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Yes, two more weeks passed without an entry. Sorry.
But some things have been accomplished during the intervening time.
Nancy got a "new" car. That is, a used car, but new to her.
She tried out a Toyota Matrix (which she liked but the previous owner must
have been a heavy smoker because the car reeked of smoke -- and also must
have done mostly stop-and-go in-and-out driving because the driver's shoulder
strap was very worn, and that kind of driving is tough on a car) and then
a Toyota Yaris (but she didn't get more than a couple of blocks away from
the dealer before turning around because it was just too small a car for
her. And then she test drove a 2004 Toyota Avalon XLS...
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She liked it. It's bigger than her Camry... It's an automatic (we're a
standard transmission family but I don't think they even make this car
with anything other than an automatic) and it has leather bucket seats
-- power seats -- heated seats -- Oh, yeah, she loved this car. See her
smile as she is about to drive it to work the day after buying it.
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So now I no longer have the newest car (in terms of model year) in the
family. My 1999 Corolla was purchased new (but in the fall of 1999, after
the 2000 models were out). Since I began working from home, my annual mileage
dropped, so I only passed 137,000 miles a few weeks ago. Jill is still
driving her 1993 Honda Accord that she bought in 2003. Jeremy is taking
over Nancy's 1996 Toyota Camry (which she had bought new a few months after
we had moved to Rhode Island). The Camry is replacing his heavily-modified
1993
Honda Civic that he had picked up in the fall of 2009.
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You may get the impression that (other than Jeremy) we tend to keep cars
running forever. Yeah, I guess we do.
Oh, by the way, since those cars Nancy test drove were all Toyotas, you may have
thought she had gone to a Toyota dealer. Nope. There's a nice little used car place --
Kingston Auto Sales
-- not much more than a mile from our house. After Nancy drove it, she said she wanted to
have her mechanic check it out. "Sure, take it." But they probably couldn't
do it today (mid-afternoon on a Saturday). "That's okay, if they can't do it today,
you can leave it there and maybe they can check it on Monday." This is not the kind
of attitude most used car places have.
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One final picture -- Nancy & Jeremy at Nancy's mother's house on Easter Sunday. |
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