Random Thoughts

It's been a virtual blog ghost town lately. No one seems to be updating their blogs this week (Amanda... Flannery... Melissa...). I'm even feeling uninspired. I couldn't muster up the creative juices to write anything yesterday and today I'm feeling the same. Blah.

My last post was my 200th. It took me a year to reach 100 and two months to reach 200. Have I been chatty lately?

Have I mentioned how much I love my car? I love my car.

Luke's Jeep has decided to hold a sit-in in our driveway. It's refusing to not only let him open the doors, but also to start. I blame this on Luke's talk of buying a new truck lately. I was still in my bathrobe, making coffee this morning when Luke tried to leave and couldn't. I had to throw some clothes on, dunk my head in the tub, toss some makeup in my purse and hop in the car to take Luke to work. I left in such a hurry that I had to take mental inventory of my outfit before I got out of the car at work, just in case: shirt? check, pants? check, two matching shoes? check.

Molly goes for a haircut tonight. She gets her hair cut more often than I do and her haircuts cost more than my salon visits do. What does this say about me?

I've been crafting lately but I can't share the details with you because they are top-secret crafts for a certain someone who might be reading this blog. Stay tuned and maybe I'll eventually be able to reveal what I've been up to.

It's going to snow tonight, I'm so sad.

My Yaris: Week 1

It's been a whole week since I brought home my new car and I've managed not to gush about it here each and every day (you're welcome). Since today marks one week since she became mine, I thought I'd give you the highlights. In case you're on the fence about getting a Yaris of your own (Paula) perhaps this will sway you.

I've decided to name her Bernie - I'll explain that another day.

I love:
The cup holders - seriously - they're sturdy and secure and EVERYWHERE.
How fast she heats up on a cold morning.
The funky weird dashboard.
The three glove boxes.
How peppy she is.
The secret storage compartment in the back.
The comfy seats.
The plug for my iPod.
The scene last weekend loading a new 55-gallon aquarium into the back (it fit!)
The gas mileage! (First fill-up: 35mpg)

I'm still getting used to:
The light-sensing headlights. They turn themselves on which makes me forget to manually turn them on all the way. It's spooky that she knows when it's dark out.

I don't love:
The sensor that knows when someone is sitting on the passenger seat and then turns on the dinger to remind the passenger to put her seat belt on. I've tried, Molly flat-out refuses to wear her seat belt. I have to latch the seat belt across the seat when she rides with me, otherwise I hear 60 seconds of ding, ding, ding... every time the car starts up.

I tried to find other things I don't like but there just aren't any. She's fantastic and I still can't believe she's mine.

539-HUP

That licence plate has been with me for thirteen years. Almost as long as Luke has been with me. It's been on the back of a Hyundai, an Audi, a Subaru, a Kia, an Isuzu, and now, it finally gets to sit on the back of a brand spanking new 2007 Toyota Yaris. I'm still in shock.

I went to a Toyota dealership in Manchester with my friends Paula and Karlo on Saturday because they said that they wanted to test drive a Yaris. Well, sneaky Paula tricked me into test driving it and I was pleasantly surprised. It was very roomy inside and seriously peppy to drive. It has a sporty little shifter and low clutch pedal that made it really fun to drive. I loved it, Paula and Karlo loved it, but Luke still hadn't seen it. I told the salesgirl that I'd bring Luke back later and then we could decide.

I left there with that skeevy, slightly violated feeling you get after sitting in close proximity to a car salesperson. I was driving home and figured, heck, I already feel icky, why not go to another dealership and see what they have to say.

I drove out to Toyota of Colchester and was greeted by a friendly guy named Joe. He took some information from me and went to see what they had for Yarises that matched my requirements. He came out with the cutest little silver one - how did he know I wanted a silver one? He didn't even ask about color. I test drove it and again and loved it. I had it out on route 2 and was speeding before I knew it. It's got a lot of get-up-and-go for a little 4-cylinder! Again I went back and said that Luke needed to test drive it and maybe we could come back next weekend. Seeing as how it's the end of the month, they were anxious to make me a deal so they said that most amazing words I never expected from a car dealership - "Why don't you take it home? Bring it back on Monday". And so began my 42-hour test drive.

I was able to see how it did driving up my slushy, muddy driveway, how well my scrapbooking stuff fit in the hatchback area, how the headlights and dash lights looked at night, how easily I could reach the ATM from the driver's seat, how groceries fit in the back, and most importantly, how it looked sitting in the driveway. Then the test of all tests - Monday morning I had to bring it back before work and we had 4" of new snow on the ground. I got to see how it drove in the snow. It was the ideal test drive. I knew I loved it and I wanted it.

I went back to the dealership last night to try an work a deal. My Rodeo still had a loan on it so I needed some money for it and when they offered me $1,000 I grabbed my stuff and said "thank you, good-bye". I managed to negotiate up another $2,000 which I thought was pretty darn good form someone who usually responds to any type of struggle by bursting into tears.

So my Rodeo is gone, I do feel a little sad about that, and a new little car has taken it's place. Meet my new Yaris. She still doesn't have a name yet. I've always called my cars "Bessie" because they were all heaps of junk, but the Yaris is perky and new so she needs a good name. Some cute, Japanese name, maybe. For now, she's just my Yaris.

Good-Bye Rodeo?

I don't know what to do. I really can't stop thinking about trading in my car now. It's all Paula's fault. I've had my eye on the Yaris for a while now, I have hatchback envy, so last weekend when Paula mentioned that she might get a Yaris to commute to work in, seeing as how the price tag was less than $12,000, I was immediately intrigued. Really, $12,000? For a new car? And it gets 30-45 MPG? Interesting.

I did some math and figured that I could continue making payments at the same amount I'm paying now for my Rodeo, just extend the time I have to pay them another three years, and have a brand new car. A brand new car with a 5-year warranty which would also save me $100 a month in gas.

OK, let's recap: I get a brand new car (a cute one) and continue spending the same for the payment as I am currently, so there's no extra cost to me, I wouldn't have to worry about check engine lights or weird noises coming from the engine, AND I would save myself $100 a month in gas. Oh, and the earth, I'd be polluting less of the earth with my small, fuel-efficient economy car. That's nice, too.

So what am I missing? What are the cons? I've tried to make my list and I can't come up with any cons other than: having to listen to Luke complain that I have an ugly car.

I asked Luke to be honest and tell me what he thought about me getting a Yaris and he didn't really have much to say. Of course he thinks they're ugly, I can't really say anything about that, but all of his other gut reactions can be talked through. He thinks I should maybe look for a comparable car that's not a Yaris. That leaves the Honda Fit (too expensive), the Mazda 6 (too expensive), a Scion (too expensive), and some Suzuki model, but he doesn't want to get a Suzuki for some reason. OK... so it doesn't have side air bags. Neither does my Rodeo. Yes, my Rodeo is bigger, but the Yaris is 10 years newer with more safety engineering and I'm sure it must be safer, although smaller.

I've read the reviews and it gets pretty good ones. Edmunds liked it a lot, they called it cute and peppy. The owner reviews were great. The only negative reviews mentioned the lack of side air bags, the lack of an ashtray, and the awkward emergency break location. Big whoop.

So tell me, what am I missing? Anybody own a Yaris or know someone who does who can give me their feedback, and not just tell me that it's funny-looking?

Wild Weekend

So much went on this weekend, but I got absolutely nothing done, and my head is still spinning.

Between Saturday and Sunday, we planned out our new deck and shopped for materials, shopped for a new motorcycle, shopped for a new truck for Luke, went to see Amanda in Love Letters - it was fantastic - settled on buying a new motorcycle, spent about an hour sitting on said motorcycle at the dealership, decided not to buy said motorcycle from the dealership, shopped for new aquarium supplies, made a lasagna, went to Paula's for dinner, and decided that now I want to trade in my car for a new Yaris. What is going on?

See what happens when you pay off your credit card? As I wrote to one friend, I'm feeling a little too unburdened by debt, so I thought I should buy something new. I'm kind of sad about the motorcycle, but fear not! I'm still shopping. Anyone out there looking to sell a used Buell XB12SS?

The Heat Is On

Single ladies of the world, find yourself a handy man and marry him. Seriously. Those clean-cut, business suit, office-working types are nice. They're clean and neat, they know where the good restaurants are, you can share hair products with them, but when your car stops producing heat, are they going to crawl around on the snow-covered ground in mid-February to fix it for you? I don't think so.

My handy man fixed the heat in my car yesterday and never have I been so glad I married him. This morning my toes were toasty, I didn't see my frosty breath on the ride to work, I can use my defroster. It was heaven. Once again, the heat is on.

Popsicle Toes

My friend, Flann, has a tag on her blog of "whiney" and I love that. I think I might add that one to my tags, too, because this post is going to be whiney.

The heat hasn't worked in my car since Sunday. That's right. It's the coldest week of the season and I have no heat in my car. I also have no defrost so not only is it uncomfortable, it's a little scary.

Luke checked the fan motor and the fuses and other car things and he has a theory. He thinks that there was some moisture in the duct work which froze and is now keeping the fan from rotating. Luckily there is still heat seeping out of the ducts, it's just not blowing out and melting the rubber on my shoes like I want it to. Thankfully, the heat seepage eventually warms the car enough so that halfway through my half-hour ride to and from work, I stop seeing my breath in the car. Unfortunately, it's never enough heat to actually warm me up and I am now perpetually frozen.

I get home at night and sit so close to the wood stove that I can smell my jeans singeing. I still don't feel warm. It really sucks. I haven't had feeling in my toes since Monday morning.

I asked Luke what we could do and he said, 'nothing'. We either have to build a heated garage, or we have to wait until it gets warmer and the moisture melts, releasing the fan blades. Waiting in the cold is not one of my favorite activities. Its starting to affect other parts of my car, too. My odometer froze up for a day and a half and the back window refuses to release it's latch. It's great. I love winter.

Damn Tired

I realized that I never explained my earlier mention of my "day of outrage and frustration" and, being nice readers of this blog, I know that you would be disappointed if I didn't complain just a little each week. Rather than give you the story in long, pathetic detail, I thought I'd sum up the highlights, a la those credit card commercials.

Four tires at Sam's Club, two pieces of pizza and two sodas at the Sam's Club cafeteria, two coffees at Borders, and three hours of waiting only to come back to Sam's and find that they refused to put tires on my car because I'm missing one stud on one tire, then waiting in line at the customer service desk, trying (unsucessfully) not to cry, in order to get my check back for the tires I wouldn't be getting that day: $482.81

Four tires at Town Fair, three beers at Pepe's, and two hours of wandering around Hall's Archery and Pet Supplies Plus only to come back to TFT and find that they refused to put tires on my car because, strangely since I left Sam's Club, I now have two studs on my front tire that are chewed up so badly that TFT won't put tires on, fearing they might snap the studs off: $532.16

Five new studs, fourteen new lug nuts, a trip to ACME and two Auto Zone locations, two trips to my dad's to borrow tools, a day of taking my car apart and putting it back together: $72.14

Having new tires and not having to worry about them again for (hopefully) another five years: priceless

Santa Baby, Just Slip Some Radials Under the Tree

Honestly. How hard do you think it would be to buy tires less than two weeks before Christmas? Who the heck is spending much-needed present money on one of the crappiest ways to blow a ton of money other than gambling or dental work? Apparently everyone and their grandmother is.

Three times now I've tried to go get tires and three times now I've been turned away. A three to four hour wait before they will even LOOK at my car is simply too long for me to wait this time of year. This Santa's little helper has places to go and gifts to buy. I can't spend all day sitting in a waiting room, getting high on the overwhelming scent of rubber.

I had put off getting tires until now because, as you know from my incessant whining about my car, I wasn't sure that spending $500 on tires would be a wise investment, seeing as how everything else north of the tires could explode at any moment. After my miraculous emissions test, though, I now have renewed faith in my car and decided I could finally get tires.

Or so I thought. You see, tires are expensive! Nauseatingly expensive. And I found a good deal at Sam's Club. So that's the only place I want to go. Unfortunately, every other Sam's Club member in the general Manchester, CT area feels the same way. And they all seem to get to Sam's before me. I just can't go somewhere else and spend an extra $100 on the same tires. That's $100 that could be going toward Christmas presents!

So Santa, if you're reading, I've been a mostly good girl. A set of four BF Goodrich 225/75R16s would be awesome! Thanks so much.

Thank You!

(I took a really grainy shot of Molly so I thought I'd make it more interesting with Photoshop. She looks good with blue and yellow hair!)

Thank you to everyone who came out to the spectacular shopping night on Friday, a great time was had by all. A big thank you to Karen (of Simply June) and Karin (of the new KG Photography) for participating and selling, and especially to Deb offering wonderful free chair massages. Many gifts were purchased, and many snacks were consumed. It was a fun night.

If you couldn't make it out - don't despair - you can still visit Simply June's online store here, and you can visit my jewelry shop here and my art shop here.

Friday was a long and busy day for me. It started at 8am with an appointment to have my emissions test done. As per my last post about my car, I was fully prepared to fail. I had already bought a service manual, priced out some parts, steeled myself for the bad news and then I heard the words from the large man behind the counter - you passed. I what?? I was so happy I bounced out of there.

From there I went to the grocery store for snack supplies and Jo-Ann Etc. for MORE beads while I waited for Sam's Club to open so I could get my new tires. This was the third time I tried to get tires there but was turned away becasue of the wait. I stopped in on Thursday at 3:30 in the afternoon and was told there were six cars in line before me and it would be at least 3 hours before they could get to my car. Friday, I got there at 10am when they opened and there were already four people in line in front of me. The man at the desk told the first people in line that it would be about a three hour wait. Ug. By the time they got to me it would have been over a four hour wait and I just didn't have that kind of time.

I did a little more shopping, bought Molly and I some festive gear at Old Navy, and went home where I proceeded to cook for five hours straight. I was exhausted by the time the party started. But I was happy, it was great to see everyone - thanks again!

Auto Anxiety

I’ve never had a healthy relationship with my car. I spend most of my time behind the wheel in a co-dependant partnership where I’m constantly trying to understand why my car is acting grumpy and what I may have done to make it mad.

Bad cars have burned me in the past. This has scarred me and caused me to distrust anything on four wheels. My first car was a freebie that my dad found, a 1987 Hyundai Excel. By the second year I owned it, the engine had been rebuilt twice and, among the many Hyundai adventures I had, on my very first solo drive in it the clutch went out.

I traded the Hyundai for a 1979 Audi Fox. I was in college and the Audi looked cooler. Plus it had a big trunk to hold all of my art projects. Unfortunately it also had an engine-cooling fan that had been rewired so that it no longer kicked on by itself. It had been given a switch that I needed to hit to start the fan and keep the car from overheating. This was fine and all, except the fact that the electrical system had been incredibly messed up by this episode of mechanical genius and if I happened to leave the car with the radio dial in the on position or the cooling fan not switched off (despite the fact that the car was off and nothing appeared to be running) I would kill the battery and need to find myself a jumpstart. I learned pretty quickly to park on a downhill and how exactly to push a car, run alongside, jump in, and pop start it without running myself over.

From the Audi I moved up to a 1987 Subaru Justy. The only car to never let me down. This car was awesome and I would still be driving it today if it hadn’t started to spontaneously lose important parts, like the steering stabilizer, while doing 65 on the highway.

We junked the poor Justy (I’ll never forgive myself) and I bought a heap of crap from the Kia dealership. A used 2000 Kia Sportage which not only needed to have the transfer case replaced twice and the 4-wheel drive replaced once, but I actually broke the driver’s side air bag one early morning in Hartford by honking my horn at the FedEx guy who was about to back into my car. I should have let him hit me.

Because I come from the one step forward and two steps back school of car-buying, I traded the Kia for my current bad relationship – a 1997 Isuzu Rodeo. Just like anyone in an abusive relationship, I really do love my car. It just doesn’t love me back in the same way. The first month I owned the Isuzu was a nightmare of stranding incidents and rides with nice tow truck drivers. This was all related to a bad starter wire which, unfortunately, took a long freakin time to uncover. The dealership was very nice about all of this and I didn’t have to pay for any of the repairs, or even the long tow from Hartford to Ellington one cold morning.

I had several lovely months of stress-free driving and then a few months ago, the check engine light came on. I usually don’t hold any faith in the check engine light knowing that it is set to light up at certain intervals to get you to take your car in for service. I ignored it until my car started to run badly and then finally I took it in to the shop. I received a diagnosis of a bad EGR valve, which is apparently expensive, so the nice repair guy cleaned some things and changed some others and got the car to the point that it ran smoothly but told me to save my money becasue I most likely wouldn’t pass emissions if I didn’t change my EGR valve. That’s fine, considering that the Connecticut emissions testing system was such a mess that I hadn’t received a notice for testing in over four years. I could possibly be on my next car before I got a notice to take the Isuzu in for testing. Ha! Fates, you mock me. What did I get in the mail last month but a notice for emissions testing for my Isuzu.

Just about the time I got the notice in the mail, my car began doing something strange. The check engine light would occasionally go out. Then suddenly it would come back on. I began a careful study of when and where it happened as well as the time of day and weather conditions. I needed to discover the pattern. When the gas tank was low, the light would come on. After I filled up, it would go off. Riding home from work in the rain, it would come on. Some cold mornings when I would head out to work, the light would be off. It wasn’t entirely consistent and it was driving me crazy. So crazy, in fact, that I began to hear noises. Small whistling noises when I would take off from a stop. I was obsessed with figuring out this new sound. What made it happen? Where was it coming from? Was it a precursor to a larger problem? Was it the sound of my engine mounting bolts slowly falling out or was it just wind in the roof rack?

I was studying the check engine light pattern and the whistling noise one night driving home in traffic when a new annoyance popped up. As I would coast to a stop with my foot on the clutch, the 4-wheel drive indicator light would flicker on. As I would let out the clutch to take off, the light would go out. Back and forth, the light would flicker on, then flicker off. I checked to see that it was in 2-wheel drive, put it in 4, then back in 2, still the light flickered. Then one morning driving out to Stafford, the check engine light suddenly flashed on immediately followed by the 4-wheel drive indicator light, which came on and stayed on. It’s been on for a week now. Luke has assured me that it is truly not in 4-wheel drive, but still I’m worried.

I drive my car the 20 miles to and from work every day holding my breath and hoping that nothing falls off or blows up. I’m just waiting for my transmission to fall out of the car or a big cloud of smoke to come from under the hood. Add to that the stress of my impending emissions test – I can’t handle this anxiety! I just want a car I can drive. I don’t really care what it looks like. I want it to be decent on gas, have a working gas gauge, to have heat and a/c, and no major mechanical problems! Is that too much to ask? Why can’t there be a subway connecting Andover and Hartford? That would make my life so much easier.