Heat Wave and a New Car
Last weekend I spent a lot of time reading on the balcony after things cooled off enough that outside was better, with the slight breeze, than the inside. I finished rereading A Wizard of Earthsea and The Tombs of Atuan, and started on The Farthest Shore.
Monday alenxa and I tried to run out to the local second-run theater and see Pirates 3 again, but they were sold out. None of the other movies looked interesting, so we spent an hour and a half in Barnes & Noble instead, then went for an early dinner at Ruby's.
Even though it cooled off substantially Monday night, the apartment stayed warm, no matter how we arranged the fans. We seriously considered sleeping out on our balcony.
Tuesday I had the dubious honor of changing a tire in 85-degree heat, which was better than changing it in 100-degree heat on Monday would have been, but still not much fun. I took it to Costco, where they said they could repair it (it was an obvious puncture, with a 1/2" bolt sticking out of the tire), but the tire was worn down far enough they wanted to replace it. I told them I was looking at replacing the car in a few months, so they stuck with the repair.
As it turned out, we ended up replacing the car this weekend. We'd been talking about maybe setting up a trip to Bryce Canyon before winter set in, and I realized I really didn't want to take another long trip in this car (1997 Sentra). The last 2 months, things have been failing left and right. Even the service department at the dealer was starting to say it might be time to look for something new ( which would have been nicer to hear before I spent a large chunk of change on repairs I expected would keep the thing running for 6-12 months). On Friday it almost didn't start -- it took about 15 seconds of holding the key in place before the starter would turn.
So on Saturday, we figured we'd start looking at new cars. The plan was this: We'd go to lunch, I'd drop Katie off at home, then run some errands myself, then pick her up again and we'd look at the nearest Toyota and Honda dealers. We've been talking about getting a hybrid for our next car, probably a Prius, for quite a while, and those are the two companies that have really gotten behind the hybrids. We got in the car, and it did the same thing it had done on Friday: it almost didn't start, but finally managed with some coaxing. We decided to move up the schedule a bit. We'd have lunch, then go straight to the car shopping.
Lunch was an adventure in itself (and deserves its own post). Then we hopped in the car, and this time it simply would not start at all. Fortunately we'd picked a restaurant within walking distance of the auto mall, so we just walked over and started looking.
The salesman we dealt with at the Toyota lot could have been Sean Penn's character from Fast Times at Ridgemont High plus 20 years. Fortunately he was a low-pressure salesman. Aside from trying several times to get us to look at the hybrid Camry (an extra 7K or so for a full-sized sedan), he didn't try to push any upgrades or anything.
We checked out some cars, did a test drive and decided to go for it. We now have a new 2007 Prius.
I've been driving the same car for 9 years, so I'd forgotten the sheer amount of procedure involved. It was 9:30 by the time we got out of there, drove out to where we'd left the old car (which we'd just traded in for a piddling sum), transferred all our stuff, and gave the salesman our key. They were going to tow it some time today, but it was still there when I drove by this afternoon. Maybe they were waiting until after I came back with the title.
I'm still getting used to the Prius. Whenever the gas engine stops or starts, I have to remind myself that the car isn't stalling. It still feels weird to start it by hitting a power button instead of turning a key. Plus there's the usual getting used to where all the controls are on the dashboard (some of them are on a touch-screen, and some are physical buttons & dials), and the turning radius (considerably better than the Sentra), braking speed, distance to the front & back bumpers, etc. And we're still discovering all the storage compartments and configuration.
Today was mostly taking care of all the stuff I'd planned to do yesterday. Errands, laundry, dishes, trash, website, etc.
Monday alenxa and I tried to run out to the local second-run theater and see Pirates 3 again, but they were sold out. None of the other movies looked interesting, so we spent an hour and a half in Barnes & Noble instead, then went for an early dinner at Ruby's.
Even though it cooled off substantially Monday night, the apartment stayed warm, no matter how we arranged the fans. We seriously considered sleeping out on our balcony.
Tuesday I had the dubious honor of changing a tire in 85-degree heat, which was better than changing it in 100-degree heat on Monday would have been, but still not much fun. I took it to Costco, where they said they could repair it (it was an obvious puncture, with a 1/2" bolt sticking out of the tire), but the tire was worn down far enough they wanted to replace it. I told them I was looking at replacing the car in a few months, so they stuck with the repair.
As it turned out, we ended up replacing the car this weekend. We'd been talking about maybe setting up a trip to Bryce Canyon before winter set in, and I realized I really didn't want to take another long trip in this car (1997 Sentra). The last 2 months, things have been failing left and right. Even the service department at the dealer was starting to say it might be time to look for something new ( which would have been nicer to hear before I spent a large chunk of change on repairs I expected would keep the thing running for 6-12 months). On Friday it almost didn't start -- it took about 15 seconds of holding the key in place before the starter would turn.
So on Saturday, we figured we'd start looking at new cars. The plan was this: We'd go to lunch, I'd drop Katie off at home, then run some errands myself, then pick her up again and we'd look at the nearest Toyota and Honda dealers. We've been talking about getting a hybrid for our next car, probably a Prius, for quite a while, and those are the two companies that have really gotten behind the hybrids. We got in the car, and it did the same thing it had done on Friday: it almost didn't start, but finally managed with some coaxing. We decided to move up the schedule a bit. We'd have lunch, then go straight to the car shopping.
Lunch was an adventure in itself (and deserves its own post). Then we hopped in the car, and this time it simply would not start at all. Fortunately we'd picked a restaurant within walking distance of the auto mall, so we just walked over and started looking.
The salesman we dealt with at the Toyota lot could have been Sean Penn's character from Fast Times at Ridgemont High plus 20 years. Fortunately he was a low-pressure salesman. Aside from trying several times to get us to look at the hybrid Camry (an extra 7K or so for a full-sized sedan), he didn't try to push any upgrades or anything.
We checked out some cars, did a test drive and decided to go for it. We now have a new 2007 Prius.
I've been driving the same car for 9 years, so I'd forgotten the sheer amount of procedure involved. It was 9:30 by the time we got out of there, drove out to where we'd left the old car (which we'd just traded in for a piddling sum), transferred all our stuff, and gave the salesman our key. They were going to tow it some time today, but it was still there when I drove by this afternoon. Maybe they were waiting until after I came back with the title.
I'm still getting used to the Prius. Whenever the gas engine stops or starts, I have to remind myself that the car isn't stalling. It still feels weird to start it by hitting a power button instead of turning a key. Plus there's the usual getting used to where all the controls are on the dashboard (some of them are on a touch-screen, and some are physical buttons & dials), and the turning radius (considerably better than the Sentra), braking speed, distance to the front & back bumpers, etc. And we're still discovering all the storage compartments and configuration.
Today was mostly taking care of all the stuff I'd planned to do yesterday. Errands, laundry, dishes, trash, website, etc.