What I Did Yesterday!

Anna and I have been talking about getting a new(ish) car since last October. We wanted something that would be comfortable enough for long drives and road trips. When we drive Ann's Subaru to Ohio, my knees are pretty sore by the time we get there. It's a great car for her, just a little cramped for me. My last car was a Chevy S-10 truck and we are going to hang on to it for a while. It seems with the summer finally here, we use that quite a bit to haul the mower in to get fixed, pick up paving blocks or bags of mulch from the Home Depot, and generally anything that would make a mess of the car's trunk. We'll see if we can afford the insurance for a while. Our intent is to drive the truck until it dies or gets killed, then donate it.   

Anyway, here is the car we came up with. It's a 2011 Nissan Maxima with about 29,000 miles on it. In the past we have bought new cars, but almost always in a basic version - very few of the bells and whistles that were available. I was hoping to step up a grade on this car, so getting it three years old brought it back down to my price range. It has a sunroof, keyless start and keyless entry (you just have to have the key nearby), a Bose sound system, and seats that remember where to adjust to. Which is a lot fancier than the truck or the Astro van (named the Tank by the kids) I had before the truck, neither of which had heated bun warmers. It also had the most rear seat legroom of the cars we tested, so I will now get to drive to some school board events (people keep saying "Yes" when I ask if they mind riding in the bed of the truck) instead of riding with Carey.

So, I have a new ride to cruise the local parking lots in. I watched the TV ads really closely this winter and saw all the people taking their cars up the mountain to go skiing or mountain biking or having everyone in formalwear and headed for the opera. I'm thinking I'll go to the Jewel this afternoon and buy something to grill out tonight. Woooooo!