Jessica's New Car

Well, Jessica didn't get the car she originally signed papers to buy.  She actually ended up getting a Suzuki Forenza.  The payments are a little less than they would have been for the Nissan and it's a lot "cuter".  Whatever.  Unbelievably, she got financed on her own as a first time buyer for 6.99% interest.  Nice!  Now I don't have to be a co-signer for her!

Jessica and the Car

Jessica finally decided she had to have her own car! She got used to having her own car when I got my own car and let her drive my Dad's silver Toyota wagon that he had given me and had driven for years. When that car was almost dead (everything but the engine), I sold it and she was without car. She would have to ask to borrow one of our cars which got very difficult when Anthony started having a lot of shows in October and December and there wasn't a car available. She learned to take Trax to work, but didn't like bumming rides with her friends all the time to "hang out."

So she looked for a car. She wanted a cute, sporty, fast, cute car. I told her in her price range her requirements should be that is runs and is cheap. Well, she found a Toyota Celica, two door cute little car that had been turboed (that word just looks wrong). It was fast, it was cute, it had a deck (I found out that's a really expensive awesome stereo/cd/mp3 player), and it was cool. It was black (actually really dark navy blue) and looked very much like this one:

She had it exactly 10 days before she totalled it. She was coming down the freeway off ramp at 1300 South and was going through the light and right back up the onramp to get back on the freeway because that wasn't the exit she wanted. Evidently the combination of her going too fast, the steep slope and incline of the road, a dip or chuck hole in the road, and the fact that her car was chopped (closer to the ground than normal) - she bottomed out and was thrown to the side of the road impacting a UDOT utility box. She was unharmed, but the car was a total loss. Luckily she got the car for less that it's value, so the insurance coverage minus her $1000 deduction will pay for the car plus about $500.

She's already bought another car, though this one I think she's paying about $1000 too much for, a Nissan Sentra. Oh well, not my decision. I just hope she gets this one paid for before she wrecks it.

Bad things come in threes?

We've all heard that bad things come in threes. I may be feeling a bit sorry for myself, but I think I got more that three this time around. Or maybe I'm starting on my next three, who knows.

First my sink plugs up and in trying to solve that problem (#1), we find our counter is falling apart and my cupboards are rotting. So we decide to bite the bullet and re-do our kitchen (#2) [now this may seem like a good thing, but at the same time I've been without a kitchen for more than a week, let alone the huge expense, so I've felt like it's been a problem]. Then I get gout again - trust me that's a problem (#3). Ok, that's three, I should be okay for a while - right?

Nope. Before my kitchen is back together (still missing the counter - but the rest is great) Anthony's car "throws a rod", and yes, it's as bad as it sounds - dead engine! So we can either get a new (no, let me re-phrase) - refurbished old engine put in and hope it lasts a while (it's only guaranteed for 30 days) or we get a new (oops, I mean used) car. I call that big ugly problem #4.

So the magic mobile, or "billboard" as Jessica calls it, is dead. We need another car, and fast. Someone in my office suggested the goverment surplus place, so Anthony went down and found a Ford Taurus that was a city car not a cop car for less than $2500 in good condition, besides the 100k miles. Ugh, can you believe we got a FORD? It just seems so wrong not to have a Toyota. Oh well, could be worse, right?