Where do i begin

Buggie Dreams Come True

Did you watch The Love Bug as a child? Remember Herbie? Well, there i was , amongst the millions of VW Beetle fans the world over. And though i did love Herbie a lot, the new Volkswagen Beetle was the stuff my dreams were made of! There was a tweety bird (vw calls it sunflower) yellow beetle parked below my window that substituted the sun on bleak Boston mornings. Then there was the cyber green one that reminded me of a cool mint drink on a hot day. A friend owned a red one that we threatened to paint black dots over.

I dreamt. I sniffed. I sighed. How wonderful would it be to own one. Santa must have heard me.
Or perhaps he didn't.

One sunny and freezing morning , just short of christmas i woke up early and tried charading the husband into a bunch of chores. To be put off by a "i need to go to work". Who goes to work the weekend before christmas? We had friends coming to stay for the weekend. Some more coming to dinner.Why was he going to work again?

He reappeared an hour later, looking sort of disheveled and excited at the same time. A stocking with a key appeared out of nowhere. And the tweety bird yellow bug below my window had been replaced by a bright, shiny, happy- faced blue bug wearing a bright red bow!

Buggie (not a very imaginative name) was loved. adored. worshipped. and driven of course.
Once he lost his vision in his right eye. I was sad. Santa. Sorry , the husband gave it some buggie lovin' and he was right as rain again! My favourite memory of buggie is probably of him bounding into my office lot , with U. at the wheel, both his eyes restored!

There's that memory and several others. Of blue buggie against the blue atlantic. Of a snowy buggie on cold winter mornings. of a summer buggie in Harvard square. Of a shopping buggie not complaining about the large bags piled into it. Of a primping buggie showing off the fresh new sunflowers in the bud vase. Of a cringing buggie when "its raining men" blasted out of it. And of course, of a weeping buggie when i kissed him goodbye.

It's been almost 3 years. 13 days short of 3 years since the goodbye. I know one must move on. I celebrated his birthday for a while and then gave up when people were wondering why i was rabbiting on about an insect, a pet, an ex boyfriend or some alien called buggie.

On a road trip to Germany recently, i met many of buggie's cousins. A sissy white cabriolet. A pretentious black one too. U says the time has come to get over my buggie angst.

Oh well, perhaps now i will! The new Cayman S anyone?