Isolde and I have been together now for nearly 25 years now. We first met in Portland and for me it was love at first sight. She was born in a small town called Rheda-Wiedenbrück in Germany from a marriage to a much large family in Wolfsburg. When I first saw her I was awestruck by her beauty and her down to earth personality. She does not care for fancy jewelry or makeup. She dresses plainly but with poise.
Isolde's birth certificate
She loves the great outdoors and likes to travel. She is never picky when on the road and can call it a night at just about anywhere, be it in the cities or in the country. Once we started our relationship my greatest fear is losing her.
I bought her a high end Alpine alarm system. I also bought her the best steering wheel lock. From this incident all my vehicles have anti-theft measures. Like the old saying, locks are intended to keep honest folks honest. By making it more difficult you hope the crooks would move on to easier targets.
During the intervening years we have a great relationship and I just adore her beauty and her sensibilities. Not wanting anyone else to touch her I have always do my best for her. I am grateful that she is never a big spender. She found joy even with a simplest gift, especially ones that are thoughtful. Today she is 25 years young. She is still as beautiful as the day I first met her. Health wise she is excellent inside and out and one cannot believe her age.
Isolde just got new shoes
Over a year ago I met Brunnhilde. There are things I like about the younger Brunnhilde that at time I feel guilty that Isolde may feel neglected. She was not herself in our trip to Vancouver BC. While I knew she was not happy taking the trip I could not tell what was bothering her. Returning home I looked over her from head to toes and could not find the true cause. At the mean time I was living a new blissful life with Brunnhilde. Deep down, however, Isolde is always my first love. Recently I decide to make it up to her.
After a few misdiagnoses I eventually found a defective tire being the cause of her odd behavior during our trip to Vancouver BC. I did some research on compatible tires. Instead of going for the premium brand I decided to give the underdog a chance. To make the long story short without getting into the specifics Isolde came home with four brand new tires for just $150!
Like all new tires you have to let the tire break in before passing judgement. The handling was very squirrelly from the tire shop home. I was not too concern as I know 10 times out of 10 the tire shop over-inflated the tires even if they go out of their way to give the appearance they are competent and care. Also with the mold release the tire is very slick. All four tires are over-inflated when I checked.
After a hundred miles or so the Isolde drives nicely. She is now so smooth, as much as when I just took delivery 25 years ago. It bring smile to my face every time I took her out. There is something so visceral about driving a well made simple vehicle with manual transmission. The spaciousness and plenty of window area give the special experience. Vanagons have some of the best flow through ventilation system and with the engine at the back it is so quite and cool inside. She often attract a lot of attention these days. A couple of days ago a nice lady follow us home. She has an older 1984 and she could not believe how pristine Isolde is.
i just bought her a new dress to protect her from the harmful UV causing damage to her fair skin
Over the next few months, I plan to gift her many new presents:
1) Alpine bluetooth head unit which replaced her top of the range system that is showing it's age
3) update of cabin battery power system with increase reserve energy to handle an all DC refrigerator
4) a DC refrigerator which replaces the outdated 3-way Dometic
6) high power head lamps with relay replacing the rather poor factory ones
No comments:
Post a Comment