Birthday Surprise

So for about as many years as we've lived here I've always admired the cherry 1960s vintage Porsche 356 parked occasionally, usually under a cover, on Third East. I knew that it belonged to a retired Porsche mechanic. A couple weeks ago I drove down Third East on the way home and saw a "For Sale" sign in the window of the Porsche. I couldn't believe it. I went home and looked up similar cars on eBay. They were going anywhere from $6000 to $20000+. That was pretty much the last I thought of the car. I also thought about my buddy Jerry, who had commented to me about that car before.

Imagine my surprise today when Trish met me for lunch. We were walking to where I supposed the van would be parked and I saw that little Porsche parked there with a faculty parking tag hanging on the rear view mirror. I said, "Wouldn't you know it--a faculty member bought that car and I'm going to have to look at it all the time here." As we walked closer, Trish said, "Why don't you get in and drive it?" Yeah, right. When she insisted, and insisted again, my initial excitement that she had bought me a 1965 Porsche 356c for my birthday turned to fear. Could it be that my normally very responsible wife had gone fiscally mad?

Turns out my friend Jerry bought the car. When he bought it, the sign had only been in the window for an hour. He lent it to us today for my lunch hour. It was a kick. We came out of Bajio's and there was a girl taking a picture of it with her cell phone!

It was the best birthday surprise in a long time. I told her she's going to have to work really hard to outdo this one when my 40th rolls around in a couple years.