Teens with issues, cars and diseases that suck, and books that don't.
So, I guess I haven't done a proper, non-trivia-quiz update in over 2 weeks. Oops.
Driving: We had two how did you not know this? lessons with MiniPlu's driving in the same day on Columbus/Indigeneous People's Day. 1) Yes, you can turn right on red here but you still have to stop for the red light first. In the past, she's stopped because of traffic, so I assumed she knew this, but then came a time when there wasn't any incoming traffic, so she only slowed a little before continuing on and I was all HEY YOU HAVE TO STOP! I'm not sure how she didn't know that a red light is still STOP, even if you're allowed to turn right still but ... sigh. No harm done but she was genuinely bewildered by that. Also, 2) I learned that her sense of a complete stop is not correct. I'm not critiquing whether she does a rolling stop occasionally because pretty much everyone does that. I just need her to realize that's what she's doing, so she doesn't get in trouble during her test or, you know, if a cop is nearby. She comes to an almost stop, and in her mind, that actually was a full and complete stop. She's not trying to weasel out of it - she is actually perceiving it that way. So I'm having to really hammer it into her. STOP. ALL. THE. WAY. This is what it feels like. Nope, that wasn't it.
On the other hand, she's gotten a lot more confident as a driver, and is willing to tackle a much wider range of driving opportunities these days, so that's good.
Honors: She got into National Honors Society, as of yesterday! She actually started thinking she might have gotten in as of Tues, because she said they'd been calling down kids who didn't get in, and letting them know why, and she didn't get called. I'm sure the admins thought they were being nice, saying, "Hey, you had a good application but next year, if you want to try again, you might want to make sure you do XYZ" or something, but my immediate reaction was, "If I was called down to the office and told to my face that I didn't get in, I would have cried. Right there." I mean, sheesh - why not write them a nice letter so they can fall apart on their own time??
MiniPlu is, of course, relieved she got in - and I am, too, because she is totally the type of kid who would have said, "I'm clearly too stupid to go to college, nobody will take me because I didn't get into NHS, I might as well dig ditches for a living." :-P However, I think she would have been happier about it if her quasi-friend J hadn't also gotten in. J has only taken one honors class (English), isn't even in elevated math like MiniPlu, has been known to copy other people's homework and flaked out a LOT for the little-kid activity at church MiniPlu dutifully helped with all last year. I don't know if she got the adult in charge to just sign off on all the hours she didn't do, or what (the lady in question was due-any-day with her third child at the time and might have just cheerfully signed off on anything). So, anyway, MiniPlu felt her achievement was a little deflated because J got in, too, but I told her to still be proud of what she had accomplished. She knows she worked for her entrance.
And now MiniPlu is feeling kind of overwhelmed, knowing she has to keep up her grades and her volunteer hours, or her membership in NHS will be in jeopardy. She's still trying to get the hang of her first job (at Levi's at the local outlets - she's had just one 5-hour training shift so far), she needs to keep up volunteer hours for History Honors AND NHS AND Leo Club (the service organization) - you can't use one volunteer opportunity more than once so those all have to be accrued separately, and she really needs to be reviewing more before taking the SAT again.
Other activities: Our town's Fall Fest was last week - they shut down the center few blocks and line the street with booths/tents - local crafters and local businesses, fundraisers, political tables, food trucks, and the like. Two and I spent two pleasant hours on Sat morning wandering up and down, where I bought a lot of small craft items, entered a couple of raffles (which, alas, we did not win), Two got a gyro at a food truck and hot apple cider at the bakery's stand, and we participated in the Kiss-a-puppy-for-$1 fundraiser for an animal shelter (seriously brilliant way for them to make money!). MiniPlu visited the fest on Sunday, with friends, and reported that the petting zoo - which we did not visit - had social bunnies to handle, which she loved. There was also a Civil War reinactment, which we did not participate in, either.
Sunday morning, Two and I went off to a pencil drawing class at the community college; this runs two Sunday mornings, so we'll finish this coming weekend. We were by far the youngest there - there was another man probably about my age, but everyone else was a senior citizen. Low key and pleasant - nothing really noteworthy, but a nice activity to do together.
Sunday afternoon, the kids and I all got our flu shots. I don't know if this triggered a reaction in Two, or if he was brewing something already, but he became really lethargic by late afternoon, and wasn't that hungry. Monday morning he had a fever, so I kept him home, and he slept on and off a good chunk of the day, but he was back to school by Tues, despite a lingering sore throat. I actually couldn't remember the last time he missed school due to illness - he doesn't get sick that often.
Crohn's: Still a problem. I've been on 40mg Prednisone (steroid) for the past 2 weeks, to little or no effect. I mean, it's typically never worked on my Crohn's, but you never know - your body changes so I gave it a shot. I'd say it's probably kept things from getting worse, but only the faintest bit better - and only in that I now maybe have an extra 30 seconds before I need to sprint to the bathroom when the disease strikes. The frustrating thing is that it's mild enough to have almost no impact on my life - but I can't predict when it will. Could be 2 minutes from now. Could be in six hours. I've been on voluntarily leave from substituting because I can't be put in a room with kids on my own. I can be in a room with another teacher (either as the main teacher when there's in-class support, or as the in-class support) but somebody HAS to be on hand in case I need to suddenly step out for a minute. So far this school year, I've worked one half-day, and that's it. The beginning of the school year is often a little slow anyway, but by this point, jobs will be starting to crop up more often, and I hate having to leave the schools in the lurch, especially as I'm mostly fine. It's just the unpredictability that's killing me.
I don't know if or how I should be changing my diet. The SCD, which I put such faith in back in 2007, did not seem to have much impact during my 2013 flareup, which makes me wonder if it really helped, or if my recovery was more due to the Humira. In 2013 I tried both SCD and FODMAP - nothing helped. But how can food NOT have impact? There's part of me that thinks I should try SCD again, but the idea of cooking all that from scratch (EVERYTHING. Ketchup, mayo, tomato sauce, no deli meat), no soy, sugar (except honey), no grains of any kind, no sweet potato or potato, no fresh dairy (only aged cheese and butter), no pre-shredded cheese (has cornstarch), etc etc, ON TOP of feeding the other 6 picky eaters in my household, is just overwhelming. Do I knuckle down and give it a try, despite the fact it didn't work in 2013? Or not?
Cars: I've test-driven pretty much every car I'm remotely considering as a possible replacement for my Forester, when the time comes. What's below the cut is mostly for my own consideration, but you're welcome to read along if you want.
Recall that my desire for a manual transmission comes with a lot of fraught issues here in the US, as very few models and trim lines offer it these days. In most cases, it means making a decision between transmission and features, especially as frequently the manual transmission is only offered in the base model, or sometimes in a higher model that has had certain features removed because of the transmission.
Subaru Crosstrek: The lone AWD vehicle on here. I like the size - a nice compromise between a small car and a "small" SUV - because "small" SUVs (like the Forester) are no longer small. The AWD cuts down on fuel efficiency, but the Crosstrek does better than my Forester currently does, at least. Subaru's safety package is called EyeSight: it includes blind spot monitors on your wing mirrors (one of the things I think would be most awesome to have), adaptive cruise control, cross traffic monitor (behind you, for when backing out of a parking spot), lane departure warnings, lane keep assist, and a few other things along those lines. Both base and midrange trims offer EyeSight as an add-on option unless you pick the manual transmission. Not offered on manual.
In terms of the car itself, it seemed fine. I liked the size and feel of it. I was able to drive the manual Forester but not a manual Crosstrek. Still, it has potential. My main concern is that the Crosstrek doesn't have as high a reliability rating, and that's important to me.
Mazda3 which comes as both a sedan and a hatchback. The manual is available at both the base and midrange trims for both shapes. The midrange has leather(ette) seats, which I don't like, especially in summer - I prefer cloth. (The only selling point is that leather/ette seats are often heated, which cloth usually are not.) Their safety suite is smaller (blind spot monitor, rear cross-traffic monitor), but IS something that can be added on to the base model, even with a manual transmission, and comes automatically at midrange trim.
In this case, I'd probably go with the base model and add on the safety package, since I don't like the leatherette seats, although I'd have to sacrifice heated wing mirrors by sticking with the base.
In this case, I think I liked the hatchback slightly better, just for flexibility of cargo. Driving the cars was pretty much exactly like driving Will's Mazda6, so no real surprises there. The only big change is in the infotainment system - Will's base model didn't have the rear-view camera and thus no touchscreen, but pretty much all cars have that these days. And I couldn't figure out Mazda's infotainment system - even to get the radio to play - at all. Once the car is in motion, you cannot use the touchscreen, but are relegated to a dial between the front seats, which feels even more complicated. The Mazda handles well - it's one of its main selling points, that zoomzoom, but Will's had trouble with the tires his Mazda6 came on, for snow driving. I don't know if this is still a problem for the current Mazda3. Rear seat is somewhat cozy, especially the lumpy middle rear seat.
Honda Civic sedan and hatchback. I think the Civic sedan is kind of ugly, so I preferred the hatchback in that regard. (Also, as with other vehicles, it lends more flexibility to cargo.) Rear leg room was slightly better than the Mazda, and the center seat was much flatter and thus more comfortable. The manual transmission is only available in the base trim for the sedan (and they also cut your color options in half), but both the base and "sport" trim for the hatchback, but I would absolutely never get the sport - they have super-thin sidewall tires, more like for racing, and some other things that just make it look stupid. The safety suite (Honda Sensing) does not include the wing mirror blind spot monitoring - Honda does not offer this feature anywhere on any vehicle. But the rest of the deal - does come automatically on the sedan, even for the manual. It is not available on the manual hatchback at all - you have to go up to a midrange trim for the hatchback, but there's no manual transmission at that level.
They did not have any manuals on hand, so I drove both the base hatchback and one level up (EX) for the sedan, in automatic. The infotainment system seemed a bit simpler to deal with on the base trim - in a good way, I mean. But, and this will sound stupid, the base trim doesn't have any cupholders in the back seat. I think you can wedge stuff in the door pocket, but those always suck. I've got teenagers - having a place to put their water bottles is kind of important. But going up a trim level means sacrificing the transmission I want. In terms of driving and handling, it seemed fine - neither superb nor terrible. Oh, and this dealership offers free oil changes for as long as you own the vehicle, and a free weekly carwash as well, which would be quite nice, I won't lie. Still - the tradeoff of features is frustrating.
Toyota Corolla sedan and hatchback. The sedan had, oddly, actually more cargo space than the hatchback, although, of course, the height of the items you toted would be more limited. Back seat room was somewhat better in the sedan, as well - in fact, it was possibly the best of Mazda, Honda and Toyota. The manual transmission is available in the midrange (SE) sedan and the base trim hatchback; they did not have any in stock, so I drove those comparible trims in automatic.
Hands down, the winner here is the sedan, not only because of the better legroom and cargo space, but also because the driver sits slightly higher up in the sedan, and the whole infotainment screen setup is better (for me). In the hatchback, it actually juts up from the dashboard in a rather irritating way, whereas in the sedan, it's just set in to the dash and is less obtrusive. Toyota's safety suite (adaptive cruise control, lane-keep assist, etc) is standard on every vehicle - but does not include the blind-spot monitor on the wing mirrors. For the sedan, you must go up one more trim level - at which point, you sacrifice the manual transmission. Oddly enough, it's standard on the base-model hatchback. The SE sedan has leatherette-trimmed seats, but the main part you sit on is still cloth. Wing mirrors are heated, seats are not. It has a moonroof, which I have zero interest in, but might end up with, the way things are going on this hunt, and also comes with adaptive brights (headlights), which would actually be pretty useful on our rural roads.
In terms of driving, it was fine, with one exception: accelerating is noisy as hell, as in "Look at the big, badass car I've got!" way. Or possibly the muffler falls off when you step on the gas. :-P Once you reach whatever cruising speed you want, even highway speed, the engine and road noise are minimal, so it is definitely a feature of accelerating, not the speed you're going. But, ugh, it was awful. I do want to see if the manual transmission is any different - probably not, but I want to try, just in case. The other negative is that Toyota has been going with really aggressive grilles on the front of the car, which makes them look like they belong in a Monsters, Inc scene. Ugly as shit, but my salesman said people have been asking for edgier-looking cars so ... whatever.
Aside from the acceleration noise, the other main concern has to do with Toyota in general. Longtime readers may recall that Will owned a Prius from 2012-2015, but it had problems with emergency braking/handling at certain speeds, due to the way the Prius hybrid transfers energy from the brakes to the engine. He had two accidents because of this, the last one severe enough that he had the car declared totaled and walked away from it. (This is, apparently, not a lone incident, but because the trouble tends to happen at lower/mid-range speeds, nobody ever dies, so there's no publicity and Toyota is not under any pressure to fix it. They denied any problems when Will asked them, but there are quite a few other stories just like his on the internet.) So, anyway, there's a question of loyalty here. Do I want to give Toyota more money, after what happened with the Prius?
Right now, I really don't know what I want to do. Mazda - but struggle to figure out the infotainment system? Less comfortable rear seating? Everyone here has been pressuring me to get the Mazda because they all love Will's and Karen's (they have matching Mazda6s). Which means it feels kind of like caving to go with that. The Honda, with their stellar service, but no cupholders? Toyota, with awful acceleration noise and possible sense of betrayal for going back to them? Subaru, which might handle better in winter weather, but loses all bonus safety features the moment I choose manual transmission, and may or may not have reliability issues?
Ugh - nothing feels right yet.
Books: I finished reading Jade Dragon Mountain, by Elsa Hart - a murder mystery set in early 18th-century China. This, and a sequel (which I haven't yet read) were birthday gifts from my friend Jen in Boston. Definitely not my usual fare, but it was very well written and kept me guessing. A nice snapshot into the time and location, the prevailing attitudes and unity - or lack thereof - within the country. Anyway, I very much enjoyed that.
Currently midway through The Philosopher's Flight, a birthday gift from hamsterwoman, and I am enjoying this very much, also. In fact, I became so engrossed the other day, while walking the dog, I overshot my street by 1.5 blocks and had to double back. Normally I'm pretty aware of where I am while walking and reading, but this time I looked up and it took me a minute to figure out why the intersection I was approaching looked all wrong, lol. Anyway, full review will come once I finish, but so far, it's great. Oh, and I'm reading The Outcast aloud to Two - the prequel to the Summoner series I read over the summer (both to myself and to Two), so I'm counting that as a new book for me, as well.
And in the rest of the world: Trump sucks, Kavanaugh is confirmed, Saudi journalist is missing, Princess Eugenie is married, and Megan is pregnant. I know the last two are exceedingly trivial, but at least it's happy news, compared to all the other crap going on. Ugh.
Driving: We had two how did you not know this? lessons with MiniPlu's driving in the same day on Columbus/Indigeneous People's Day. 1) Yes, you can turn right on red here but you still have to stop for the red light first. In the past, she's stopped because of traffic, so I assumed she knew this, but then came a time when there wasn't any incoming traffic, so she only slowed a little before continuing on and I was all HEY YOU HAVE TO STOP! I'm not sure how she didn't know that a red light is still STOP, even if you're allowed to turn right still but ... sigh. No harm done but she was genuinely bewildered by that. Also, 2) I learned that her sense of a complete stop is not correct. I'm not critiquing whether she does a rolling stop occasionally because pretty much everyone does that. I just need her to realize that's what she's doing, so she doesn't get in trouble during her test or, you know, if a cop is nearby. She comes to an almost stop, and in her mind, that actually was a full and complete stop. She's not trying to weasel out of it - she is actually perceiving it that way. So I'm having to really hammer it into her. STOP. ALL. THE. WAY. This is what it feels like. Nope, that wasn't it.
On the other hand, she's gotten a lot more confident as a driver, and is willing to tackle a much wider range of driving opportunities these days, so that's good.
Honors: She got into National Honors Society, as of yesterday! She actually started thinking she might have gotten in as of Tues, because she said they'd been calling down kids who didn't get in, and letting them know why, and she didn't get called. I'm sure the admins thought they were being nice, saying, "Hey, you had a good application but next year, if you want to try again, you might want to make sure you do XYZ" or something, but my immediate reaction was, "If I was called down to the office and told to my face that I didn't get in, I would have cried. Right there." I mean, sheesh - why not write them a nice letter so they can fall apart on their own time??
MiniPlu is, of course, relieved she got in - and I am, too, because she is totally the type of kid who would have said, "I'm clearly too stupid to go to college, nobody will take me because I didn't get into NHS, I might as well dig ditches for a living." :-P However, I think she would have been happier about it if her quasi-friend J hadn't also gotten in. J has only taken one honors class (English), isn't even in elevated math like MiniPlu, has been known to copy other people's homework and flaked out a LOT for the little-kid activity at church MiniPlu dutifully helped with all last year. I don't know if she got the adult in charge to just sign off on all the hours she didn't do, or what (the lady in question was due-any-day with her third child at the time and might have just cheerfully signed off on anything). So, anyway, MiniPlu felt her achievement was a little deflated because J got in, too, but I told her to still be proud of what she had accomplished. She knows she worked for her entrance.
And now MiniPlu is feeling kind of overwhelmed, knowing she has to keep up her grades and her volunteer hours, or her membership in NHS will be in jeopardy. She's still trying to get the hang of her first job (at Levi's at the local outlets - she's had just one 5-hour training shift so far), she needs to keep up volunteer hours for History Honors AND NHS AND Leo Club (the service organization) - you can't use one volunteer opportunity more than once so those all have to be accrued separately, and she really needs to be reviewing more before taking the SAT again.
Other activities: Our town's Fall Fest was last week - they shut down the center few blocks and line the street with booths/tents - local crafters and local businesses, fundraisers, political tables, food trucks, and the like. Two and I spent two pleasant hours on Sat morning wandering up and down, where I bought a lot of small craft items, entered a couple of raffles (which, alas, we did not win), Two got a gyro at a food truck and hot apple cider at the bakery's stand, and we participated in the Kiss-a-puppy-for-$1 fundraiser for an animal shelter (seriously brilliant way for them to make money!). MiniPlu visited the fest on Sunday, with friends, and reported that the petting zoo - which we did not visit - had social bunnies to handle, which she loved. There was also a Civil War reinactment, which we did not participate in, either.
Sunday morning, Two and I went off to a pencil drawing class at the community college; this runs two Sunday mornings, so we'll finish this coming weekend. We were by far the youngest there - there was another man probably about my age, but everyone else was a senior citizen. Low key and pleasant - nothing really noteworthy, but a nice activity to do together.
Sunday afternoon, the kids and I all got our flu shots. I don't know if this triggered a reaction in Two, or if he was brewing something already, but he became really lethargic by late afternoon, and wasn't that hungry. Monday morning he had a fever, so I kept him home, and he slept on and off a good chunk of the day, but he was back to school by Tues, despite a lingering sore throat. I actually couldn't remember the last time he missed school due to illness - he doesn't get sick that often.
Crohn's: Still a problem. I've been on 40mg Prednisone (steroid) for the past 2 weeks, to little or no effect. I mean, it's typically never worked on my Crohn's, but you never know - your body changes so I gave it a shot. I'd say it's probably kept things from getting worse, but only the faintest bit better - and only in that I now maybe have an extra 30 seconds before I need to sprint to the bathroom when the disease strikes. The frustrating thing is that it's mild enough to have almost no impact on my life - but I can't predict when it will. Could be 2 minutes from now. Could be in six hours. I've been on voluntarily leave from substituting because I can't be put in a room with kids on my own. I can be in a room with another teacher (either as the main teacher when there's in-class support, or as the in-class support) but somebody HAS to be on hand in case I need to suddenly step out for a minute. So far this school year, I've worked one half-day, and that's it. The beginning of the school year is often a little slow anyway, but by this point, jobs will be starting to crop up more often, and I hate having to leave the schools in the lurch, especially as I'm mostly fine. It's just the unpredictability that's killing me.
I don't know if or how I should be changing my diet. The SCD, which I put such faith in back in 2007, did not seem to have much impact during my 2013 flareup, which makes me wonder if it really helped, or if my recovery was more due to the Humira. In 2013 I tried both SCD and FODMAP - nothing helped. But how can food NOT have impact? There's part of me that thinks I should try SCD again, but the idea of cooking all that from scratch (EVERYTHING. Ketchup, mayo, tomato sauce, no deli meat), no soy, sugar (except honey), no grains of any kind, no sweet potato or potato, no fresh dairy (only aged cheese and butter), no pre-shredded cheese (has cornstarch), etc etc, ON TOP of feeding the other 6 picky eaters in my household, is just overwhelming. Do I knuckle down and give it a try, despite the fact it didn't work in 2013? Or not?
Cars: I've test-driven pretty much every car I'm remotely considering as a possible replacement for my Forester, when the time comes. What's below the cut is mostly for my own consideration, but you're welcome to read along if you want.
Recall that my desire for a manual transmission comes with a lot of fraught issues here in the US, as very few models and trim lines offer it these days. In most cases, it means making a decision between transmission and features, especially as frequently the manual transmission is only offered in the base model, or sometimes in a higher model that has had certain features removed because of the transmission.
Subaru Crosstrek: The lone AWD vehicle on here. I like the size - a nice compromise between a small car and a "small" SUV - because "small" SUVs (like the Forester) are no longer small. The AWD cuts down on fuel efficiency, but the Crosstrek does better than my Forester currently does, at least. Subaru's safety package is called EyeSight: it includes blind spot monitors on your wing mirrors (one of the things I think would be most awesome to have), adaptive cruise control, cross traffic monitor (behind you, for when backing out of a parking spot), lane departure warnings, lane keep assist, and a few other things along those lines. Both base and midrange trims offer EyeSight as an add-on option unless you pick the manual transmission. Not offered on manual.
In terms of the car itself, it seemed fine. I liked the size and feel of it. I was able to drive the manual Forester but not a manual Crosstrek. Still, it has potential. My main concern is that the Crosstrek doesn't have as high a reliability rating, and that's important to me.
Mazda3 which comes as both a sedan and a hatchback. The manual is available at both the base and midrange trims for both shapes. The midrange has leather(ette) seats, which I don't like, especially in summer - I prefer cloth. (The only selling point is that leather/ette seats are often heated, which cloth usually are not.) Their safety suite is smaller (blind spot monitor, rear cross-traffic monitor), but IS something that can be added on to the base model, even with a manual transmission, and comes automatically at midrange trim.
In this case, I'd probably go with the base model and add on the safety package, since I don't like the leatherette seats, although I'd have to sacrifice heated wing mirrors by sticking with the base.
In this case, I think I liked the hatchback slightly better, just for flexibility of cargo. Driving the cars was pretty much exactly like driving Will's Mazda6, so no real surprises there. The only big change is in the infotainment system - Will's base model didn't have the rear-view camera and thus no touchscreen, but pretty much all cars have that these days. And I couldn't figure out Mazda's infotainment system - even to get the radio to play - at all. Once the car is in motion, you cannot use the touchscreen, but are relegated to a dial between the front seats, which feels even more complicated. The Mazda handles well - it's one of its main selling points, that zoomzoom, but Will's had trouble with the tires his Mazda6 came on, for snow driving. I don't know if this is still a problem for the current Mazda3. Rear seat is somewhat cozy, especially the lumpy middle rear seat.
Honda Civic sedan and hatchback. I think the Civic sedan is kind of ugly, so I preferred the hatchback in that regard. (Also, as with other vehicles, it lends more flexibility to cargo.) Rear leg room was slightly better than the Mazda, and the center seat was much flatter and thus more comfortable. The manual transmission is only available in the base trim for the sedan (and they also cut your color options in half), but both the base and "sport" trim for the hatchback, but I would absolutely never get the sport - they have super-thin sidewall tires, more like for racing, and some other things that just make it look stupid. The safety suite (Honda Sensing) does not include the wing mirror blind spot monitoring - Honda does not offer this feature anywhere on any vehicle. But the rest of the deal - does come automatically on the sedan, even for the manual. It is not available on the manual hatchback at all - you have to go up to a midrange trim for the hatchback, but there's no manual transmission at that level.
They did not have any manuals on hand, so I drove both the base hatchback and one level up (EX) for the sedan, in automatic. The infotainment system seemed a bit simpler to deal with on the base trim - in a good way, I mean. But, and this will sound stupid, the base trim doesn't have any cupholders in the back seat. I think you can wedge stuff in the door pocket, but those always suck. I've got teenagers - having a place to put their water bottles is kind of important. But going up a trim level means sacrificing the transmission I want. In terms of driving and handling, it seemed fine - neither superb nor terrible. Oh, and this dealership offers free oil changes for as long as you own the vehicle, and a free weekly carwash as well, which would be quite nice, I won't lie. Still - the tradeoff of features is frustrating.
Toyota Corolla sedan and hatchback. The sedan had, oddly, actually more cargo space than the hatchback, although, of course, the height of the items you toted would be more limited. Back seat room was somewhat better in the sedan, as well - in fact, it was possibly the best of Mazda, Honda and Toyota. The manual transmission is available in the midrange (SE) sedan and the base trim hatchback; they did not have any in stock, so I drove those comparible trims in automatic.
Hands down, the winner here is the sedan, not only because of the better legroom and cargo space, but also because the driver sits slightly higher up in the sedan, and the whole infotainment screen setup is better (for me). In the hatchback, it actually juts up from the dashboard in a rather irritating way, whereas in the sedan, it's just set in to the dash and is less obtrusive. Toyota's safety suite (adaptive cruise control, lane-keep assist, etc) is standard on every vehicle - but does not include the blind-spot monitor on the wing mirrors. For the sedan, you must go up one more trim level - at which point, you sacrifice the manual transmission. Oddly enough, it's standard on the base-model hatchback. The SE sedan has leatherette-trimmed seats, but the main part you sit on is still cloth. Wing mirrors are heated, seats are not. It has a moonroof, which I have zero interest in, but might end up with, the way things are going on this hunt, and also comes with adaptive brights (headlights), which would actually be pretty useful on our rural roads.
In terms of driving, it was fine, with one exception: accelerating is noisy as hell, as in "Look at the big, badass car I've got!" way. Or possibly the muffler falls off when you step on the gas. :-P Once you reach whatever cruising speed you want, even highway speed, the engine and road noise are minimal, so it is definitely a feature of accelerating, not the speed you're going. But, ugh, it was awful. I do want to see if the manual transmission is any different - probably not, but I want to try, just in case. The other negative is that Toyota has been going with really aggressive grilles on the front of the car, which makes them look like they belong in a Monsters, Inc scene. Ugly as shit, but my salesman said people have been asking for edgier-looking cars so ... whatever.
Aside from the acceleration noise, the other main concern has to do with Toyota in general. Longtime readers may recall that Will owned a Prius from 2012-2015, but it had problems with emergency braking/handling at certain speeds, due to the way the Prius hybrid transfers energy from the brakes to the engine. He had two accidents because of this, the last one severe enough that he had the car declared totaled and walked away from it. (This is, apparently, not a lone incident, but because the trouble tends to happen at lower/mid-range speeds, nobody ever dies, so there's no publicity and Toyota is not under any pressure to fix it. They denied any problems when Will asked them, but there are quite a few other stories just like his on the internet.) So, anyway, there's a question of loyalty here. Do I want to give Toyota more money, after what happened with the Prius?
Right now, I really don't know what I want to do. Mazda - but struggle to figure out the infotainment system? Less comfortable rear seating? Everyone here has been pressuring me to get the Mazda because they all love Will's and Karen's (they have matching Mazda6s). Which means it feels kind of like caving to go with that. The Honda, with their stellar service, but no cupholders? Toyota, with awful acceleration noise and possible sense of betrayal for going back to them? Subaru, which might handle better in winter weather, but loses all bonus safety features the moment I choose manual transmission, and may or may not have reliability issues?
Ugh - nothing feels right yet.
Books: I finished reading Jade Dragon Mountain, by Elsa Hart - a murder mystery set in early 18th-century China. This, and a sequel (which I haven't yet read) were birthday gifts from my friend Jen in Boston. Definitely not my usual fare, but it was very well written and kept me guessing. A nice snapshot into the time and location, the prevailing attitudes and unity - or lack thereof - within the country. Anyway, I very much enjoyed that.
Currently midway through The Philosopher's Flight, a birthday gift from hamsterwoman, and I am enjoying this very much, also. In fact, I became so engrossed the other day, while walking the dog, I overshot my street by 1.5 blocks and had to double back. Normally I'm pretty aware of where I am while walking and reading, but this time I looked up and it took me a minute to figure out why the intersection I was approaching looked all wrong, lol. Anyway, full review will come once I finish, but so far, it's great. Oh, and I'm reading The Outcast aloud to Two - the prequel to the Summoner series I read over the summer (both to myself and to Two), so I'm counting that as a new book for me, as well.
And in the rest of the world: Trump sucks, Kavanaugh is confirmed, Saudi journalist is missing, Princess Eugenie is married, and Megan is pregnant. I know the last two are exceedingly trivial, but at least it's happy news, compared to all the other crap going on. Ugh.