May 6

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All things considered, the 6th could have been a lot worse.

In the morning I opened a relationship with a new-to-us auto-repair outfit (the dealership has ticked us off for the last time).  I'd been complaining about car repair (and specifically about the dealership) before yoga class, and one of my classmates recommended Main Street Motors as a place she's trusted for decades.  Main Street Motors also has the advantage of being in walking distance from my house, which makes a huge difference to me.

I took the car to get an oil change, first thing in the morning on the 6th.  So far, so good.

Gotta love a car-repair place with Wired and Scientific American on the magazine rack!

I took the car home after its checkup ("Looks great; all is well."), and my better half took it to work.  As he was coming home from work on the expressway, he ran over an unavoidable very large piece of tire.  It made a serious dent in the front bumper, and broke the plastic liner-thingie under/inside one fender, and we weren't sure what other damage might have been done under the car.

I called Main Street Motors, and asked if we could bring the car by to have them look at it and see if it was safe to drive.

I started by saying "Remember that red Versa, that you changed the oil in, this morning?"  I could feel them cringe, over the line, and then relax when I explained what I needed.  The person who answered the phone relayed what I was saying to the person who could actually agree that they could check the car, (who also cringed, and then relaxed, I could feel it over the telephone line).  I heard him answer "For her, anything."

:-)

I'm sure they say that to all the girls, and to all the boys, too, but it left me with a very positive feeling!



The parallel story (simultaneous in time) is that I have been pretty sure, for a while, that the dog had something wrong in his mouth.  He was making the same sort of smacking noise he made when he had the abscessed tooth.  And it seemed to be getting worse.

I was pretty sure he wasn't going to be letting anyone look in his mouth (ever since the abscessed tooth last fall he's been pretty sure letting anyone look in his mouth is NOT a good idea....), so I wasn't sure how to address the whole situation.

My better half dropped me and Burt at the vet and took the car to the mechanics to have them take a look at the damage done by the stray piece of tire on the highway.

Burt had his annual checkup (and declined to have our vet look at his mouth).  So we arranged that he would have a dental cleaning the next day, and while he was knocked out, they would have a look.  She said he was fine, otherwise, and in great shape for 15.5.

By then the mechanic had pronounced the car safe to drive but in need of body work (for its health and safety; we don't care about cosmetics).  The mechanic was amazed that the car sustained the damage it did, and yet the radiator is fine.....

I called home to say we were done at the vet, and Burt and I went outside to wait, as it was a beautiful day.

Look at the sky!

I don't often wish I had a wide-angle capability, but for this sky.............  I wished. 

See the moon, about a third of the way from the left, in a dark blue patch about a third of the way from the top?  You can tell from the tiny moon that this are BIG cloud marks, stretching across a LOT of sky...............

Wow.

And that was the 6th.


I didn't take any pics on the 7th, so I'll just tell you about it.  Burt and I were dropped at the vet just after 8:00 in the morning (my better half was off to see his dad about some banking business).  I left B at the vet and walked home (love having places I need be within a mile or so of home!!!).

Burt's teeth were fine, but she found a sore place she didn't like the look of in the back of his mouth.  She removed the icky bit and sent it off for biopsy.  She said she thought the tissue beneath it looked normal.

A day when they take a biopsy is not the best day............  I am working on assuming the best, rather than the worst ("five business days" to get a report back from the lab).



Last fall, after Burt had the abscessed tooth, he was really weird when I got him home.  His behavior and demeanor were unrecognizable.  So I was expecting something of the sort this time, too.

He was pretty weird this time, but, I think, in a different way.  He just could not settle.  He was restless and agitated.  For about 2.5 days.................  Panting heavily, intermittently.  His dental was on Wednesday.  He came home with Clindamycin and Rimadyl (the doggy version of ibuprofen).  He'd had Rimadyl before, but not Clindamycin.  He was also squeaking/screaming for a moment at different times (5 or 6 times a day?).

On Thursday morning I asked the vet for Tramadol (a narcotic pain-killer), as Burt had had Rimadyl *and* Tramadol after the abscessed tooth.  The restlessness continued unabated, as did the panting.  He was also coughing.  He coughs anyway (general head/chest congestion, all the time, off and on), but this was worse.............

On Friday afternoon I called and talked to the vet.  She said we would try switching him to Baytril (a different antibiotic, which he's had before, lots of times, which "would also be good for something in the lungs"), and a different narcotic (that was also a cough supressor).

I think just talking to our vet may have worked some magic -- Burt settled down and slept in the afternoon.

After my better half got home from work, he dropped me at the vet to pick up the new meds, and went to get Chinese for dinner.

Since I'm actually writing this post about the 6th on the 11th, I can peer into the 6th's future and tell you that Burt seemed better on the 10th, and actually slept through the night between the 9th and the 10th.  Which is good.  I don't sleep that well when left to my own devices, and anyone walking around, walking around, walking around, in the middle of the night, is not improving my ambience.  It is now 10:22 am on the 11th, and I haven't heard any squeaking/screaming since just before it was time for him to have his Rimadyl with his supper last night.  Whew.

So that's the current story of the car, and the dog, until we get the estimate from a body shop, and the results of the biopsy.

We've had better days, but, all things considered, the 6th could have been a lot worse than it was.

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Go, Ous!

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Congratulations to Ous Mellouli on winning the men's 1500 meter freestyle in Beijing!

Four years ago we bought a car whose main job was to escort the kid to high school. When a swimmer can drive herself to morning practice, the parental units can sleep rather than driving to school at 5:30 am. (Hallelujah!)

Our swimming-pool-aqua Taurus was named after Ous Mellouli ("the coolest name ever!"). Ous did an excellent job of taking care of our daughter.

We congratulate the original Ous on his victory, and remember our Ous, who was a very good car.

Ous is on the right, below, and is parked across the street from our house, farther below.





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It's a good thing ...

... that I didn't live in "horse times."


I imagine you will have noticed, in the pic I posted Monday, that the Taurus no longer sported a license plate. There was a "temporary plate" in the rear window, but you couldn't see it under the snow.....

Monday we picked up the new Versa and today we left the Taurus with the community college's mechanic-training program.

I am sad. He was a good car. A perfect teenager car. Big and safe and reliable. And dinged up enough that an ... ahem ... encounter with a light pole in the high school parking lot (leaving yellow paint smears down the side) just didn't signify.

But the ignition switch was broken, and he had a custom gas-fill pipe (as the original rusted through and the part is no longer available!), and he needed a new exhaust system and was close to needing brakes and who knows what else.

Sigh.

I will miss the electric windows, locks, mirrors. (The Versa has all of those, but the Voyager has none.............) All in all, if the two had been equally healthy, I'd have kept the Taurus and donated the Voyager. Less big, less *red*, not so tall. (I can't even reach the whole windshield to scrape it in winter, on the Voyager.....)

Sigh.

It's a good thing I don't live in horse times. I could never send a horse to the knackers. Sending a car is hard enough.

Sigh.

confessions of a car wimp

I don't like cars. I think they are just fine for short trips, but I really don't like them for longer trips.

I don't like driving -- so many idiots, all poised to do great bodily harm if not murder.

I will take car trips of an hour or so by myself to go do something fun, but I don't enjoy the trip part.

Going to MSU by myself is really not how I enjoy spending a day. It's about an hour and a third, each way, and then being there is not exactly enjoyable or relaxing, despite all the efforts to make it pleasant.

Compared to a lot of people who find themselves at the small animal cancer center, I am a total wimp. Many of the people there have driven for hours and hours, one way, and have spent the night so they can get their beloved companions in to the docs early in the morning. I know I am so much better off.

Nonetheless, I was utterly exhausted on Monday evening.

Here's another oncology center bromeliad.

I rule!

Once upon a time, in a life I thankfully know as "former," I did a lot of work on cars. Well, on one car. An elderly Rambler.

As I got older, and richer, I decided that working on cars was not something I wanted to spend time/energy doing. Water and metal -- everything all melded together -- "Remove these six screws..." yah, GOOD LUCK, as they are TOTALLY at one with their surroundings and you will need to use a torch to have a prayer of getting one part separated from the other......................

But. The Taurus is the old car (our "new" car being the '98 Voyager). I am nursing it along, needing it to last until we actually manage to acquire an actual new car.

We bought it a battery at midnight Friday morning.

Yesterday, I set out to install the new battery.

First, I strolled across the street (where the Taurus hangs out), to assess the situation and determine which implements might be needed. I took the WD40 with me.....







It's at this point you will have to begin using your imagination, as I only thought of blogging this as I was beating my chest and hooting with exultation after I had the new one installed.......

So now you imagine a dirtygreasy old battery, sitting where you see this nice new one.

I determine that I need a socket wrench. I douse the screws/nuts holding the cables to the battery terminals with WD40.

I go back across the street, and begin looking for our set of socket wrenches. I can't find it. Not upstairs, not downstairs, not in the family room closet.

Grrr.

Then I notice the set of tools we got for Christmas one year, pristine in their red plastic suitcase. Does it have socket wrenches? Well, it has a few sockets.... And it does have various other things that might be useful, like a crescent wrench and a pair of channel locks......

I saunter back across the street with the suitcase, and open it on the front seat.

Does it have the right size socket? It does!





One screw undoes easily, but the other........ The angle is funny, and I can't put as much muscle behind it......

Then I remember that in car repair as in so many other aspects of life, Leverage is Your Friend.

Apply the channel locks to the screwdriver-thingy with the socket on the end, and Bob's your uncle.



The cables come off the old terminal, the battery can be muscled out and laboriously carried across the street to the garage (HEAVY!!!!).

Catch breath. Pick up new battery and go back across the street. Muscle into place. Attach terminals.

Dither about attempting to start car. Go back across street, go inside, wash hands, think about taking dog to vet (see prev post). Pack up dog, explain to other dog that while it's not fair that the other dog gets to go and he has to stay you are only going to the vet anyway and remind him he hates going to the vet, go back across the street, hoist dog into car (he's afraid to jump into the car).

Get in. Adjust mirror. Adjust seat. Clear throat.

START CAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yahoooooo!


Much as I do not enjoy working on cars, it does feel really good when you Get The Job Done!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The anti-climax was driving to the vet, deciding to NOT subject him to a catheterization just yet, as maybe the incontinence will, shall we say, dry up as a result of stopping the cerenia, and drive home.

Both times the car started with a VROOM! (have I mentioned it needs a new exhaust system?).

Yay.

car shopping

More and more car shopping. I don't want to be shopping for a car, I want us to have chosen one and taken it home and to have found that we really love it.............

Saturday we drove a Rav (no -- the inside of the driver door sticks out into tall-driver knee area), a Matrix (ok -- touchy seat position adjustment so that headrest isn't driving me crazy), a Versa (we like that one the best so far, I think), a Forester (ok, but we really don't like the way it looks, especially inside), and a Jeep (we drove a Patriot this time, because they didn't have a Compass for us to try, but we were told everything about the way it sits, drives, handles would be the same. At least it was orange. :-) )

We were surprised to not like the Rav, after we sat in it before and liked it ok. Oh well.

The Versa is a quite small car, but has a lot of passenger room despite that. It is inexpensive, too, and has really good mileage. Very good visibility, too, in front and both sides, for both drivers. I liked the way it handled (and that little turning radius is nice!).

The Jeep is the other one we were the most comfortable in. It costs more than the Versa, and gets substantially worse mileage (27 vs 35, highway). It is at our 1-mile-from-our-house Chrysler dealership, though. We like the people there, we like the service dept, and it's nice to be able to drop the car off for repair and walk home...... We had the Voyager there on Saturday to get a new battery (it has eaten two batteries, with no symptoms at all until you are somewhere and it just won't start -- not even with a jump). The last new battery was about 4 years ago, I think, so I wanted to replace it this time *before* I was stranded somewhere....... The guy didn't charge me for labor, even though the terminals were corroded enough that he had to work to get the old battery unhitched..........

So we are influenced by all of that................

We want to just love one of these, and so far, we just don't.

Sigh.

more car shopping.....

So today we went to Honda, and Subaru, and Toyota.

You'll recall that the first issue we are addressing is that the vehicle must be comfortable for me, at 5'3", and my DH, at 6'4". His height's in his torso, and mine, such as it is, is in my legs. So that is a lot of adjustment for the vehicle.

We went to Honda first, because we had to go by Michigan Stadium to get there, and there was a home football game. Ann Arborites learn to check the time of the game, and to only run errands comfortably in the middle of the game....... (When you add 80,000 or 90,000 people to the population of a 140,000 person town for an afternoon, it takes a while to get them all in and out. Driving when they are coming or going is a choice most of us prefer to eschew!)

After waiting some time for the salesguy to get a key for a CRV, DH pronounced it fine. Then I got in. Awful. The head rest pushed my head forward (tipped it down, chin to chest)......

I was very surprised, as this is the first vehicle we've tried that utterly did not work for me. Well then. Nevermind...............

Subaru came next. We tried a Forester. We liked it ok, but learned that it was nearly time for them (and Toyota, next-door to each other and owned by the same family) to close. So we did not test drive it, but went straight over to Toyota to try a Rav. There wasn't one in the show room, and everyone seemed to be busy.... We finally wandered outside and found one that was unlocked. DH thought it was ok, and I liked it a lot. I felt like I could really see out the front and sides.

So I guess next weekend we'll go drive us some Forester and Rav..........

The Forester's headrest was close enough to bug me -- it kept touching my hair. I liked the Rav better, after just sitting in it for a few minutes...........

We are getting closer...................

car shopping

We have two cars. A '95 Taurus, and our *new* car, a '98 Voyager.

We've begun to run into problems getting parts for the Taurus, and I'm sure the Voyager isn't far behind. One thing and then another breaks on a car. The air conditioner belt starts squealing because the compressor freezes up ("$900? In November? On a car that the insurance company thought seriously about totalling instead of paying $2000 for repairs after someone mashed it last year? Not!"). Or you drive your dog to the vet for his chemo, and discover that the car won't turn off. (Who knew this could even *happen*??? Not I! -- part $16, installation $500. Not!)

You limp along on one temporary fix after another, and eventually, sooner or later, you decide "Enough, already!" and buy something new.

I had my mind made up that the next car would be a Prius, but the fly in that ointment turned out to be that it just didn't fit. My DH is 6'4", most of which is in his torso. Many cars just do not work, and, alas, the Prius turned out to be one of them.

Today we went out, again, and tried on more cars. I can't see any point at all in doing research on repair records or mileage or whatever, until we know that we can comfortably *drive* a particular vehicle.................

I want a hatchback. I moved everything I had (but the fridge) from my old house to this house in a Chevette. I know I can't do that now, but if you want to buy some lumber, or something, you gotta have a hatchback. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it. (Nevermind that I don't want to spend All That Money and just get ... a plain old boring car-looking car.)

We went west out of town, and the first dealership is Ford. Does an Escape fit? Not. All righty then. Next?

Oops, slid right by Volvo (those Swedes are tall, maybe a Volvo would work....).

Saturn Vue? Yep, fits just fine. We drove it down the road a bit, and drove it back. Room for golf clubs in back? Check. Excellent.

Ok, go back to Volvo. I don't know what the name is of the Volvo that looks like a Vue or an Escape, but ... Not. The salesguy (blond, but not tall) had DH sit in some other thing, which was big enough, but $36,000. Not. We told him that was almost twice as much as the Vue, and he told us that his was a Premium European car. *Well* then. I guess some people will pay twice as much, for Premium European, but we are not among them. Nevermind. Next?

Nissan. Murano, $36,000. Then the salesman suggested we look at the Versa hatchback. It looks little, but was ok comfy. We drove it. We liked the way it handled. It is small. It is cheap -- base price, $15k. (We were very -- pleasantly -- surprised to find that any cars start so low!) Both of us felt like we had to *reach* forward for the steering wheel.... Not sure how much we liked that..... I could see VERY well, in front and to the side in the Versa. Gotta like that. Room for clubs, no problem.

We probably should have looked at Subaru, but we drove on by and went to Chrysler. No PT Cruisers on the lot, but the sales guy told us that Bob was going to be more comfortable in a Jeep than anything else he tried. Jeep? JEEP? Well, ok, we'll try it............ There is a lever -- you pump and the seat goes up or down. A lot. More than 4". DH actually didn't want the seat to be all the way back -- a first.

It is very utilitarian inside -- no cushioning on armrests, for example. But it was the most comfortable for DH that we tried today (his very fave is our Voyager). I thought it was ok. I didn't feel that I could see very well from the passenger seat, but once I pumped the driver seat all the way up (I am 5'3"), I was fine. DH said he could see better in the Jeep than either the Vue or the Versa. Another vehicle with a base price under 20k (17k it was, I think).

We tried the Compass, which is more rounded in the back. (Less ugly than other options, imh.) Plenty of room for clubs, and even the front passenger seat folds down, so you can buy your 2"x4"x8' boards and bring them home, no problem......

We are a long way from making a decision. We'll have to try Subaru. Chevrolet? VW. We were glad we stopped in and just tried things -- we had never heard of a Versa, and certainly weren't considering a Jeep.

The Vue and the Jeep both come in orange................... I know that right now is going to be my only chance in my lifetime to have an orange car............. If we end up having one built, it will definitely be orange..................... If we buy a 2007, it just needs to not look like pavement. No black, no dark gray......

The Jeep also comes in a very nice blue..........

I love shopping, but what I love to shop for is 50-cent shirts at the Kiwanis thrift store. I hate buying stuff that costs hundreds or thousands of dollars, that you can't know if you really like until you own it. Feh.

Ah well. I'm glad we made it to five dealerships today. That was more than I thought we might have stamina for........

I'm even gladder that we found some things that might work...........