What I Bought

Hello! I'm back, did you miss me?

It's been a busy few weeks and I have a few stories to tell, but since I left off with the car hunt, I suppose I should start there.

Obviously I bought the 08 Altima Coupe.

I did go test drive the Mini and if anyone out there is considering this car, make sure you drive both the Cooper and the Cooper S. The Cooper was stiff and then engine seemed to *just* be able to move, but the turbocharged Cooper S was a blast to drive. Literally! That little rocket just took off, and every time it did, it produced a bit of torque steer. Being a nimble little thing, at least 1000 lbs lighter than the Altima, and producing 177 hp, every little movement of the steering wheel produced response. No sloppy steering here. With the combination of a heavy foot and responsive steering, the torque steer seemed to be something I'd have to learn to deal with. I wasn't really happy with some of the cheap plastic knobs inside, and when we did our test drive, a check engine and check brake alerts came on. Then the windshield wipers went haywire. Our salesperson likened our little car to a cell phone that acts funky if you don't update the software frequently and you let it sit for awhile. Considering that the dealerships close to me are 45 minutes away, and that I had read a few people's reviews stating that service was not so good at those dealerships, I had to let the Mini go.

I had to take my daughter to college, so car buying was put on the shelf for a bit, and Libby and I enjoyed some down time at the beach. If you've been in Maryland at all this summer, you know that we have had a drought. That's because I wasn't at the beach.. forgive me. Next summer I'll go once a week to assure your crops of rain! It rained the majority of the time I was there with Libs, but that was ok, because we just napped and read and chatted and basically did nothing- which is something new for me.
Me- "Libs, what do you want to do?"
Lib - "Ma, don't you know how to do nothing? Can't you just sit still and be??"
Me - "No. But I'll try."
Lib- Sigh...

I think we had that verbal exchange about 3 times a day.

After getting her into her dorm - a subject for a different blog- I had a few days left at the beach. On the last day, Sean calls me and says I need to go look at a car in Salisbury, so on my way home, I did.

I am not a big fan of silver cars, but this car is a strange gray that looks different all the time. In bright sunlight, it looks like a light gray, when it's overcast it looks like a storm cloud. It's just dark enough that I like it.

Long sales story short and multiple trips back and forth between my sales person and sales manager (don't you just HATE that part) I bought the car and my payments are the same as they were for the Solara. I brought it home through a torrential downpour with bolts of lightning zapping all around and stiff winds and then a traffic jam due to an accident and it performed wonderfully.

Now I'm having fun with the Bose stereo system and the hands free blue-tooth. It's so cool to just push a button, tell the car to call someone and then chat with them while you are driving down the road as if they were sitting in the seat next to you!

I'm happy with it; now it needs to tell me it's name.

What To Buy.... What To Buy.....

I'm currently in a dilemma. My Solara convertible is a lease and it's just about time to be done with it. For the past week or so I have driven more vehicles than I wanted to and still am really no closer to knowing what I want. grrrr

I originally thought I'd go with an 08 Altima Coupe, which is very sporty and drove very nicely, but these are so hot they are flying off the lots and the combination that I want isn't easy to find. I could wait, but there is the issue that because of supply and demand, there isn't really any wiggle room in the price. No one really has to 'deal'. You either pay MSRP or you walk away and the next person steps up and takes the deal.

Then I started looking for other vehicles in the 4 cylinder sport coupe realm. I'm not really ready for the "granny sedan" just like I resisted the "soccer mom minivan". The Toyota Camry Hybrid appealed to my green side, but it is just so VANILLA it's not funny. It's like driving a flying couch and if you are into that, so be it, but I like to drive. I also had issues with the fact that since the engine turns off when you stop, the car hesitates and then shuddered and then kicked in before you would go, so if you are one of those who likes to take off from a stop, forget it.

I also tried a Prius. Totally cool interior- especially for geek girl like me. I really liked the instrumentation, but again, the hesitation and the little engine just didn't work for me. The biggest downfall was that the steering wheel is located pretty low on the dash and doesn't telescope, and for tall people it's hard to reach if you need to put the seat all the way back to fit the pedals.

Next on my list was the Dodge Avenger. I wanted to like this car since I LOVED my old Intrepid, but alas and alack, it was not to be. The Avenger was cheap and angular inside with enough plastic and disturbing boxy and linear dashboard clutter that I couldn't get over it. The engine really seemed to be straining to haul around the heavy body and I'd have to go to a 2.7 liter just to compensate and at that, I'm giving up some mileage.

Then I went through the online search of Hyundai, Subaru, Ford, Chevrolet, Kia and VW, with nothing really catching my eye there. Pontiac g5 looks ok, I like the G6 better but the price on the G5 was a bit better, but my son said NO, I couldn't have that car due the to lacking safety ratings... hmmm what next.

Now I'm looking at at Cooper Mini. True it's kind of like a station wagon, but it is unique and cute in my book, plus the bonus is that it's actually a BMW and the review say it's fun to drive. I've priced one of those and it looks like I can get what I want on it... (including British Racing Green!!) and still afford the payment. Next I need to test drive it and see if I like the feel of it.

I've never had such a difficult time finding a car that I like before.... sigh... but everything happens for a reason!

Dale Spooner

I had originally titled this Bloggers Block, because that was what I had. Then I decided to take a walk and I heard a song that reminded me of a dear friend who has passed on. Granted, Dale was Frank's childhood friend, but he was one of those guys you met and either instantly liked or hated. Usually people liked him. He was bright, funny and had an excellent sense of humor. One of the best qualities about Dale was that he was brutally honest with himself. He knew who he was, understood his flaws and took responsibility for them.

Dale like to LIVE. By that, I mean he was someone who wanted to taste it all, see it all and do it all. He enjoyed food and drink, women and adrenaline. He used to participate in demolition derby's in his younger years and never failed to have some kind of exciting and awesome story to tell. He did like to gamble, loved his toys and living this lifestyle, he amassed a bit of debt. He never blamed anyone but himself for his debt and never put it on anyone else. Dale worked as many jobs as he could to pay every penny back and even if he was having his kneecaps threatened by Bruno, he'd still pay you the 5.00 he borrowed when he said he would. ( I don't think he ever really had anyone threaten him, but I wouldn't be surprised to find out he did.)

Dale wrote poetry. I still have it. Sometimes it was the typical angst poetry of the teen years and sometimes it was funny. I've kept it in my dresser drawer for years now and every now and then I go and read some of it.

Ever the gentleman, tall, blond with sparkling blue eyes and a shy by easy smile, he was never lacking for the ladies, but for some reason, never had good luck keeping them. I guess the toys, the adrenaline fixes and working multiple jobs made it difficult to keep a relationship going.

Dale and I used to talk on the phone for hours. About nothing and everything.

A few years ago, he suddenly felt ill. He thought it was just a case of the flu and decided to wait it out... after 24 hours and a steady decline, he was taken to the hospital emergency room, where they quickly admitted him and before another 24 hours had passed, he was gone from a full body internal staph infection. Boom... just like that.

Frank got the phone call. He was devastated. How could Dale be gone... he was only in his early 30's? The boy who had bowled with him during their teen years. I remember meeting Dale when he was 15 or so, when I went with Frank to a bowling banquet... all those long years ago. I also remember him catching the garter at my wedding and refusing to complete the tradition of sliding it up the leg of the female who had caught the bouquet. Since it was Frank's widowed mother who had caught it, I couldn't really blame the 17 year old Dale for not wanting to honor that particular tradition!

Dale also loved music and one artist he really enjoyed was Howard Jones. I hadn't really heard of Howard Jones until I talked to Dale and he had me listen to some of his songs. So today, as I walked my mile to clear my head and get some much needed exercise, Howard Jones came on my Mp3 player- he often does, even tho I only have 2 songs on there by him and it's a 1 gig player with tons of stuff on there!!

By the way, I could always just upload my music clips to the server and then post them here without video, because really all I'm interested is the MUSIC content and not necessarily the video portion, but I was recently told that we are going to have to be careful with large files on our new server space, so I figured I'd just use a YouTube clip if I can find one. Feel free to close your eyes and just listen to the piece of music I pick so that the visual doesn't interfere with the message. In fact I encourage it!!

Here are the lyrics:

Life in one day

The old man said to me
Said don't always take life so seriously
Play the flute
And dance and sing your song

Try and enjoy the here and now
The future will take care of itself somehow
The grass is never greener over there
Time will wear away the stone
Gets the hereditary bone

CHORUS:
Don't try to live your life in one day
Don't go speed your time away
Don't try to live your life in one day
Don't go speed your time away

The old man said to me
Said you can't change the world single handedly
Raise a glass enjoy the scenery
Pretend the water is champagne
And fill my glass again and again
While the wolves are gathering round your door
Time will wear away the stone
Gets the hereditary bone

CHORUS

The old man said to me
Said don't always take life so seriously
Play the flute
And dance and sing your song

Try and enjoy the here and now
The future will take care of itself somehow
The grass is never greener over there
Time will wear away the stone
Gets the hereditary bone

I tried to live my life in one day
Don't go speed your time away

I bit off more than I can chew
Only so much you can do

Wolves are gathering round my door
Ask them in and invite some more

I tried to live my life in one day
Don't go speed your time away

Don't try to live your life in one day
 

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The clip I did find has some blips and voice overs in it. It was supposed to since this is the way the original music video went. It can be annoying, so I apologize in advance. If I ever find a better clip, I'll replace this one!!
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That said, here is the song that makes me smile, reminds me of Dale and that I consider a friendly hello and message from an old friend.

Tidbits

I found a few fun things online today that I'd like to share....



And this link.. which takes you to a webpage where you can type any message you want and it will be sung for you. You can even send your singing message as an email. Try it!!

http://www.sr.se/p1/src/sing/#

NOW, I really DO have some work to do...hehehe

Just a Funny Picture

FREE MUSIC------FREE MUSIC

Magnatune, a very cool website that exists to promote artists that might never have gotten massive airplay or the broad audience the internet can provide, has decided to give away a free album of music every month. That's right! FREE! Music for you to listen to and love and burn and keep and share to your heart's desire.

The basis of Magnatune is this. Artists submit their music. Magnatune decides if they want to carry it or not on their website. They offer you the opportunity to listen to everything on their catalogue in complete. You get to listen to every song on the whole album, not just 30 second clips. Then, if you like the music, you go in and YOU choose the price you are going to pay... no kidding!! So if you really love the music and you think the artist should get a nice chunk of change, you pay them what you think they deserve. (Or if you are tight on cash, but love the music anyway, you can get the album for as little as 5.00) Either way, Magnatune will then allow you the opportunity to either download your music, or wait for a CD in the mail. I love it!

You can get all kinds of music there.. R&B, classical, techno, country, alternative rock, opera, you name it.

Check it out at www.magnatune.com
You can get the free album, "Seduction Mix" at www.magnatune.com/freemusic

How Can This Be??

Today, I went to a car dealership and actually got out of my car, walked clear through the dealership, around the entire building and back out to the front, pausing to look at vehicles and never got stopped, approached or even had a "good day" from anyone!! It wasn't a problem for me... but what are the odds of that happening again?