For those of you who read the daily planet you will have noticed the renovations we have made to our virtual newspaper. Mainly, the new music that now plays as you read the exciting saga of our life. You can thank our star reporter and my wife, Lois Lane. She has helped me so much with the alien world of blogging. Without her I would never post anything or have, if I do say so myself, a pretty cool looking blog. I have been off the last week due to some minor injuries from the gym that I needed to have a doctor take a look at to make sure I didn't really mess anything up with my elbow and knee. Gratefully the x-rays and examination just turned up some minor injuries that a brace and physical therapy will be able to fix.
While I have been home it has been nice to spend time with Lois at home in Metropolis for some much needed "R and R." We have also been able to take care of some things that always find a way of being put off for later because of time restraints or lack of money or whatever excuse we come up with. First, we addressed some issues with the SK's room and have made some great additions to it to maximize their space and make it more comfortable for them. I know they will be excited when they walk into their room this summer when they come home.
I also made my way up to Metropolis University and made some preparations to go back to school in the fall. I can't wait to start school and to head up to campus for classes. Lois and I can't wait for the first football game of the season which will be an away game against a university up in Michigan.
One of the biggest things we have been kicking around for the better part of the year is the purchase of a new vehicle. I had a Dodge crew cab 1500 Ram that I absolutely loved. I had done my research and went out to specifically buy that particular year and model of truck. My truck was red and it ran like a dream. The SK's loved it just as much as I did and it had so much room in it for all of us. I bought this truck soon after Lois and I started dating and back then she used to sit next to me and she used to lay down with her head in my lap for a long nap on the long drives to Smallville to pick up the kids. I babied my truck and I truly loved driving it. The negatives of my truck were outweighing the positives here lately. First of all, the cost of gas has skyrocketed and lets jut say my truck had a drinking problem. Second, my truck was a 4x2 and it snows here in Metropolis. I don't know if any of you have ever driven a rear wheel drive car on ice and snow but a rear wheel drive pickup on ice can be about as much fun as running in place and as productive. We have been talking over the idea of changing our vehicles for a while and we decided to start looking a few weeks ago.
We wanted to find an all wheel drive or 4x4 car or suv that got good gas mileage and was safe to drive. We did our homework and narrowed our selection down to a Subaru. All Subarus are All Wheel Drive and have been since 1997. They have some of the highest crash test ratings in the industry and they get 20 mpg in the city and 28 mpg on the highway. The question was would we get an Outback, an Impreza, or a Forester. We test drove a couple of Subarus last week and we really liked the way the car handled and performed.
This week we were home and Lois and I headed over to our bank to see what we would qualify for. Lois qualified for a great loan with a great inerest rate and the bank said to have fun shopping. Complete turn of events from my last marriage. I was the only one who could qualify for a loan of any type and my ex wife tried to make sure that we would never qualify for any type of loan in the future. Just read the last headline Another Repo for Krypto. Lois was a little worried about going in to the bank but after we talked about it and we pulled up in front of the bank she seemed pretty confident. Car shopping is so much easier when you are pre-qualified and a lot of the games the dealers play get tossed out of the window. It allows you to discuss only the price of the car and value of your trade. The famous question of what payment are you looking to stay around is mute and any advantage you can take with you to the dealership is huge.
One night this week my mind was racing about life and many of these questions I have addressed in this post and could not sleep. I hopped on the web wrote a post and took a page out of Lois's playbook and shopped online for a new car. I found a Subaru Forester at a great price about $4,000 lower than everyone else was asking for the 2008 models. Later that morning I registered my truck and spent a couple of hours cleaning the old red truck up and Lois and I headed off to see if they still had the car I saw on the Internet.
Lois and I found the car and we took it for a spin with the salesman. We compared it to a couple of other cars on the lot and we kept coming back to the same black 2008 we saw on the Internet. Lois and I agreed at that point and she told me to handle all the negotiations with the salesmen and she trusted me. I told the salesman that we were pre-qualified through our bank and the only thing that would prevent him from making the sale was the issue of our trade in. They went over my truck and the one thing they kept saying was how nice the truck was and that it didn't need anything done to it. I knew going in that 1. it was a truck with bad gas mileage and 2. it was a 4x2 and I was going to take a hit on my trade. We played the slide the piece of paper game across the desk and I told the salesman what I wanted for my truck and he said he would go and see. If I had traded my truck in, in another state I know I would have received more for my trade but the price the dealer had on the Forester evened things out. First we reduced our car payment. Second we will lower our gas bill because of the improved gas mileage. Third the new car is under warranty and this vehicle will last us through the next ten years. We finalized the sale and we drove off in our new car. And yes it was extremely hard driving off and leaving my old red truck behind. There are a lot of great memories in that old truck and it almost felt like leaving a family member behind. Isn't it funny how we become attached to inanimate objects?
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