Life Happens, Part 2

Or, more aptly titled "Life's been happening for the last week and here's at least part of what that entailed!".

DW's car: back from the dealer with new brakes and some new cooling system seals buried deep within the engine (and therefore very expensive to replace). However, the AC is still not cold, so it goes back this week for a boost of freon.

My car is "outa here". Last Sunday, while DW's mom kidsat, we went car shopping in town. We'd been researching online and had narrowed down our requirements. Mid-size SUV, decent gas-mileage, all-wheel drive, three rows, low miles, preferably with leather seats. We're not picky. Plus, DW's van has On-Star and she's a big believer in it, so she preferred that we get a GM that was so equipped. Our choices might have been a little limited.

Fortunately, I drive a lot of different cars when I travel on business. While that has mostly exposed me to a lot of cars that I really don't want to own, I have had several pleasant experiences with the Buick Rendezvous.

Back to last Sunday. We headed to the closest Carmax. Great place to test-drive lots of makes and models of cars, plus they buy your car whether you buy their's or not. While the were checking my car out, we looked over the lot and drove a few options. No Rendezvous' on the lot, but we tested some other 3-row SUV's; no takers. After getting their quote for buying my old car (old Lexus' really do hold value!), we headed to the new Buick dealership down the street. They didn't have anything in the used lot, but we test drove a new Rendezvous and really liked it. Not too station-wagony, not too truck-like.

Back home we started checking out EBay and other auto auction sites. We found a 2006 with just over 2k miles on it; totally decked out with options (even a DVD player). It was in Cleveland (OH), but I figured I could always fly up there and drive it home. Let's sleep on it and make an offer tomorrow morning. Guess what was already sold the next morning. Back to the computer. Look around. There are amazingly few 3-row Rendezvous' on the market; even fewer with less than 50k miles (my top threshold).

Then, I found one only 75 miles away! Almost everything we wanted. No AWD, but we'll survive. We made an offer, they countered, and by Mon night we had a deal. Yeah!!! We headed back to Carmax on Tuesday to sell the Lexus. What a seamless process. If you ever need to sell a car, check out Carmax. Then, we picked up the new one on Wednesday. I'm so pleased. Great car, great price. Mostly, great that the whole process is done! Even if we do own an Oldsmobile and a Buick. What happened to the Porsche I was supposed to have about now?

Tomorrow, maybe we can get back to "normal".

Oh yeah, my parents and my two aunts (visiting from Illinois) are coming to dinner. Never mind.

But, I did get to play golf this afternoon. I love where we live!!! And I love our lives, even when they don't go according to our plan.