We spent most of the day at the car dealership, engrossed in the process of buying a new car. Anyone who has ever done this with small children knows that it should be classified as an extreme sport. But, Darren's commuter car was getting quite worn-out, and our truck is six years old now with over 100,000 miles on it. So, we've been in need of a newer reliable car for awhile now, and just putting it off until our finances accommodate it a bit better. We've now realized this will probably never happen, so we might as well compromise on a few options, and just get a decent new car now. So, that's what we did… all day…
My mom accompanied me and kids this morning to compare a couple of vehicles, and then she took Joe back to our house in the afternoon, and I sat around the dealership with Flo, doing the mundane paperwork and haggling over price that is customary with a new car purchase. Darren joined the process around 8pm, after commuting home from a ten hour workday in DC. He just started the four, 10 hour day schedule, and he's giong to have Wednesdays off. He did that last year for awhile. I'm not sure which schedule I like better. Not getting home until 7:30 or 8pm is kind of a drag, but it saves on one day commuting and gives him a break in the middle of the week, which he seems to like.
Anyway, we got home with our new car at 10:30pm, got the kids situated, and I hopped on the treadmill for as long as I could endure, which only ended up being 20 minutes… I cranked up the incline to help compensate a bit for the lack of time. Aren't I dedicated to physical fitness? Actually, it was a stress reliever and an avoidance tactic… I wanted to avoid contemplating the impact of this purchase on our budget… I'll do that tomorrow.
Flo is getting excited about her birthday next week. She's got a birthday wish-list a mile long, but I informed her today that she was getting an early birthday present; a nice blue mini-van, which I will tote her around in on her birthday to any reasonably close location she'd like to go. I don't think she quite shared my enthusiasm, but she was excited about our new wheels.
Off to hopefully salvage a good night's sleep. Good night!