New Changes

So several things have changed since I last blogged - strange how so much can change in a week.

Well, we have know for quite a while that Gene's granny- mobile wouldn't last much longer, and she proved right. Gene took the 1989 Mercury Topaz we bought from my Great-grandmother for $1 to get new brake pads because it sounded like a dying cat with a dying chainsaw was locked in the wheel wells. The mechanic told Gene straight out that it wasn't even worth putting new brake pads on the car because Gene would spend more on two brake pads than the car was worth! In addition, the mechanic told Gene that there were so many other problem just with the under carriage that he should drive it to the nearest junk dealer and sell it while it still ran. Without even looking under the hood he estimated at least $1000 worth of repairs including a new muffler, CV boots, tire rods, rear brake pads, & various miscellany. The tire rods were a must because if they failed the wheel would fall off the car! Now imagine going 60 MPH and your damn wheel falls off! So that was when Gene stopped driving the Topaz. I happened to be going down to DSM the next weekend to do "good-little-obedient-daughter" duty, so we decided that I should look for a car in DSM that was under $2000 and ran reasonably well with less than 150,000 miles on it. Okay, there were literally like 4 in the greater DSM area that fit those criteria. So we put a down payment of $200 on a 1995 Dodge Neon with 120,000 miles and a new engine (basically). So we are now (or will be on Saturday) the proud owners of a fire engine red, 2004 Olds Alero and a plain-ass white, 1995 Dodge Neon - but at least it has a "spunky" green stripe down the side. See our bragging pics below. - correction Blogger hates my soul so there will be no pics now.

In addition my personal computer is in its last death throes - it can no longer handle running Solitaire - and not the fancy one - the one that comes with Windows. So, since mine had dutifully put in its time since 1999 - it came to Drake with me as a freshman, saw its way up four flights of stairs twice to GK and Crawford, lived through Scott Thomas at the Big House and mice at the Little House, student teaching, teaching, and more teaching - we decided it was time to give a dignified retirement. We purchased a brand new HP laptop with 1 Gig of RAM, 80 Gig of hard drive space, DVD/CD burner, and an internal wireless card on Saturday. I am amazed that programs no longer take 10 minutes to open up - that I no longer have time to take a shower before my computer fully boots in the morning. It is a world of wonder and excitement - all caused by a lovely little machine. See more bragging pics below :) - correction Blogger hates my soul so there will be no pics now.