I don't fall in love with cars like that. I still miss my Subaru. After all, we had a history together.

I do really, really like him, though. Yep, it's a him. Most definitely. When we get a new automobile, we always name it because that way they feel like we care, and that way they'll never leave us stranded (call it crazy, but we've never had a car break down on us). My husband's car is named Pat and our camper is named Atreyu.

Yeah. We're cool like that.

Anyway, this car just screamed his name to me (not unlike the scene in The NeverEnding Story where Bastian screams his Mother's name..it just happened quietly in my head). He is named after the suavest character I can remember from late 1980s/early 1990s TV: Captain Jean-Luc Picard. Well, just Jean-Luc.

from trekcor.com

Smooooooooooth.

So that's my new car. Jean-Luc.