Full Buick Moon

I’ve been following the moon cycles this year with a great calendar that tracks the name of each full moon. According to the Farmer’s Almanac, the names come from Native American culture and were a way of keeping track of the seasons. Here are the year’s moons so far:

January – Full Wolf Moon
February – Full Snow Moon (this one was a total lunar eclipse)
March – Full Worm Moon
April – Full Pink Moon (this one fell on my birthday, which was fun)
May – Full Flower Moon
June – Full Strawberry Moon

I’ve been sharing these with my students (particularly when class falls on a full moon), and it’s been a fun way to inch our way out of winter and celebrate each turn toward spring and the flowering of summer. Unlike the Solstices, which happen after the season is in full swing, the Full Moons really do lead you through the seasons and make even the howling cold of January seem beautiful.

A few weeks ago, I announced that it was a New Moon and one of my students asked what the name of this one was. I don’t usually check until it’s the Full Moon, so when I got home, I flipped ahead in my calendar.

Full Buick Moon.

Wha?

On second glance, I saw that it was actually Buck, not Buick.

But I like Buick better.

As most of you know, I drive a Buick. (Hello, my name is Judy and I drive a Buick.)

It all began five years ago, with a great little Honda. A friend of mine got the Honda after it caught fire and a friend of hers sold it to her for cheap. She drove it for a few years and then sold it to me for cheap. I drove it for a few years and then when it didn’t pass the emissions test and my mechanic said it never would, I sold it to my brother for cheap.

(And then, my brother took it in and immediately and effortlessly passed the emissions test. I nearly died.)

It was then, in a fit of concern and carlessness, that my parents stepped in and suggested that I buy a car from a friend of theirs. A Buick.

I don’t know why I did it. The first time I got in the car, I hated it. Pretty much every time I got in the car after that, I hated it. Problem is, it’s been a totally reliable car. Very little maintenance required. It has a great stereo. Sun roof, leather seats, air conditioning. And it rides really smooth. I always beat the other cars when the light turns green. Even cuter, newer little sports cars. I smoke ‘em. The Buick is fast.

The first week I had the car, I went to CarMax and tried to trade it in. What they offered wasn’t much, so I figured I’d hold on to it for a bit. It wasn’t that bad.

Five years later and the Buick and I have been through a lot together. The past couple of years, I’ve moved a lot and the Buick has been a second home, a storage space and possibly the single most consistent thing in my life. I’ve had a love-hate relationship with the car and have, over the years, reluctantly accepted myself as a Buick owner.

I’ll interject here to note that this is not the first Buick I’ve owned. Nor is it the second. It is, in fact, my third Buick. The first one, in all fairness to me, was my actual grandmother’s car. (As opposed to someone else’s grandmother’s car, or the proverbial Grandmother’s Car, which is what I drive now.) And I was in high school. Circumstances which totally justify the driving of a Buick. The second Buick was a Skyhawk (the less popular cousin of the Skylark). This car I paid $50 for. Again, you can hardly blame me.

So I considered selling the Buick and using the money to fix up the Jeep that John and I drove across the country last summer – the 1989 Wrangler that needs a new engine, a new transfer case, doesn’t have complete doors and the seat doesn’t go far enough up for me touch the pedals so I always need to drive with a big cushion behind me. Also doesn’t have a radio, the seatbelt doesn’t work and it has 289,000 miles on it. (But, as John reminds me, no rust!) This, somehow, seems like a much better alternative to driving a perfectly fine Buick. Then I reconsider and am grateful that I have such a low maintenance vehicle. This goes on…

Until.

I get a call from my brother the other day.

“You can have the Honda back.”

I stop to consider what this means. First, it’s a free car. Second, it’s a cute, zippy, manual transmission car. Third, it’s the Honda! I tell him I’ll think about it. Then he says the magic words: “it has permanently passed the emissions test.” It’s so old that it is now exempt. There’s no way it can fail.

The emissions test has sort of been my automotive Achilles heel. First the Honda, and then every year, I’ve had problems getting the Buick to pass.

I took the car and put the Buick up on Craigslist.

I got the Honda back!

This, of course, is not without its problems. The car is fussy when it comes to traffic. It simply does not like to idle. It’s maybe burning oil or something. There’s no AC, which is really not great in this week of 90-degree heat. It has 180,000 miles on it and it’s 22 years old. But it runs! It starts like a little Honda dream.

So now, in this month of the Full Buick Moon, things are coming full circle. I have the Honda. I can confidently sell the Buick because I have a back-up car. I can drive the Honda until I find a newer car. I can start a new chapter in my life and begin to rebuild my self-image as a car owner. I can put these years of American-car-driving behind me and look toward a brighter future of new-car-driving.

As we approach the Full Buick Moon on July 18, let’s all say a little prayer for the Buick. A prayer of thanks for getting me where I need to be. And a prayer that it will sell...quickly and for a good price.