A different sort of overwhelm

[elainegrey]

By the end of the workday, i had talked myself down from most of my sense of overwhelm. Thanks for all the helpful, loving responses.

Instead of having reflection time when i got home, we went and bought a car last night. We were clear that we didn't want to spend much more than the payout, but we also had no enthusiasm for cars with lots of miles on them or cars with low gas mileage. Consumer Report's article on reliable used cars from 2010 sat as a guide, and we kept speeding through searches at Cars.com.

chaptal suggested looking at a Hyundai (H-y-u-n-d-a-i, need to learn to spell this!), and we found that Accents were recommended by Consumer Reports and had good gas mileage -- and are low emission vehicles. Lo, a 2010 was sitting at a dealer up the peninsula. It had been a rental, but the mileage was low enough that there's still manufacturer warranty left. It feels a great deal like the Prius, just a touch more "plastic." It's an econobox, there's no getting around that. But it's a squeaky clean econobox that shouldn't be too much trouble for a good while. (And when i say econobox, i mean i didn't realize you could still buy cars with manual windows. Which isn't a bad thing: for years i was adamant that i wouldn't get power windows because i was worried about being trapped in the car by them.)

This morning, juggling plans with f/Friends and not finding much overlapping availability, pushing Christine's buttons about too-busy-Quakers. (Of course, why we can't have dinner Friday evening at a time good for me is because Christine has an appointment then. )

In spoon counting, buying cars has to be pretty high, all that synchronous interaction with some ritualized dancing around price. Oh, the tru-coat. Christine brought up Fargo as the guy tried to get us to buy the paint and interior protection. The salesman and manager did share laughs with us about that.

Still lots of juggling ahead of us.

And laundry remains undone. Tonight!