Thursday, December 15, 2011

Milestone

When I started my car this morning the odometer read 9985. My pulse raced. This was the day we would crack the 10,000 mile mark.

Breathes there the man with soul so dead who doesn't thrill to the rolling of the numbers on an odometer when it's crossing a significant threshold?

When we were kids, the odometer had readouts in tenths of miles. You could see incrementally how close you were coming to a magic moment. It was difficult keeping your eyes on the road anticipating numbers rolling into history.

It's trickier today. Odometers are digital. They click by a mile at a time. You have no idea just when that click will click. By the time you're one mile short of the roll-out you really don't know when it will happen.

Since my wife and I had several stops on our rounds today we knew to keep a sharp watch. The first stop added only a few miles, not even to 9990. The second stop got us to 9995. And since we were now further from home than when we started, we knew the return trip would trip the odometer to 10000. (Note: no commas.)

The suspense built. I fought to keep my eyes on the road. At 9998 my wife leaned over to keep watch. At 9999 I made sure to drive safely since I knew where my real concentration was.

At 1:54 p.m., Thursday, Dec. 15, 2011, on Northfield Ave., just east of Old Short Hills Rd., in Livingston, NJ, my 2010 Honda Accord registered its 10000th mile.

No, it's not for sale.

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