I married a car guy. Well, really, I married a corvette guy.  Back when you could, his parents brought him home from the hospital in his dad’s 1970 Mulsanne Blue LT-1, his mom holding him in her lap. I have a sneaky feeling at just a few days old that is when he fell in love with corvettes.

The 1970 Mulsanne Blue corvette that brought The Hubs home from the hospital after his birth.

Side note: I promise this blog post is not riddled with techie talk. At least, not too much techie talk. I’m not the walking corvette encyclopedia that The Hubs is. My technical knowledge about corvettes wouldn’t fill half of one page of what he knows.

Our relationship start involved a corvette. The Hubs picked me up for our first date in his dark metallic red ’95. Honestly, I don’t remember much about the ride that night as I was too busy falling in love with him. But the ’95 does have a special place in my heart. It was our wedding departure vehicle and I had to threaten non-corvette friends within an inch of their lives not to do anything to it.

Our 2008 vacation was spent in Tulsa at the National Corvette Convention, where The Hubs raced in the autocross.  Many a weekend has been spent participating in autocross events. When we first got married, we both were active in our local corvette club, attending meetings and all sorts of social events, working shows and autocrosses. Corvette people are beyond nice, so it was a fun time. But, as life goes on, interests change, we had four legged kiddos, or Spoiled Dogs, and I was content to do other things while The Hubs continued his love affair without me. Last year, The Hubs and his dad went to the NCRS Bloomington Gold Show in Indianapolis.  They took the same ’70 ‘vette The Hubs came home from the hospital in.

Then, 2 years ago, we acquired the second corvette – a 1970 big block in Donnybrook Green. This ‘70 beauty needed some serious love. While we had the numbers-matching engine, it wasn’t actually in the vehicle. It needed a lot of work.  She had sat, immobile, in pieces for over 20 years. The Hubs was eager to get her running again and out on the open road. And that’s when I became a corvette widow.

It’s really not a bad thing. I mean, I know where my husband is and who he’s with. But still, he spends an awful lot of time with her. The ‘95 is nicknamed The Whore because she’ll take all the abuse and money you can give her. I named the ‘70. I refer to her as The Mistress, because The Hubs spends all his free time with her. And a fair amount of money, too. It seems every other day we get a part delivered to the house. I chuckle and think of Johnny Cash’s One Piece At A Time.

I’m not envious of the car. I actually support The Hubs in this endeavor and know how important it is to him to get The Mistress running again. It’s not been an easy or fast process, either, and through no fault of his own, it’s been rather frustrating. It took quite a while to get her engine installed again. It runs, and it sounds really, really good. But having sat dormant for 20 plus years, there are lots of other systems that need some love and attention, too.

I took my first ride, and may have even been the very first passenger ever in this car, a few weeks ago. It was not the ‘luxury’ ride I’m used to. The foam padding in the seats needs replacing after 47 years in the hot Texas heat.  The A/C hasn’t been re-connected either and well, I’m a princess when it comes to being comfortable.  But The Mistress and I made our peace. I know that one day, she will be fully spiffy inside and out.

1970 Big Block, aka The Mistress

Today, my ‘widowhood’ continues. The Hubs took The Mistress to a meet up of Sharks & Stingrays, a local corvette group. I’m not sure which category The Mistress falls into, to be honest. I’ve never bothered to ask. But away they went to hang out with other C3 enthusiasts. He invited me. Or he said I was welcome to come. Let’s be real, The Mistress is not ready for The Wife full time. The aforementioned lack of A/C is a big impediment and the temperatures are expected to be in the triple digits today. Plus, I really don’t have much desire to hang out with a bunch of corvette junkies talking about this and that and the other ‘vette thing. Just thinking about that makes me yawn. Besides, if The Mistress breaks down, he needs me to rescue him.

There are widowhood events in the not too distant future as well. In July, there is the National Corvette Restoration Society (NCRS) National Convention in San Antonio. The Hubs hopes to go. He has my blessing. I may go, but only if we tow The Mistress behind the Suburban. Again, it’s that whole comfort thing. July in San Antonio is a just a wee bit warm. In October, the Lone Star Regional NCRS event happens in Frisco, TX.  I know The Hubs is itching to go to that as well. He has my blessing for this event, too, but most likely, I’ll stay home and be a Corvette Widow and Spoiled Dog Mom that weekend. You see, as much time as The Hubs spends with The Mistress, he always comes home to me.