Shawn L. Bird

Original poetry, commentary, and fiction. All copyrights reserved.

Bye Sheila. The end of an era… June 18, 2023

Filed under: anecdotes,Friendship,OUTLANDERishness,Pondering — Shawn L. Bird @ 4:40 pm
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In 2008, I was 44. My kids were grown and gone. I was writing my first novel. I was president of my Rotary Club. I wanted to buy my dream car. In the previous 23 years, hubby had done all vehicle purchases for the family. I hated his boring choices. I wanted a fun, cute car that got amazing fuel economy. So, I saved. I spent $10,000 of my own money on my dream car: A 2000 TDI New Beetle that was dubbed “Sheila the Bug.”

Sheila was quickly adorned with decals of butterflies and flowers. She became a fixture in town. Everyone knew when I was at an event. People spotted me on highways and wrote to ask where I was going. Everyone smiled when they saw her (except the jerk who keyed her in the parking lot of the Delta South Hotel in Calgary or the people whose friends punched them because they didn’t read the sign that she is a “HUG BUG-no punches allowed!” So many little girls eyes lit up as they whispered, “I LOVE YOUR CAR!” She got 1000 km on a tank. I could drive to Calgary and back to the Shuswap on a single tank! What a gal!

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Sheila even hosted a celebrity passenger! In 2014 I picked up Outlander author Diana Gabaldon at the airport to bring her to our local writing conference. When she got into the car, she noticed what was in my bud vase and laughed, “Pocket Jamie gets around!” In my nervous excitement I forgot how to shift gears for a few minutes as we drove through the parking lot! When we were stopped by a paving crew for 20 minutes when we were almost in town, it was the most fun I’d had while stopped by a flagger, as we chatted about what it was like to film her cameo performance in the MacKenzie’s Gathering episode of the Outlander TV show.

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And heavens- I almost forget her ALMOST celebrity passenger! In 2013, we drove by Jamie Fraser himself (that is, Sam Heughan) when he was stranded with his brother on the side of the road in the Trans-Canada Highway as we were going to Calgary! I wrote about that experience here.

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Sheila had 145,000 km when I bought her. We have shared 158,000 km in our 15 years together. We drove as far south as Ellensberg, WA, as far west as Vancouver Island, as far north and east as Stettler AB (not very east or north, really!) I’d aimed to get to 400,000, but it is not to be.

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I have purchased my second car, a 2017 Honda Fit/Honda Jazz. She’s only got 35,000 km. She’ll get a few of Sheila’s decals on her butt in tribute to my first beloved car, so full of character and fun.

Happy trails, Sheila. We’ll miss you.

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A suicidal raccoon in 2012 is the reason for the bumper in the original Cyber Green. 11 years and it didn’t fade like the original paint did. I love the beautiful blue/green she aged to!
Scarred by a jealous cowboy. How many hugs did we see when we went by?

I really wanted to take a photo of Diana in my car at the time, but I thought that would just be weird. While she already had my measure from a few other interactions in the previous 3 years, I was trying really hard not to be weird! lol

May be an image of 1 person, rear-view mirror and toy

Pocket Jamie sat in my bud vase for a decade. He was a promotional item made for the first season of Outlander (which remains the only season I have seen in its entirety. By season 2 they’d made too many changes to Diana’s books for me).

 

Fluevog here, Fluevog there… March 3, 2011

Filed under: Commentary,Grace Awakening — Shawn L. Bird @ 12:53 am
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Hot on the heels of my recent blog on Fluevog shoes, I discovered John Fluevog himself looking out at me from the cover of Vista magazine while I was visiting my local health food store today (stocking up on dark chocolate covered ginger and stevia)  Check it out. The article is on page 22. http://www.vistamagonline.com/

Fluevog is asked how his love of cars influences his shoe designs and he responds,

I like cars because I like the way they look; it has nothing to do with the way they drive.  I actually walk to work every day and I don’t drive that much, thought I have four cars.  Oddly enough, cars and shoes have a lot in common.  They’re multi-angular, multi-functional, continuously moving shapes.  I think cars are fashion guards–the lack of fashion lately in cars is a reflection of society and what people think.

This amuses me because in Grace Awakening Fatima the Bug is almost a character,

Like everything else about her, Auntie Bright’s car was very distinctive.  It was an ancient VW Beetle that she’d had painted a vivid Mediterranean blue, and then she’d hand painted it with a swirling variety of giant paisleys in purples, blues, yellows and reds.  Here and there were dots of gemstones glued on as accents, just to add sparkle.  At first glance it seemed as if she’d upholstered the car with vivid cloth and sequins.  People did double takes on the highway, and she generally had at least one person stop to admire and to ask her about it wherever she went.  Children were drawn to it.  People smiled as they saw her coming.  It always made her shake her head and remark, “People are such cowards.  They come and rave about how beautiful my car is, how they wish they could have a unique car, and yet they content themselves to drive around in boring mud coloured cookie cutters.  I don’t get it.”  (p. 269)

We’ve already established that  Bright would love Fluevog’s shoes.   I wonder what he’d think of Bright’s car?

Or mine, for that matter!