"Hank"

So this is a sadder post. Yesterday I was driving to a doctor's appointment. I noticed on my way there that my RPMs were out of control... My car was working hard and not even going the speed limit- and I wasn't going uphill. I'm not very smart with stuff about cars but I knew something was up. I put my hazards on and moved to the slow lane and tried to keep it under 2 RPMs- which helped me go like 15 mph in a 50 mph zone. Then I hit a stop light and as I was passing through my RPMs just dropped to zero and I couldn't hit any gas at all anymore. I wasn't running on empty. I pulled over and called the doctor's office to cancel my appointment. Then I called my sister- the plan was to call AAA, but then I figured I'd try turning off my car and giving it a rest and turning it back on. It worked. But there was an awful knocking noise now- brand new. Great. I thought about driving home and opted on taking it in instead. I started heading back towards downtown Provo and called my Dad. I took it to Smith's Garage- they've helped me out before. He said he'd look at it and today I called and got the diagnosis. The motor is in really bad condition and needs to be replaced and there is some leak in the oil- which caused the knocking noise. I was running on almost no oil- weird cause I got that looked at the first week of December. But I guess when there's a leak I guess it DOES vanish quicker. So it costs too much to fix my car, Henry, or as my friend Scotti refers to him- "Hank", and so Hank is as good as dead- we're going to have to put him out of his misery. I NEVER referred to my car as Hank til now- but for some reason it feels right. So this post is "Hank's" obituary.

I've known Hank his whole life, and my whole driving life. Yes I was "one of those spoiled rotten kids". I had my permit and knew that I would get a car. The deal in my family was, straight A's got you a car, as much as my parents could afford, and for every grade below you got a lower and lower price range. I had straight A's though and so I got my pick. We looked at different cars- the Honda Civic and Accord and the Infiniti G20 were our top picks. The reasons for picking the Infiniti G20- it had leather seats, whereas the Hondas you had to upgrade to get the leather. The Infiniti had a sun/moon roof the Honda did not. The Infiniti had a tape player AND a cd player. The Honda had a tape player but you had to upgrade for a cd player. The Infiniti had keyless entry. AND my little sisters' favorite- the back seats folded down into the trunk. The models we were looking at with Honda did not. To top it all off, it was $2,000 cheaper than either of the Hondas. (Course it didn't end up being cheaper- I'll explain later). I decided on the color red. So it was set- or so I thought. Then one day my Dad tells me they only had made 2 red cars in the whole state of CA and they were both already sold. So we went back to the lot and I decided on blue- dark blue.

The day of my birthday came and we were getting ready to go to dinner (a family tradition- on your birthday you get to choose where we eat, or when we couldn't afford it, we got to choose what my Mom made for dinner) and my Dad tells me, the blue cars have all been sold, let's stop by the dealer on the way to dinner and you can pick out another color. I had already seen the other colors- I didn't really like them in comparison. I mean I was happy to just be getting a car but if I couldn't have the color I wanted- why force me to waste time deciding between colors I don't care about? So I asked, "What about the blue car that was on the lot?" Apparently someone else had bought it for their daughter- probably a similar case. So I was dragged to the dealership once again and was NOT ecstatic. Couldn't they just pick another color? I didn't care. And I don't like shopping- not for cars, or clothes anyways and other stuff like that. We walked through the front and then the guy who had been helping us throughout the whole experience said there were more in the back. We walked to the back and there is a blue car with balloons on it, and I'm thinking- lucky girl, she got the last blue car. We're walking and I'm following the guy and my Dad goes, "What do you think of that blue car?" I'm getting really annoyed with my Dad- he's making me choose another color when I told him I don't have a preference anymore and now he's rubbing it in. So without turning around to look at my Dad I'm like, "It's great Dad, it's the color I wanted." And he goes, "Yeah, but what do you think of it?" I really was not in the mood to have anything rubbed in (this shows how spoiled I am, or how much I hate being forced to choose when I don't have a preference, not sure which one it shows more). I turned around, I don't know what I was going to say, but I saw my Dad looking at me.... with a video camera. And it sunk in. The car was mine. I was like, "I thought the one on the lot had been sold?" To make a long story short, it had been, the story I heard was accurate, this car was slightly different, it was a G20t, the t made all the difference in the world. It bumped up the price, which my Dad paid. And the guy who had been helping us had driven it up from San Diego just that morning. There were only 2 cars left when my Dad bought this one, the other one was in San Francisco area. The t meant it had a turbo engine and "European style headrests" and something different about the tires. So thus began mine and Hank's journey.

We had many good memories in that car. Driving my sisters around, letting them play in the trunk. My freshmen year of college. Racing. That brought Scotti and I together- our first discussion was about how I had a nice car, and the first night we met we raced home. I won. Scotti says I cheated, but I don't recall setting rules to cheat on... :) Getting a racing ticket and going to traffic school with Scotti- our "first date". Haha. That's a whole other story. Going to the temple. Pondering. Driving in general. Making it home in record time. And more recently, taking it slow. I've put Hank through more than his fair share, but I think he still knows I care. When I first got him I used to wash him every week- those were good times too. It became a good way to release stress. And now our times are through, but I will ALWAYS remember my Hank. He was my "first" and will always have a place in my heart. Love you Hank!

Henry "Hank" Lang
Feb. 24, 2001- Jan. 5, 2010