Not half bad -

[kyburg]

I didn't do half bad on my predictions this time last year.

I make the following predictions:

By this time in 2004, we will have replaced one of the cars. We have to.
Maybe we'll have made some headway into starting a family. Depends on the next three months.
Survival is all I can hope for. May I be pleasantly surprised.

Well, we're not quite there - but:

I've gotten the financing done to buy TWO cars. I've got the dealership looking for them now.
We have made headway into starting our family - but again, the process is taking longer than a year. There's something right with that - it'll be forever after the process is finished, won't it?

We have survived. Once could say, thrived even.

But the surprises weren't pleasant ones. Bush won the election (I'm still surprised), Mom got cancer, and my older brother still hasn't gotten a clue - and my sister still confuses me.

Still.

So this is the year of things changing, not changing (when I wanted them to), and concerted effort made to make change happen. By the end of next year?

- I hope we've at least been offered a placement.
- I want to see a number of LJ people in person. It's been years now, guys. Enough already.
- I want to be in Australia on my birthday. I want to have been to Switzerland before that.
- I want to see my Mother in Hawaii for her 80th birthday.
- I want to go back to Japan. I loved my brief taste of it, and I want more!
- I want to go back to school, and get into taking those dance classes I've been promising myself.

Let's see how it goes.

Comments

[moropus.livejournal.com]

Kudos for making progress. How many people just muddle around with no idea of what they want or need and get nowhere?

[betnoir.livejournal.com]

Hey, before I forget....

Slide me e-mail at:

betnoir underscore mail at earthlink dot net

Mebbeso we arrange a coffee meet sometime soon, eh?

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

If I don't remember in a week, kick me in the ass!

cars

[grammom.livejournal.com]

Hi--

I found one of your posts on one of my friend's postings. I like the way you you seem to me to think. (I could be wrong, it happens.) Anyway, I added you to my list. Hope you don't mind.

About the cars. My daughter-in-law did some research on the web when our faithful Escort had his next-to-final problem. (A major car part--looked like a transmission housing--rolling right at us on the freeway and nowhere to go.) Sorry, distraction there. Anyway, she looked at CarMax and some other sites. She found the nearest CarMax to us (Roseville,CA), we decided on what we thought we wanted, a Honda Odyssey. We went out there, bought the Honda and took it home. Only when my third daughter tried to drive it and even sit in it, the chairs were comfortable, but the seat belts were too short. Then we found out that Honda does NOT make seat-belt extenders and has no intention of doing so. THEIR seat belts fit 95% of the population and they see no reason to change! Well--

CarMax has a policy that if you buy a car from them, you have a five-day return guarantee on the vehicle. We called our sales rep the next day, told her our problem, and she said sure, bring it back and we'll find another vehicle if you want; if not, your money back.

Fortunately, we found (after some more research by Ardyn) a Nissan Quest which works for us. They (Nissan) have seat belt extenders and make no fuss about it.

CarMax only sells used cars, but the ones we saw were spotless, they have a 100 percent pre-buy checklist and if you do find something not quite right, they fix it before you drive it off the lot.

Another thing, their sales reps do not work on commission, they make a set amount for each vehicle they sell, no matter what the price of the vehicle is. They will look at your current car and offer to buy it. I don't know exactly how that works, because we kept the Escort, but I'm sure it's on their web site.

All in all, this was not such a traumatic experience as I expected. All my experiences with buying cars has been with dealerships who pressure and push and drive me crazy.

Katie Ramsey was our sales rep in Roseville and very knowledgeable. She said all the sales reps were good. Certainly, all the ones we met were courteous and no one tried to make us buy one car over another and while we were waiting for the paperwork to be completed, we were offered coffee, tea, told where the restrooms were, and if we wished to smoke, there were smoking areas set aside outside.

Altogether, even with the problem of the Honda and taking it back, we had no problems with anyone there. Just, "I'm sorry it didn't work out for you. What can we show you that will work for you."

I know unsolicited commercial, but they were good to us.

Again, I really enjoy and mostly agree with your views. But then, I don't always agree with my own previous views, either!

Happy New Year to you and yours... I hope your dreams and wishes come true.

Grammom

Re: cars

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

*nods* I'm replacing my last Escort station wagon (I've had two) - and if they still made them, I'd be buying a new one. Ford says I should buy a Focus. Ford is a bunch of doo-doo heads.

I've got family near Roseville (Grass Valley and Auburn) - I'll tuck this away in case they need the information!