Bring out your dead

 I cleaned up my contacts and Facebook friends list over the weekend and said goodbye to several friends who have died.

I was carrying 14 dead people in my Facebook friends list and six in my contact list.

I suspect I may have missed some.

Adios, Lexus

We said goodbye to our 2004 Lexus RX330 yesterday.

It had developed an expensive power steering problem that would have cost $2,100 to fix, which is more money than I cared to spend on what had become a luxury beater with 205,000 miles on the odometer.

We bought it in 2009 in Jonesboro, Ark. from a guy who worked with Maria at the Jonesboro Sun. He and his pals had a sideline of buying and fixing up wrecked cars for resale. This car began life in Memphis as a corporate car that was written off after being beaten up by a hailstorm. The damage was cosmetic and it was still mechanically sound. The price was well under the Kelly Blue Book value, so we bought it.

It replaced my 1994 Honda del Sol that Maria insisted we get rid of because she felt unsafe driving it.

When it came time to return home to Indiana, we had a U-Haul trailer hitch attached to it, letting us make several trips to Indiana with our stuff.

The guys who repaired it post-hailstorm did a poor job with pain and clear coat. The clear coat was peeling off making it look like a molting bird coming down the street.

So when it crapped out last week, I arranged to donate it to charity and it was picked up yesterday. I just finished taking it off of our car insurance this morning.

Adios, Lexus. Maybe we'll replace you with a newer Lexus or another Subaru.