Pretty new car on a blazing hot day... and I got to keep my custom plate frame :-)

Quick entry, more later when I can see straight, and hopefully the rain will stop and I can get some photos today... We bought a new car! Well, it's a 2002 but it's new to me and looks near mint, low mileage. Went to Carmax Monday because I had found a Honda Accord online with only like 9000 miles and was going to have it transferred from the Dallas area down here, but then I test drove a similar one (4 door, only tried the 2 doors before) and my damn knees hit the dash. That's a problem with me, I'm short and have to pull the seat almost all the way up and don't want the dash and windshield right on top of me.

But while I was hanging out in the showroom, they had a Nissan Maxima on display (actually the Nissan Altima was my third choice from researching but I hadn't seen one close-up yet) and I sat in it and pulled the seat up, and wow - I could actually see out (the windows all seemed to start lower than the others) and I didn't have a lap full of dash... hmmm... I hoped the salesman hadn't put the transfer through yet.

So after the disappointing test-drive on the Honda I mentioned I'd admired the Nissan in the showroom and he just sort of walked me over to a 2002 black Maxima. The first thing I said when I saw it was "It's got a spoiler!". It was gorgeous, much sportier than the Accord or Camry, I think I had put it on the back burner because it only came in a 4 door, but now the 4 door was my main choice (the new 2 doors all seem to have limited visibility and too small back seats). He said it had everything standard that the Accord had as options - the sport handling package with a V6 (with 55 more HP), all the bells and whistles, and it did NOT have a sunroof, yea! And it had a spoiler and 17" wheels!

So we went out for a drive, it was luxurious, fast and space age compared to my 91 Olds, I was sold! And it was $1000 less than the one we had chosen. My only two slight gripes were it had a higher center of gravity in turns than the Accord, and my elbow is resting in the coin tray on the door. Then I had to convince Sparky to come over right then so I wouldn't lose it. After much grumbling and my driving back to go get him he agreed. And they whisked my Olds away, gave us $800 bucks for it and said we could take the new car home that night. I was so stunned by how easy it all was I actually banged my teeth together the wrong way when he told us. I had taken most of the junk out of my old car earlier, just in case, but I hadn't expected to be driving a new car home. I had even mean to take a photo of my old car for memory's sake, but all I managed to come away with was my spider web license plate frame, which the nice people put on the back of the new car :-)

So, I'm still in shock. I had wanted power windows and good A/C, a V6 that was somewhat sporty and hopefully black, and I got so much more. And, despite the fact that I don't know what half the controls are yet, it's so easy to drive! I've never even had a car with a remote or an alarm before (except for one rental car) and now I feel like I'm in an airplane cockpit. I got so much more than I had hoped for, and it's a gorgeous, fast, sporty car, whee! I still keep peeking out the door to the garage just to look at, and I've taken my first real freeway test drive (in rush hour) so I feel a little more confident. And my parents are so proud that I got a "grown up" car after all the sports cars I've had, hee hee, little do they know ;-)

Been offline a few days for health reasons, been having migraines that are making focusing on anything difficult...

But OMG! July is starting off with a bang... Kerry picks John Edwards for his VP and the populus seems pleased & hopeful (much better poll numbers than Cheney). Someone described the upcoming VP debate as "Luke Skywalker vs. Darth Vader".

Speaking of, the evil cyborg has started expressing his contempt for the commoners out loud, maybe he has a short in his system...

And Kenny-Boy Lay has been indicted on criminal charges, finally, and right here in Space City! I want to wake up tomorrow to see video of him being dragged off in handcuffs kicking and screaming (sigh). I hope he doesn't shoot himself in the head tonight, America needs to see him on trial... refusing to answer questions... then wearing an orange jumpsuit. (P.S. OK, the smiling perp walk today was pretty bizarre, and then he held a press conference and began stuttering when he got some hard questions, they showed the whole debacle on local TV)

The Evil Empire seems to be self-imploding, yippee! What's next? Hmmm... the Dubya-Condi sex scandal? That would be too good to be true.

Oh, you can go to John Kerry.com and get a free Kerry-Edwards bumper sticker, get 'em while they're hot!

Childhood memories...

My dad watering down the roof "just in case"

Standing in the back yard holding sparklers hoping they wouldn't burn me

Best of all... sitting on the ground watching the seemingly endless display at Westbury Square each year, being so close the dead ones sometimes would land at our feet. Laying back and letting the spectacle completely fill my vision.

Then laying in bed in the dark later watching it all replay behind my eyelids...

Wow, whirlwind week. Besides having to basically rebuild most of my system prefs, etc. in my Mac after a bizarre finder crash, plus having to have a new cable modem installed (and even the outside pole worked on), which all threw me terribly behind on my work, Sparky announced last week that (drumroll please...) I could FINALLY get another car!

Now, this may not sound like a big deal to some folks, but around this house it's earth shattering. Sparky is very slow to make decisions (it took us seven years to legally get married), and I have been bitching about my car almost since I got it, which was 1991. It was a present from my parents (no, I'm not ungrateful, really I'm not), but they picked it out and bought it without even asking my opinion. Granted, the car I had at the time was a supreme piece of crap (a 78 280Z with horrendous mechanical problems), I used to trade cars out on a regular basis, but never had the funds to get a new car so often my trade-ins brought more problems than the previous model. And I was a sports car freak, so I had a big disadvantage to begin with (my dad's favorite proverbs are "don't buy anyone else's problems" and don't ever buy a used sports car").

The only two brand new cars I ever had were bought for me by my parents, a 1979 light blue metallic Camaro, which I did at least get a voice in, and my current car, a black 1991 Olds Cutlass. With a four cylinder engine. Which was my first mental problem with it. The second (other than the fact that I had no say in it) was it was not a sports car, it was a mid-size almost family-type car. It's main redeeming graces were it was a 2 door and it was black. It had a "Quad 442" fuel-injected engine, which is a bit peppier and has more torque than most four cylinders, but unfortunately it was also a huge lemon. I began having engine problems when it was about 6 months old and they just continued non-stop, along with transmission problems and assorted other things you wouldn't expect from a brand new car.

We have spent enough to buy at least one more new car (or several nice used cars) in repairs over the last 13 years. It's been towed more than all the other cars I've owned combined, and I've owned a lot of old sports cars, dating back to a 1973 Corvette. The ironic thing is my parents bought it for me because they were worried about the reliability of the car I had. I honestly don't know how it has survived as long as it has except perhaps for the fact it's still under 100k. I used to drive downtown every day, but we rarely took driving trips (and I'm "the driver"), but in the last few years I've been working from home so it's been spared too much abuse.

But it hasn't been to the mechanic in probably 6-8 months, which is a long time for it, and the "to do" list has been mounting. Oil change, new tires, alignment, replace brake pads, replace windshield wipers, tune up, coolant system checkup, intermittantly working brake lights... and the final straw was - the AC & defroster stopped working. So Sparky's been having to drive lately. He hates to drive and I don't like to drive his big lumbering full-size car. But you can't drive in Houston in the summer with no AC, even at night. When I was young and foolish I went a year without working AC or heat in Austin and almost died, actually the cold got me even worse than the heat but both were unbearable. Plus the plates on my car expire at the end of the month just to add to the expense list.

So when he saw the list his brain just clicked a switch and said "no more". So he said "We need to get you another car. Not a new car, but something newer that works". See, Sparky doesn't believe in new cars, and my parents don't believe in used cars. My dad always changed my mom's car out when it would get more than about 4 or 5 years old or showed any signs of major problems. He's big on the reliability thing, bless his heart. It's funny, too, because she would maybe put a few thousand miles tops on any car she's had, even when she had to drive us kids around.

So we've spent the week going back and forth bartering on car prices while I've researched. He originally thought we could get a nice used car for around $10 or $11,000, but all I kept finding were $18 and $19,000 ones, so then he went up a bit to $15k, and now I think he's just tired of it, trusts my judgment a bit more and feels sorry for me and is telling me to just pick one out and he'll buy it. So we're probably going to end up in the price range I originally started in. I think as long as I keep it under $20 grand I'll be all right.

About a year ago, I was going nuts and did a lot of semi-serious research on cars and I'm very glad I did because it gave me a huge jumpstart this time. A car is a big thing for me, it's always been much too large a part of my personality and self-esteem and I really do love to drive. I've only had two four cylinder engines out of all the cars I've owned, the other was a Mustang, which I had to trade for and ended up being probably the second worst car I ever owned. The rest were hge V-8's, 2 Camaros, a Firebird, a Corvette, the 280Z (hmmm.. not sure what that engine was really), and I even owned a motorcycle. My ex-husband had the cheapest of taste in cars, and I remember just being moritified to have to drive some of his vehicles, I wanted to wear a mask I was so embarrassed. I mean, I used to go to Houston Speed & Sport and buy chrome air cleaner covers for my Camaro, I dueled out the exhaust, put bigger Radial TA tires on it... Sparky doesn't care about any of that, he's not even picky about color (though his favorite is red which I do NOT want), he just wants the AC to work, be roomy enough for comfort and for it to get him around on his little daily errands.

Me? The first thing I look at is performance and handling, then a stylish design, then if I could reach the pedals without having the dash & windshield right in my face (I'm short), then the color (black - grey preferred, though some of the dark blues & greens are very pretty, no beige or white please), then the interior amenities... When I started this quest my main requirements were power windows and locks, at least a V6 engine, automatic transmission, and a rear defroster. Now that I've been looking around, though, the power seats have moved up in importance, and the leather interiors aren't too bad either. Hate the sunroofs and the airbags, didn't want the anti-lock brakes, didn't like the 4 door sedans, wanted a 2 door coupe.

But now I'm reconsidering the 4 door thing, I don't have kids but I do occasionally have to haul more than one person around, and I'm not sure I want to continue torturing my friends and family by stuffing them into the back sead of a coupe. My current car has a decent back seat, but I've noticed the new coupes are really tight, even on the mid-size cars. And I'm a bit worried about visibility in the 2 doors since I'm so damned short.

My original pick was a 2002-2003 Toyota 2 door Solara, then I leaned toward a 2 door 2002 Honda Accord, now I'm debating a 4 door Accord. I was a pretty die-hard GM person till this last experience, but now I'm going for reliable. After reading tons of car reviews, and test driving two of the Accord coupes, I think the next step is to test drive a 4 door. And the good thing is they are a tiny bit cheaper, more plentiful (especially with the V6) so I have a better chance of getting the color I want. The new cars are so light, the modern four cylinders really aren't that bad, but I test drove one of each and the V6 won hands down. I really wanted to open it up, but I was afraid the salesman would have a coronary ;-)

So I've been scouring the internet and the newspaper trying to find, to quote Joh Kerry, real deals. If it's too good to be true forget it. And after spending an afternoon with a wishy-washy car salesman out in the blaring sun I'm more determined than ever to pick something and not window shop. And Sparky refuses to come with me until I actually pick something for certain (he hates shopping for anything but DVDs). Hopefully Monday I can go look at a four door I've singled out (it's WAY across town). I've looked at and printed out so many listings I can barely keep them straight in my head... And being obsessive compulsive I feel like I have to look at and read everything out there to educate myself. And I know whatever I pick will probably be in my garage for the next ten years minimum, so it's a big decision.