12.22.06 you'd think we were the rockefellers
...the way we're writing big checks around here. Last month
was the Water Main
Replacement Extravaganza, which involved yep, replacing the water
main, along with having an electrician come in and have the house grounded
to the pipes or somesuch since it's never been done, then the requisite
inspections and by the time it was all said and done, the money we'd been
saving to replace the poor Subaru, which had been due for replacement for
well over a year, was gone. And then some. Story of a homeowner's life,
right?
That meant driving the Subaru a little longer while we
decided on a Plan B. Well, obviously our cunning plan to avoid a car
payment by paying for a used one in full was out. Which meant a bank loan,
and new research on a different kind of car now that we were looking in a
different price range. We figured we could maybe squeeze another couple of
months out while we did our research.
Cue two weeks ago, when the Subaru just...died. We're not
sure exactly when she passed away, but she died in her sleep one cold
Sunday night and just never woke up again. ::waves lighter:: Rest in
peace, old friend.
We spent that week scrambling, figuring out last minute
schedule changes to accommodate our now one car household, along with a
reworking of our monthly budget to fit in the cost of a car rental for the
one day we couldn't cover. Good times, good times.
Anyway Sal spent last Friday hitting dealerships on the
prowl for a used diesel we could convert to biodiesel or a used hybrid in
our price range. Both tall orders, since they're in high demand for
obvious reasons and in Portland, they might as well be made entirely of
gold. But I'm happy to report that he was indeed successful and after
dozens of phone calls back and forth as he test drove one after the other
and called me at work to report, he found a dark green 2001 Prius in
excellent condition with only 40,000(!) miles on it. So Fate isn't always
a Horrible Bitch Goddess, as I'm known to complain from time to time (to
time).
We went in last Saturday to do the negotiating thing, which
we are frankly quite awesome at, and in less than three hours, drove off
in our dark green Prius . It's been a week and we're both very much in
love with this hybrid thing. It's now very possible that it'll be the
Camry we'll be selling in a couple of years to finance our matching
Smart
cars (September 2008, woot woot!) instead of the original plan to sell
the Subaru's replacement. We'll figure it out when the time comes.
Of course, we're going to have to figure out a new hauling
tactic for our project supplies now that the Subaru's gone. When we were
doing the second test drive, the salesman was touting the spacious
interior, including the generous space in the backseat and that you could
comfortably seat three back there (true). That's all well and good, I
said, but how many rolls of insulation can
we fit back there?
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