Note: This entry was started on Wednesday, the day when I was the sickest and I ran out of steam and just haven’t felt like writing since. I’m much better now, although I sound like a walking tuberculosis ward.
Have you seen the commercial about the little snot blob that takes up residence in some guys lung? The guy takes some medication and snot boy gets blown out like a cow in a tornado. The bad part is that snot boy must have seen a vacancy sign in my bronchia. It started about a week ago with intermittant head and body aches and then a mild congestion in my chest. By Friday I was saying to myself that I had a mild chest cold and it had probably peaked and I would soon be feeling fine.
Not so, Poncho. By Monday I felt like death warmed over. Snot boy was raising a family down there and I had one of those it hurts my eyeballs to read kind of headaches. With my insect like span of concentration, the distraction of coughing, sneezing, fatigue and achiness makes me pretty much useless. I took Tuesday off. Today I’m not much better and it’s invaded my sinus cavities as well, so I took today off as well. I think that today I will hit the club and do the old steam room-sauna-shower and repeat routine and see if it loosens things up enough to hack out a lunger. That’s all I really need. I wish I could remember what that snot boy eviction elixer is called, but I can’t. So much for name recognition.
Rebecca and I have been talking about getting rid of her 2000 CRV and my ’92 Accord Wagon and going down to one car. Our intention was to not pay much more than what we could sell the other two for, so we were going to look for a used vehicle. We did some research and decided we liked Passats, Accords, and Mazda 6s.
First we stopped at the VW place to look at Passats. We were greeted by Vad. “Brad?” “Vad.” with a ‘V'” He had a mild Eastern European accent, was wearing a sweat suit and when we asked him where the prices were on the cars, he pointed to his head. Although he quoted a price on one car and one of his associates was walking by and breezily contradicted him. For some reason I couldn’t stop thinking of him as “Vlad the Impaler.” After all everyone knows that used car salesmen are bloodsuckers. We took the road test, he let us take it out on our own, and liked the car, roomy, comfortable and even with the four cylinder it had plenty of pep. We thanked Vad and headed for the Mazda dealership.
Mike was our next guy. Remember Medevoy from NYPD Blue. It was him, I swear. Looked and acted. He had some used 6s, the loaners from the lot. We took one for a test drive, of course I loved the car, but then he showed us some new 2004 Mazda 6 wagons that were going for less than the used ones. We agreed that these were by far the most car for the money that we’d seen. But this was just supposed to be a preliminary expidition and we still wanted to check out the Honda dealer.
The guy at the Honda dealer was one of those types that give polyester a bad name. I mean I’m an old white man, but this guy was an Old White Man. He didn’t listen, made assumptions that we were low ball customers, and made continuous condescending remarks about women. We love Hondas, have owned them all our lives, but we couldn’t get out of there soon enough.
OK to make a long story not too much longer, we talked it over, I did my due dilligence, discovered that the price on the Mazda’s was about $8500 below sticker price, convinced myself that Medevoy wasn’t gong to dicker, decided the difference between the trade-in and a private party sale wasn’t worth the hassle, dragged my sick sorry ass body out and bought the car.
WooooHoooo! A new car! And a sporty one at that!
That’s pretty much it, but no spoiler lip on the back, we have a roof rack and a moon roof. It’s an automatic which is a departure for me, but it has a five speed shifter that functions much like a manual.
wo! congratulations! around here i feel limited to Fords and VWs because those are the only dealers/mechanics I trust
wooohooooo! good for you:)
randomly- i love the new car smell!
I went from manual to automatic with my last car and what a dream! I’ll never drive a manual again. Now I can use my free hand and free foot for other things. Like changing songs on my iPod and tapping my toe to the beat.
I love new cars.
Hopefully old snot boy follows his eviction orders.
~lisa