The New Rig

First off, I have not tried to put pictures in here yet so this might or might not work the first time around.

So yesterday (Wednesday) we finally found a vehicle. I think it is a good one and so does my husband. He test drove it in the city but I drove it home, then he drove the kid to Ju Jitsu this evening (Thursday--this won't be finished before it turns to Friday so…). He said he liked it better today than he did yesterday.

I am going to start out with what was not so great about it:

1. It has power windows. No matter what anyone else thinks about them, I do not like them, I just don't.

On  the other hand, out of all the vehicles we looked at, only one had crank windows and it otherwise did not fit our needs well.

2. It is white.

On the oter hand, so what. It is not a preferred color to me but it is not my least desired either; which is red. I do not know if it still holds true but it used to be that red was more likely to be pulled over. If the right vehicle otherwise was red, I still would have gotten it.

3. It is older than we were wanting/looking at. It is a 1997.

On the other hand, it has less mileage than all the 2000 and up we were looking at. We were lucky to see 2005s that had less than 150,000 miles, this 1997 had 118,000 miles.

4. It has air bags--driver and front passenger.

What a great feature I DO NOT WANT. Why? Air bags are such great safety features -- unless one is my size; then they are a safety hazard. They tell you if a kid is my size they should be in the back seat until they grow bigger. That ain't gonna happen and I can't drive from the back seat. Not to mention, at this point, no one but hubby is big enough to sit in the front; though Morg stands a good chance of growing big enough the passenger air bag won't do more harm than good--but she is not there yet.

Okay, so far that is it and of the four things I don't care for, one is completely offset and two of the other --oh well, not real biggies. Well, I still don't like power windows but the only real situation is the air bags and that would be a problem with all vehicles but quite old ones

So, now for the rest of it:

It is a 1997 Isuzu Trooper. I was in love with my last Trooper and it was well used and gave its all to us 'till the end. We put well over 350,000 miles on it ourselves.

It is a six cylinder, four-wheel drive, five-speed manual transmission with a limited-slip differential (commonly called posi-traction but that is a brand of sorts, like Jello vs. gelatin). The manual trans was as hard to find as crank windows and, yes, that was something we preferred. I am beginning to wonder if they are even being made anymore.

Here's a goodie, I am the second owner of this Trooper. It is very clean and the interior is beautiful. The seats are not in the slightest broken down. It is missing its back-seat ashtray??? The previous owners were non-smokers, the front one is there but never used(until me). It doesn't look like the back area, the cargo area, has been used even for groceries; it still has the OEM cargo net in there and it is in good shape.

The tires are in good shape.

It has a six month power-train warranty.

It has never been fitted for towing. This is cool because though the vehicle is perfectly capable of towing (we will need that) it has never been put to that stress before; just another clue of gentle use.

The kids, on the way home yesterday, acted like they went from an army cot to a king-size feather bed.

Hubby said this evening it needs shocks, I didn't notice that but we will see in the next few days. It needs a tow package put on. And one of the CV boots needs replaced as well as that CV joint looked at for possible damage. If it needs replaced, that is part of the power train and will be covered by the warranty. Drawback there is that we need to take it to the city or pay the $100 deductable on the warranty to have a local person do it. It was missing a screw holding a plastic cover on the lower part of the drivers seat. Himself fixed that in town this evening when he was there; he didn't have the right one here so he bought a pack at the parts store so we have a few in reserve now. The cargo light is not currently working; it is most likely a bulb and we just are both too pooped to care right now. And the vanity mirror on the passenger side is supposed to light up but doesn't,; also probably a bulb.

The stereo is a cassette deck, a little out of date but the radio plays great, the speakers play clear. It is barely believable this is mine.

These are the dealer photos:

He, he he. I was going to post this about 1:30 AM but it turns out the internet is not working. Its okay, I was surprised I was done by this time anyway. I'll try again at a reasonable time on Friday.

I am wore out

We have been vehicle  shopping recently. It has not been fun. We live in an small town area; meaning that all the towns around us are small, not that we live in anything that could be called a  town. So, there is not much choice locally. Not to mention the fact that most of the things that are available are high-mileage and hard-used. We realized we had to go to the city. It is a long ride, it has been hot, the vehicle we have to use to look for the new one is having problems and may or may not make the trip, and on top of all that there is an autistic teen that really was not happy with the whole procedure of car shopping.

AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!

Well, anyway, I believe we have a winner. But I will fill in on that tomorrow, probably, soon anyway. I am just too tired.

We are expecting a bunch of rain from Isacc. I am happy but I don't imagine New Orleans is.

When filling out the paperwork for the rig I had to ask for the date. When the salesman told me, Morg mentioned it was my anniversary. Oh. The salesman looked at us a bit oddly as we laughed about it. I told him, "I don't get mad at him for not buying me a gift and he doesn't get mad at me for forgetting it too."

Oh, yeah. On the way to the "big city" we stopped for cigarettes and I went in. The same woman that carded me last time almost did it again. She was looking at me funny and asked if I was from around her and I told her about 20 miles south, my husband is usually the one that comes in. She then asked me how old I was. I told her I just turned 47, and you carded me last time I was in here. She remembered me then, I had offered to go get my ID but she said no. How silly, 47 and carded for cigarettes.

A Funny Thing Happened

We had to go to town yesterday (Friday). It happens and that isn't what's funny. The local cigarette/tire store is right there on or route in and we stopped to get cigs. It has been a long time since I have been in there and I no longer know the people that work there, hence, they do not know me either. I walked up to the counter and asked the woman there for the cigarettes I wanted she got them and told me how much they were. I pulled out my debit card and then she asked for my ID. I didn't think much of it figuring she was asking because of the debit card--BUT NO. She looked at it and said, "Eighty-five, I knew it was close." I just stood there and blinked for a moment as it was sinking in that she was carding me because she wasn't sure I was 25 and they are required to card anyone that does not appear to be at least 25. I told her, "Bless your heart, you're wrong, look again." She glanced again at my ID then looked at me and didn't understand. I told her that she needed to look closer, it says '65 not '85. She did and then looked back at me and told me that I really look young. It is not like she mistook my shortness for youth either because she was barely and inch taller than me. I don't look bad for my age, especially considering the abuse I have put my body through and the cancer treatments, but 20 years? I didn't think I looked that good.

Good news, I am typing this out while not online and I am not sure when I will actually get to post it because we have a storm going on, lightning *and* rain--the whole shebang. I'll take every drop I can get. There is still a chance to get a cutting of hay for the farmers if we get rain and that will make all the difference in the world to them, especially the smaller operations. Actually, even a bit of green grass that the cattle can eat instead of the hay that was supposed to get them (the cattle) through winter could mean the difference between surviving until next year or not. Maybe Sweetheart sent the rain.

Oh, and on the chance anyone that might be reading this does not understand why the storm means I am not online… It is because lightning often strikes the phone lines around here and I have lost three modems, two telephones, and almost lost a computer that was hooked up to the modem; though it never was quite right after that; it needed a new power supply and motherboard. So if there is a storm the modem gets unplugged from the lines, they seem more susceptible to the power surges, and when the storms are real heavy on top of us the phone gets unplugged too. Our phone isn't plugged in right now. I am unconnected and I don't mind.

Update: I am able to post at a little after 1 AM, about 3 hours after the rest and we have *almost* 3/4 inch rain--still hoping for more.

08/02/2012 RIP Sweetheart

My Sweetheart died today. Sweetheart was a chicken; one that I have had since she was an egg around nine years ago. She was born outside of the coop, inside of the backyard. The coop is now in the backyard but it wasn't then and most "out-nests" did not/do not survive the nighttime monsters, like opossum and raccoons. She and her broodmates survived though. She didn't grow as well as her broodmates though and when she was about 4 or 5 weeks old I noticed her beak was too long and she was having trouble eating. I clipped her beak and she started growing but also became very personable, very pet-like. So her behavior named her, Sweetheart. She was very sweet. She also remained a bit of a runt though her eggs were medium sized just like most of the other hen's eggs. Her offspring are all over the place. She survived all the great chicken catastrophes; last years being the bobcat wiping out 3/4 of the flock (it is really more like a herd), and the horrid time when the 'coons discovered before we did that the back of the old coop had rotten wood, she survived the year of the hawks too. She was not a good mother-hen but she was a good "aunt-hen" to chicks; and her eggs were often raised by other hens. And she was still laying eggs until just shy of three months ago. Between her age and the heat we have been having this year I didn't think much of it but she was apparently getting sick. I am not sure if it was a tumor or an abscess gone too long. About a week ago I went out to open the coop and she was already out--meaning she hadn't gone in--very strange; and strange I had not noticed she wasn't in there, I almost always looked for her as I looked around before closing it up. I guess I wasn't feeling well myself. Anyway, she was obviously not feeling well and she had this "thing" on her back. I put her in a cage with water and food and stated treating her with antibiotics but she just kept getting worse and the heat was horrible and not helping. She was not going to make it. She died early evening in her beloved backyard in a spot that was very close to the place she was laid, brooded, and hatched. She was a good egg.