[RKDinOKC]

Not putting many miles on my vehicles has been a perk of working from home. With the grocery store less than 2 miles away road trips are so short noticed I had to keep an eye on the battery and trickle it up. Now that the grocery store is more than 2 miles away it hasn't been an issue. Have had to mentally think of the oil change interval in months instead of miles. And fill up the gas tank right after payday whether the light comes on or not. Dad always impressed on me it was just as easy to keep the top half of the gas tank full as the bottom half.

On grandma's 65 Ford Galaxie 500 with the a 352 and dual exhausts her trips were so short in the small town she lived in (not even a full mile round trip for groceries, church, the 5 and dime, even Walmart) the car never got the exhaust hot enough to burn the condensate out. Every 2 years had to replace the exhaust because it kept rusting out.

I never really thought about it then but Grandma had some weird stuff in her car. She had a compass that was glued to the dash. Her pets were cats but on her dash was a bobble head pit pull. She also had a dancing hula girl on the dash and had never been to Hawaii. Hanging from the rear view mirror was a little man wearing a top hat all made from necklace beads. The weirdest thing was a fuzzy plush toy green dragon 2 ft long on the rear deck that it's eyes lit up red with the brake lights.

Come to think of it Grandma gave me a taxidermy stuffed baby alligator a little over a foot long when I was 4. Don't remember Grandparents taking a trip to anywhere for it to be a souvenir and never saw it at their house. Just remember her giving it to me and it wasn't wrapped or anything. Like most kids about that time I liked dinosaurs. Knew it was a baby alligator and not a dinosaur or dragon. Grew up with it, it survived going to college with me and I still have it today. Have just always had it on my dresser, desk, or bedside table or lampstand.