Hi all! Yes I'm still alive and the Black Widow is like the Energizer Bunny, she just keeps going and going and going....nothing new on that front except she's getting a little rest now. I requested a transfer and now instead of an 80 mile round trip it's only about 36 miles. Of course it actually takes longer because I'm fighting D.C. rush hour traffic now. What used to be a 45 minute drive is now 1.5-2.0 hours, even though I'm only going half the distance! Anyone know an inexpensive way to get scratches out of the finish? It looks like a cat tried to sharpen his claws on the hood/top of fender of my Widow and I have a lot of little scratches that look terrible! I didn't notice them until I was out givng her a "spa day"; wash, deep cleaning, polish and wax. Well, my son went and did it! After talking him out of the Marine Corps he went down last week and joined the Army. He said he was tired of waiting for a permanent position in a local fire department and wanted to do something with his life. I even offered to fund college, apartment, car, ect. but he wouldn't do it. Looks like he's going to be an electronics technician on some kind of rocket artillery and goes to boot camp on June 7th. Hope this finds you all well and I promise (again) I won't be such a stranger. I do check in every few days and read the posts, I really do. Army Mom Janice

Great to hear from you. Not alot of posts lately to comment on. I have to admit that I have been preoccupied as well. I'm not an expert on scratches but there are compounds that you can buy for cars that can help to take out or hide the scratches. I would have thought that the deep polishing would have taken out some of them. I feel sorry for your commute. That is the one thing I don't miss having lived in the Toronto area. Here I live on the far side of one city and have to go into the centre of another and it only takes me 20 minutes in the morning. I don't know what to day about your son joining the army. He should really mature there and learn a number of skills. There is always the concern about being in harm's way but it is brave of him to make that choice. Everything here is good, my Escape has passed the 50,000 mi/80,000 km mark and is still like new and is running well. We are just waiting for spring to arrive and the snow to go and the leaves to come out. Take care. Gary