Naiad Nymph, Shapeshifter, Possible Lesbian

You are going to think we do nothing but shop for big-ticket items. That's not true. We spend most days not spending a cent. I take public transportation to work, carrying a packed lunch. Winnifred works at home and doesn't even buy a bus pass. We're just as abstemious as all get out.

Well. So we bought a car. Yes, a car. I know, that was sudden. We've been driving my sister's car but she got back from Wales and, uh, wanted her car. We thought we'd start the car search and take a few weeks to find something. But you know, when it's bashert it's bashert. No point fighting it. We mentioned that we were going to start looking for a car to Winnifred's dad, who went through the newspaper that same day and told us which one to buy. Winnifred looked it up on the internet and found out that this model year there were problems with some transmissions. She took it to John, our old mechanic from before we moved away seven years ago, who carefully spread some transmission fluid on his arm, then licked it. "Taste's good," he said. Apparently that's how you test for transmission problems.

So John gave his blessing, in his own way. John's a phlegmatic sort of fellow, and what he actually said was, "It's not a bad car." He did tell us to replace the struts. The fellow selling the car liked Winnifred so much he talked the price down, and the rest is history. And here she is.

We call her Daphne. I could not say why we are on a Greek mythology female name kick. We just are. I think of Daphne as a sweet, old-fashioned name. It turns out it peaked in popularity in the 1970s, did well in the 80s and 90s, dipped at the beginning of the century but has rebounded again. It was the 533rd most popular girl's name for babies born in the United States in 2003, ranking well behind another old-fashioned girl's name, Faith (52nd most popular in 2003). If we really wanted an old-fashioned name, we should have called her Winnifred, which hasn't been in the top 1,000 since the 1930s. How do I know all this you ask? Why, the Baby Name Wizard, of course.

A few days after we bought her, we noticed a bird had left us an artwork on the hood.


That bird has been eating late-season berries, if I'm not mistaken. We'll leave it there looking pretty until it doesn't.