You've got a sweet ride now, Charlie!

It's been 4 or so weeks since I first test-drove and then purchased my Mini. During that time, the new-car smell has gone away, I've learned what all the buttons do and I still have a working clutch for the thing.

I love this car. I absolutely love driving it, and now that I'm far more comfortable with stick-shift, I'm not as worried as I was about driving in traffic, because I would stall out a couple of times each trip out while I worked out the timing of the pedals. I still break into a foolish grin every time that I walk into the parking lot and see it.

While driving out and about around Vermont and the surrounding states, I've seen a lot of other minis on the road. I see one regularly on my way to work on Rt. 12, and there's a couple others in the Montpelier area, while I've noticed a bunch of others in the Burlington area. What's funny is that as I pass a lot of these minis, the drivers will wave when they see me passing them. It's not something that happened with my old car. While I don't feel a whole lot of comradeship with people based upon what type of car they drive, but it's nice all the same.

I bought snow tires and got a set of rims for Christmas from my parents. It's not wonderful in the snow, handles corners extremely well, and I don't think that I've ever felt it slip at all now that we're getting snow and ice on the roads here.

I still love this car.