Cars, a love hate relationship

I was just going along my business of a sunday afternoon errand run to prepare for the upcoming week, heading straight in a green light when a minicooper tried cut in front of me to take a left turn. I saw she was going to try to cut me off just a little too late. I slammed on my brakes to avoid impact, but to no avail we hit and I spun her around next to me. First time I've ever had an airbag go off. Both drivers were ok. We were lucky to escape injury in a head on collision. The young women was out for a cup of coffee. Not sure why she would cut someone off for a cup of coffee, but she was very apologetic. I would have been out of control if my kids were in the car, but I was surprisingly cool, just happy that nobody was taken away in an ambulance. It hadn't sunk in that my paid off honda minivan got destroyed. I could have had it another 5 years as it was well taken care of with only 70k miles on it. You got to love being car payment free. In fact Chuck's truck was paid off too. We were looking to replace his suburban within the year as it was on it's last leg. Now we were looking at two car payments.

The impact bent the entire frame and the none of the doors closed properly. The dash and steering column was pushed in. The design of it did protect me.

Both cars were not drivable and towed away.

Zac wanted to know what was going to happen to the injured car. I told him the insurance company would take it to sell parts off of it to a salvege company.

My car was totalled and I was scratching my head about what to replace it with. I was done with the minivan phase of life, but still needed a roomy vehicle. Chuck and I have no compatibility with car choice, but we still need to find a happy medium. Having to make a decision quick, I did choose the Mazda cx-9. I got a great deal on it and I've been happy with my choice.....other than the car payment that we now have.

Here is my new 2010 loaded cx-9. His name is buzz and we zoom zoom.

See his smile? If I'm going to be stuck with a car payment, I might as well enjoy the purchase.

A few weeks later, we traded in the Suburban (so long guzzler, woohoo! I hated that vehicle) for a sipper, A toyota hybrid highlander (much better). Chuckie isn't quite as happy with his 'new' car as I am with mine, but he went along with it just to shut me up and now is slowly adjusting to a smaller truck. He still looks at the big Tahoe's and other SUVs saying he wants to go back to a big truck, and I say, NEVER again. At least we can let the car arguement rest for now, and there's no arguing that two car payments suck!

It's snow wonder.....

We didn't hit record breaking snow accumulation. Six months later I sit in my air conditioned room catching up on my blog while it's a 103 degree heat wave only to tie the record for highest heat on this particular day. I look back at these winter photos and still would rather put up with a few days of heat than to have to shovel, feel jack frost on my face, and feel the toes freeze. As much as I like winter, it's just too long. As much as I hate hot humid days, the summer is too short.

We lost half of our dogwood tree in one storm. So sad, it's our prettiest tree and it looks so deformed with only half standing.

The day after a snowstorm can bring bright blue skies and perfect conditions for sledding. Don't be fooled by the bright sunny skies, it was a harshly cold day with a piercing wind chill. A north wind swept up the hill as children rode down. The conditions separate the 'men from the boys'......though in this photo, you'll see only the girls, Jackie and Rebekah, toughing it out while Zac stays stubbornly in the shelter of the car refusing to make the best of the cold.

Jackie was a fool to put snow on her face and was prompted to brush it off and warm her face to avoid frost bite. She did start to show some early signs of it so we started to head in for shelter.

The cleaning of streets, parking lots and driveways create huge mountains of snow. It gets to a point where there is little space to store it until it melts.

Zac just wasn't into sledding. Last winter, he was standing at the bottom of the hill, took a hard hit from an oncoming sledder and has had a hard time wanting to return to the hill. He did take a few runs, but the harsh weather just did him in early. As the winter wore on and on milder days, he returned to sledding and rediscovered it's thrill.

While Mimi and Papa enjoyed a few weeks in Hawaii, we took care of the snow removal at their house. We had 5 different storms to clear snow from our own house and theirs. We both had ice damns to clear on our flat roofs with indoor leaks, these are the not so fond memories of winter. I took these photos as they reminded me of the large snow banks created by the winter of '78 blizzard, which dumped the same volume of snow in one shot.

Here I am with my pal Julie after the blizzard of '78. I vividly remember that storm. I hope my kids remember winter memories too.