A Whirlwind Weekend
Finally, the random iTunes shuffle has allowed me to finally blog about one of my favorite musicians. Larry Norman (who just recently passed away) devoted his life toward spreading the life and the hope that he had found in his relationship with God to those around him through music. A product of the astounding musicianship of the late 60s and early 70s, he never ceased to unwittingly offend the stubborn and stiff who wore their religiosity on their sleeve. Larry called things like he saw them, speaking out against war, poverty, and greed in a time when many people of faith silently stood on the sidelines.
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Moses, the current track, is a tongue-in-cheek narrative of the story of Moses as understood by a naïve and yet astute 6 year old. The sheer innocence of the narrator is both powerful and revealing at the same time. And musically, Larry is quick to take his cue from the likes of his contemporaries, especially with some of the country-folk rock that the Rolling Stones where producing at the same time.
Anyway, the big news is that today I purchased a new car. That is, if by “purchased”, you mean leased, and if by “new”, you mean “at time of purchase only had the 2.4 miles I put on it during its test drive”.
Yep, this is my very own 2008 Honda Civic. She’s new, and a vast improvement over my previous car, a used ’99 Honda Civic, which, while being a pretty dependable car, stopped working abruptly this weekend after a new thermostat, radiator, and head gasket failed to contain the vast amounts of heat that it’s engine produced.
The most satisfying part of all this was my newly gained confidence as I negotiated the lease with the dealer.
His initial offer:
$1900 down — $341 per month – 42 months. Ha!
After about 90 minutes of haggling, bluffing, and otherwise acting (“acting” in the same spirit as my acting in front of my kids on a daily basis), I had him down to:
$2800 down — $225 per month (incl. tax!) – 36 months. AND…..AND…
he took my old ’99 Civic and paid off the $2400 I still owed on it (which means my $2800 down was, in effect, $400 down).
Anyway, it’s just nice to once again have a reliable car that I don’t have to stare at the temperature gauge every 20 seconds as I overheat while idling at a stoplight. And although it’s hard to say what it was that did my last car in, but my roommate figures that it might be the fact that instead of taking nice, long, meandering drives with it, most of my trips are consist of :
Turn on….head out…1.5 miles later….turn car off (just as it is warming up). I think I’ll be much gentler on this one.
Themocracy
Congratulations! Your new car looks great :)
Very, very NICE looking car!!!!!!!
And GREAT job with the dealer!!!!
DUDE, that’s AWESOME!!! I didn’t know you were sporting new wheels…when are we breaking it in??? Congrats!!!!
What’s your gas mileage on it?
I was given a spin last night and have to say: Wow! Also, now I know who to take with me if I ever need to buy a new car. I hate dealing with auto sales people.