A Car For Christmas

You know those commercials where someone buys someone else a car for Christmas?  Well, the other day I told my husband that I had never seen or known or even heard of anyone who  gave a car as a gift.

Yesterday, I made a liar out of myself.  Kinda.

You see, since Hubs retired, we've been a one car family.  It's the same car I've had since before we got married.  It's seen me through a move from Utah to Colorado.  It saw both of through the move from Colorado to Missouri.  But, let's face it, the old girl is getting old.  And while she's still reliable, the chance of her breaking down somewhere out here in the middle of nowhere is always on the back on my mind.

One car.  It breaks down or even gets a flat tire, and what the hell would I do.  (I know how to change a tire, but I'm not physically capable of it anymore, and out here, the shoulders of the roads are more like drop offs.)  Call him and then he'd have to call a neighbor and ask a favor and... Well, we're not favor asking people. 

Anyway, we've been talking since we moved about getting a truck of some kind.  Someday, Hubs would like to have a small boat and he'd need something to tow it with.  So, he's been casually looking--doing research on various models, scoping out the used car sites, etc.  And I've been letting him know when I see a car for sale that looks worth investigating.

Last week, I saw an SUV with a nice price in the window along my route to Walmart, and I mentioned it to him.  Saturday, he drove over to look at it, but the owners weren't home, and there was only a price with no phone number on the vehicle.  I told him to check the paper, just in case.  There was an SUV for sale at a lower price, but it had an Arkansas number.  I nudged him to call anyway.  I mean, what the heck?  Can't hurt, right?

So he did.  And it was the car beside the road.  Together, we went to look at it.  We test drove it.  Kicked the tires.  Talked to the owner, who assured us of his diligence in maintaining the car (with the paperwork to back it up - this ain't our first rodeo), and while we were talking, he dropped the price again.  Cha-ching. 

It's a sweet vehicle--top of the line when it rolled out of Michigan way back when--and the price was something we just couldn't pass up.  So as of yesterday morning, we are a two car family again.  We spent yesterday buying the car, getting it inspected, driving up to the nearest licensing office, going from one office to the other to get all the paperwork in line, and then getting our license and registration and tags.  And we took the new car.  It rides like a dream. Don't know how it drives yet, but it's Hubs car and even though he insists that I can drive it, too, I want this to be special for him - at least for a little while. ;o)

Now, we joke that I got him a car for Christmas.  Ho Ho Ho.

(And now if I see a really awesome piece of furniture at the thrift store, we don't have to tie it into the trunk of my Cavalier and hope it doesn't fall out on the way home.  So it's a win-win.)

((Best part of the experience for me?  The old guy's dog.  What a cool dog.  So cool I almost asked the man if he'd throw the dog in with the car.  LOL))

(((Okay, really the best part was getting Hubs what he wanted and getting one hell of a deal, too.  I'm all about the deals, baby.)))