My new Prius should be ready for pickup on Tuesday, and I'm getting really excited. I'm very ready for a new car. Bigger, better, greener, lots of modern amenities... all of these add up to something I'm very much looking forward to. If all goes according to plan, I'll probably keep this Prius for years and years.

But it was years and years I was contemplating earlier this afternoon as I was clearing out my 1995 Honda Civic EX, which I affectionately named Stormchaser (or Chaser for short). Chaser is a medium-shade gray with just a hint of purple. Chaser really glows in the rain; when that paint gets wet the purple gets iridescent and the color is beautiful. That car earned his name the first time I noticed the paint after a rainshower. We've been together for a long time.

Chaser is the 3rd car I've ever owned, but is my first "adult" car. I had one in high school and one in college, but Chaser was brand new right off the lot, and I paid for him with my own money after I negotiated a raise. I'd actually researched the Honda Civic the year before when my girlfriend at the time bought her first car. Even though I'd broken up with her, I realized that all the research I'd done applied just as equally to me as it had to her, so I went for it. With that history, though, there's always been a tiny association I've held in my soul between that car and that ex.

But Chaser and I had a life together for more than a decade, and I hadn't really realized how much until I was cleaning him out. Stuff that'd built up in the car for years, old dings and paint scratches, and that comfortable feeling of sliding behind the wheel... something I've done so many, many times over the years.

The very last things I took out of Chaser were a charm that Lindaloo made for me to keep me safe, and a Celtic knot that symbolizes my indoctrination into the local Celtic rock and Irish ceili scene, both of which hung from the rear-view mirror. As I took them down I thought about all the things I'd done with that car, all the places I'd been... the commutes, the vacations, the visits to friends and girlfriends, the drives back and forth to the Starry Plough, the trips to Tahoe (oh the many blizzards we've shared!), and just lazy drives through the hills I grew up in.

Those times have come to an end. Thank you Stormchaser, for everything. May your next owner have as fulfilling a life together as we have.