WHAT A TREASURE!

How many times have you shoved something out of sight, maybe not quite out of sight, because you won’t be using it for awhile. Or just to get it out of the way. Like coming into the garage and spying your golf clubs leaning untouched against the wall. It’s winter after all, and the golf season some months away.

Then there’s the cross-country skis tucked away because you spend more time these past winters hitting the downhill slopes.

In contrast to the golf clubs and cross-country skis, what catches my eye is the small model of a Mazda Miata sportscar sitting comfortably astride the wood carding box on my desk.

It’s bright red with all the details of a regular Miata, with two doors that hinge open; along with the driver and passenger windows. It comes complete with authentic-looking tiny wipers resting against the curved windshield.

If you push down on the little sportscar, it moves up and down on the suspension holding the four wheels in place.

I can see it when writing at my desk. I’ll often stop and smile because it’s a precise replica of my full-sized, bright red Miata sportscar sitting on blocks in the winter next to the house and buried under heavy canvas.

Author’s comment: I saw my first English sportscar back in 1999 parked in the display window of a Montreal dealership. It caught my imagination. A gearshift to boot. The type where if you want the roof off, you loosen bolts, unhook it and along with the windows shove them in the trunk.

What about my twenty-one-year-old Miata parked today next to the house? You fold back the canvas roof and wind down the windows.

I’m looking at the little Miata on my desk. And smile. To think I’ll uncover the bigger version come spring. With some six months of pure driving bliss in the open air.