“Never, never, never give up.”
-Winston Churchill

When I graduated university, my parents flew over from England and managed to work my ceremony in with a lot of other traveling.  Amid the rejoicing (and I’m sure the feeling of, “Praise Jupiter, we’re rid of one!”) we had a small soiree at my godparents’ house to celebrate, and at said celebration I was given a fabulous present: my car.

This was a victory on three counts.  First of all, I had just got my U.S. driver license a couple months earlier.  Second, I had a car!  After four years of coordinating eating schedules with flatmates so we’d run out of food at the same time and have to go to the store together.  Bliss!  And finally because my parents had always sworn blind that the one thing they would never do for their kids is buy them a car.  I was such an impressive child that I bent the laws of parental rule (…or my parents really are that cool.  Probably the latter).

In any event, Mum and I put our heads together immediately to find an appropriate name for my new chariot.  Being classical studies/ history types, a number of unusal literary names were tried and dismissed as being too “foofey,” outré, inappropriate, or ridiculous to suit my old but perfectly serviceable and rugged little Honda CR-V.  Finally in a burst of inspiration, my eyes stretched wide and I breathed victoriously, “Indy!”
“Yeah!” mom echoed, “Perfect!”

To explain.  It is not, as many assume (and J. continues to imply despite my numerous efforts to stop him), a tribute to Indiana Jones.  No, no.  Rather it is the nickname for the ship HMS Indefatigable from Forrester’s “Hornblower” series.  Both Mum and all of us kids love the A&E mini-series, partly from a nerdy liking of the Napoleonic wars, but mostly (on the girls’s end) from a crush on yummy Ioann Gruffudd. 

Indefatigable, definition: unwearying, unremitting in labor or effort.  Perfect for my car which is a decade old and doesn’t do terribly well on highways, but never lets me down!

Indy has earned her title yet again recently after a series of near-disasters.  Last night I went straight from work to GS’s house.  Or rather that was the plan.  The reality included being stuck in traffic for over an hour, getting hopelessly lost, and ultimately getting rear-ended on an overpass.  Defeated (and still lost for a while) I slunk home.

And though I was in a bit of a strop, what of Indy you ask?  There was not a scratch on her (the guy who ran into me had a crumpled license plate, i noticed.  HAH!), and she made it home with just enough gas.  If I hadn’t just bought her new tires I would have now just for being so impressive!