My very first car, a 1976 Buick Riviera. I was young and dumb and thought that I ruled the world. I was wrong. Thanks to the fine folks at Buick for building a wonderfully strong car, I survived my first crash. Sadly, the car and the New Jersey Turnpike bridge did not.

College agreed with me. Too much in fact. I decided I was the king of my own domain. With a final, one-finger salute to my dad, I took my last $250 and bought a 1976 Buick Regal. Thanks to two stolen street signs, I was able to cover up the gaping holes in the floor. This beauty was my live-in home for the next year. When it died, I found myself with no home, car or money for college. I did the only thing any boy my age could do. I joined the Navy.

Following a very depressing medical discharge from the Navy, I bought a 1979 Ford Mustang. Again I felt like I was on top of the world. The Mustang saw my marriage to Marj, the birth of my first daughter, Sami, and my eventual leap from carefree child to family-oriented adult. It was a good car!

With adulthood came the need for a family car. This 1989 Hyundai Excel fit the bill. It wasn't anything to look at, but it was basically new. The girls loved it. Unfortunately, things were about to take a turn for the worse. Financially speaking, we were on the precipice of ruin and things were spirally out of control at an alarming rate.

This was the year of rock bottom. We lost our apartment and the car all within months of each other. We ended up moving in with my mom and bought this 1985 Chrysler New Yorker from a family friend. As bad as things were, we still saw a promising future. Of course, having a car that speaks to you helped keep our spirits up. I still fondly remember those robotic words that made us all laugh, "The door is a jar."

Things were starting to turn around for Marj and I. After a disastrous couple of years working odd jobs, I settled into my groove, went back to school and got my degree, graduated at the top of my class, and joined the elite programmers of the world designing missile navigation systems for the government. Didn't see that coming, did you???

Things were going really well for us in 1999. Not only did we trade in the Neon and lease a 1999 Jeep Cherokee, but we also bought our first house. We even went so far as installing an inground pool. It was a wonderful year!

Our daughter, Shavoynne, had quite a few medical problems growing up. This prevented her from getting her license when she turned 16. After the lease was up on our Jeep, we decided to buy this 2003 Honda Civic with the intention of giving it to Shavoynne when she turned 18 and was able to drive. Shavoynne didn't get her license and this wonderfully economical car became my daily ride.

While things were going quite smoothly on the financial front, marital problems were starting to take their toll on us. One of the final nails in our coffin, was my impulse buy of this beautiful 2005 Ford Mustang. Was I reliving my youth or did I simply see the writing on the wall? It had been a good marriage for the most part, but things were winding down.

This was a most painful year for me. My marriage came to an end and my youngest daughter, Sami, took it VERY hard. We didn't speak for almost a full year. To help ease my pain, I bought a 2006 Pontiac Solstice. I figured a little sports car would help make everything better. I was wrong. Although it didn't help, it was really fun driving it with the top down.

By 2010, Sami and I were talking again, I married and divorced Satan (not to be confused with Marj), I had a beautiful apartment in West Chester and a new job at TIMET. Things were going great! And then I met Melissa. I traded in the Solstice for a 2009 BMW i135 Convertible (with kids comes the need for a backseat).

Melissa and I bought our first home this year. It's in the country by a lake. Since I love to drive and country back roads are about the best in the world, I traded in the BMW for my 2011 Chevy Camaro. The kids, especially John, loved this car. We nicknamed her "Bumblebee". Really, was there any other choice???

Country roads are fun my ass! After one winter I realized that the Camaro wasn't going to work in the country. I traded her in for a 2013 Chevy Silverado. For those of you who have been paying attention, this is my first pick-up truck. It took a bit of getting used to but I love it now. Now all I need to do is buy a couple of kayaks for the lake and we'll be set!

This was a bad year. Melissa and I started to have major problems which would eventually lead to a nasty breakup. Selling the house turned out to be a nightmare (in addition to a horrible financial loss.) I ended up buying a condo in West Chester (bonus points if you realize I've lived here before.) Time to start looking for a new car. LOL.

I've been toying with the idea of getting a Spider for about a year. As luck would have it, I spent Easter with my mom in Florida. We went to a European Car Show while I was there and I got to see the Spider in person. It was love at first site. The day I got home from Florida I drove right to the Fiat/Alpha Romeo dealer and gave them my wishlist. They found the exact car I wanted in upstate New York. I week later I had my new toy.

As fun as the Spider is, I quickly remembered how much I hate driving a convertible in cold weather. The first snowfall (I mean like a coating) resulting in me being stuck in King of Prussia at my new girlfriend Lea's house. There was literally only a coating on her road and I couldn't get the Spider to move. That weekend I decided to put the Spider in the garage until the spring and get myself something more weather appropriate. Introducing the Mazda CX-5, the winter workhorse.

2020 will forever be known as the year of the pandemic. For most people it was a horrible year. Lea and I aren't most people. We decided to cram as much happiness into the year as possible. We enjoyed our time in isolation and ended the year getting married out in Lancaster. It was a small wedding (just us thanks to the pandemic.) After the wedding we started serious retirement planning. One of the big take-aways from our planning session was realizing having three cars wasn't the best option for us. I didn't want to give up the convertible but still needed the winter reliability of the SUV. A Jeep Wrangler was the perfect blend of the two vehicle types. This one should be around for quite a long time.