Our New Ride

Friday night I thought to check our bank account on-line to see if our income tax refund had been deposited yet. It's a good thing I did because Saturday afternoon we bought a new van! We'd been kind of thinking this year ought to be one in which we replaced our Lumina because we are over 200,000 miles on that. Paul was at the junkyard last week, looking for some part for it, and happened to think to check the odometers of other wrecked Luminas - sure enough, they all had fewer than 250,000 miles on it. So, while the van still works great, it's just a matter of time before it didn't. I had really hoped to get an SUV. But we didn't and I'm ok with it. A week ago Sat. we were at the Dairy Shoppe (I think it's called that - "Dairy" something or other, anyway) in Pleasantville. Tacked to the community bulletin board was an advertisement for this van. Paul ripped off the number and showed it to me. I wasn't all that interested because I was still thinking "SUV" and I didn't know yet how serious he was about looking for something new. Honestly, I have gone vehicle shopping with this man a number of times and it is not a pleasant experience. I'd just soon go to a new dealership, pick the color and model I liked, sign all my future paychecks away, and ride off into the sunset. Not Paul. He refuses to buy anything brand new, which is probably wise. He also has to make sure he is getting the best bargain and deal out there. This applies to anything he buys, actually, whether it be can openers or cars.

So anyway, this past Sat. morning, Paul comments to me, "You know, I think that van we saw advertised may be a really good deal." He started showing me a local classified paper and sure enough, similar vans and SUVs in mileage and year were all fetching quite a bit of money. We'd have to get a loan, which we had thought maybe we would anyway - not that I was all that sure on how we'd make the payments! So, long story short, we bought the thing. It turned out that it was actually just down the highway from our house. A couple about our age owned it. They are the ones that had a 4' high Obama sign up all last fall...I also had to peel off a "Veterans for Obama" bumper sticker off the back window!

So, we have a new van! It's an '02 Chevrolet Venture LT, just a little over 100,000 miles on it. We bought our last one at 147,000 and it lasted 4 1/2 years. So, accidents aside, I think we'll get at least 5 yrs out of this one. Then, I'll get my SUV!

I got to mentally cataloging all our minivans that we have owned. We bought our first in '98, when I was newly pregnant with David, but didn't know it yet. Paul wrecked the engine in that 3 months later when he drove it without oil. Then, we had this burgundy/wood panelled one. For the life of me, I cannot recall why we got rid of that thing a few years later. When we did we bought this white Dodge. It was the purchase of that van that pushed me back into the workforce ( I didn't mind because it was a fabulous job and got me out of the house a few nights a week). Then, I wrecked that in '04. We replaced it with my bright red Lumina that I absolutely adored. But I totalled that 6 months later (2004 was a rough driving year for me - there was also a fender bender in between those two accidents!) and that's when we got the green Lumina. Paul also bought a '91 Caravan somewhere in there for his use - we still have that. We had planned to sell it last summer, but never got around to it. Now I'm wondering if we should just hang onto it for Will, who will be 16 in another year and half. Paul said he might object to driving a mini van, though. Could be.

Anyway, it's a nice van and it has all these fancy gizmos that we're not used to. And we don't have a car payment, which is the best news of all!

Off to take my bath. I am one exhausted puppy today. I got up bright and early, before anyone else, cleaned up my house, got my grocery list ready, called my ins. company and got the van insured, and then went shopping with all 4 boys. Sam sure had an overactive bladder today - soaked two pairs of jeans while we were out and about! But maybe I can sweet talk Paul or Will into getting Sam down for the night so I can get to bed early - hope so!