My driveway is home to a myriad of vehicles, some fairly new, some old but classic cars, some in various forms of restoration, and one that just keeps on going for reasons that are beyond comprehension. That's the case with my 1994 Jeep Cherokee XJ Sport.

On any given weekend I can walk outside to go somewhere and every "nice" vehicle I have wil be gone. One may be on the way to school, one parked at Walmart, another at a freinds.house, but always, and I mean without doubt, that poor old Jeep will still be sitting there. No one else in my whole family even likes to look at it, never mind actually drive it. In fact, a couple of my beloved family members have said they would rather walk. Upon which I said that was a good idea.

My poor old Jeep has 237,890 miles on her. (Yes, its a "her", how else has it lasted this long?) I pulled her home after paying 00.00 for her. The former owner had abandoned her, called her worthless and parked her after teaching way too many teenagers how to drive.

If you know me, you already know I have a weak spot for anybody or anything that has been called worthless. You might also know I am a huge fan of the Jeep, in any form. I fell in love witj this old car the second I saw it. Since then, it went from not running and about to blow up to roadworthy with little to no investment.

It has no air conditioning, no radio, the driver's seat is broken, and sits at a strange anglee, the ring and pinion have at least 1/8 an inch of play, it needs brakes, u-joints, the engine rebuilt, as well as the trans, the transfer case is an NP231 and with. Hair line crack at that, but I love it dearly! I drive it before I do any other vehicle I own.

I get strange looks in town when + drive by. The driver's door is welded on and makes a weird squeaky noise. The torque converter sounds like a Boeing 757 just before take off. The tires are so dry rotted one would think they would burst any second, but they don't. The old Jeep just keeps on going, as long as itsme that touches it. If anyone else does, it quits on them. I think its funny.

Because of the love and dedication, stamina, and overall worthyness of this little Jeep, I have decided to completely restore it, mechanicly and most of the cosmetics. It has been rolled lightly at some point in her life, thus the welded door hinges, and top damage just above the driver's door roof line. I'm not going to fix those sort of things, but I will paint over them. I am going to do this because these marks, not unlike my wife's Cesarian section scars are marks that define a portion and important part of my life, namely, the birth of my two daughters. I don't think they are ugly at all. The rollover gives this Jeep character, and I love character! I don't want a clone of everybody else's Jeep, I want MY Jeep.

So, um, yeah, I will be spending as much, if not more, than I would if I were to just go buy another Jeep already done, but then it would't be my Jeep, now would it?

My point of this entry is two-fold. The first being that I immediantly bonded that Jeep, mainly because I knew how she felt, because like me, she'd been rode hard n' put up wet. Secondly, and the most obvious, if something loves you, love it back! Don't be so freaking hung up on the paint scheme, 'cause it's the heart that counts.

T<3U