Back In Black with Velma...

Almost three years ago, I managed to get a 2002 Dodge Durango (nicknamed Trudie) after the previous car I owned (Bianca) tried to kill me. I was happy with Trudie until recently when I started having to pour money into her for repairs. Now, I work and play in a field that has to deal with technology both mechanical and electronic, so I know that wear and tear can eventually break any machine. I was okay with some of the repairs, but after a little while it got expensive. Way more expensive that the car was actually worth. So, with some advice from colleagues at my new job, I decided to get a new car. A different car. My dream car. Meet Velma.

She's a 2004 Dodge Durango Limited Edition. She has a 4.7L V8 engine putting out about 200 horses. She gets 13 mpg city and 18mpg highway. She has a power sunroof, leather seats, and a kick ass fully functional sound system with satellite radio, CD player and aux port! She seats 7 passengers, but I'll most likely never go beyond 5 so the 3rd row of seats will spend most of it's time down to give me more trunk space.

I used to own a 04 Durango back in the day. (I even still have pics of Didi up on my Facebook page.) It was such a pleasure to drive around in that car. I actually ENJOYED the experience of driving because it felt like I was driving in a bubble on a cloud. And driving Velma has brought that experience back! It's simply amazing. The people who have ridden with me in the car have remarked about how great Velma is and how happy I am behind the wheel. Normally, I'd say they were crazy, but I think they are on to something. Now, my dear readers, you probably have a couple questions running through your mind right now. 1) Why Velma?? There are so many better names out there than Velma, right? So why that? 2) Am I worried about how easy it was to get this car on a cosmic karma level?

To answer your first question: My initial response was to name the car, Daphne. It was a unique name, starting with D and it seemed to fit the vehicle. But on the odyssey needed to get the car registered (more on that in a sec), I was staring at the car thinking about how sexy it looked. Don't look at me like that. If women can freak out about sexy shoes, I can freak out about how sexy my car looks. Anyway, so I was looking at my new car and thinking about the name Daphne. I haven't known many people named Daphne so the name always makes me think of Scooby Doo. And when thinking about the ladies of Scooby Doo, the sexiest one isn't Daphne (despite what every one ELSE thinks) it's actually Velma. I came to the conclusion that my car was too sexy to be called Daphne, and so she became Velma.

Velma from Scooby Doo

As for the second question: As awesome an experience it was to buy the car, getting it registered was a pain. I got the paperwork to transfer the registration from Trudie to Velma, and was told in no uncertain terms by my insurance company that I would have no problem bringing the forms to the DMV for processing. I get to the DMV, and after the requisite hour of waiting for no reason, I go up to the lady who is designated as my helper. I give her the forms and she looks at them for about 20 seconds and tells me she can't accept them. The insurance stamp is on the wrong form and I have to go to the offices of my insurance agency to get the proper form stamped. I was told this at around 4pm. The location of the offices of my insurance company in MA: Woburn, MA.

I had to drive on the highway to Woburn, MA at the beginning of rush hour traffic!

So, I go down to Woburn and explain my situation to the lady there. She gets flustered and starts apologizing profusely. Apparently, there was a new law passed to make the registration process simpler that the Lawrence DMV was not following properly. So she apologized several times for my inconvenience and told me in that her supervisor would speak to the people at the Lawrence DMV to clear up the matter. I was sitting on a bench outside the offices of my insurance agency when I had the epiphany about changing my car's name to Velma. Then I drove back to Lawrence.

The DMV was closed when I got back so I did some coding at home and then went to bed.  This morning I go the DMV. I got there a bit early, so I waited in my car for the office to open its doors. Once they were open, I waded through the line of people, again, to make it to a different lady for the registration transfer. This time there were no issues. However, just for cosmic irony, the lady next to me was attempting to get a registration done as well, and I hear the DMV clerk attending her saying that she needs to call her insurance agency and have them email her the proper form stamped and that plus a form from the dealer will be sufficient for registration. Hearing that, I almost blew a gasket!!

Why couldn't I have gotten THAT clerk YESTERDAY!!!

But I didn't say anything. You don't want to start something at the DMV. It will always bite you in the ass. So, I kept my mouth shut. I just paid for the transfer of registration and left the DMV. So, I think the scale for cosmic karma is balanced on this issue. In any case, I've got my dream car and I'm happy. If you're lucky, my dear readers, I may just give you a ride! And as a parting gift, I leave you with the video of the first song I played when I got behind the wheel of the car.

  So, what do you think, my dear readers? Sound off in the comments below!