Wordslinger

So... as I said, the tale began two weeks ago when my daughter wrecked her car just before our vacation to Florida. We had her in a rental car until the Powers That Be decided that her Saturn was totaled (luckily we had gap insurance... this was the car we found for her Thanksgiving after she wrecked her truck.) My car, Hilbert (a 1995 Infiniti) was in the shop, and after some deep thought, I decided it would be best to give her my beloved Hilbert and try to find something for me. Hilbert's paid off... one advantage.

But it wasn't clear what I should get, and I spent the first few days at the condo researching cars and becoming more confused. Eventually I called the credit union (to see what we could afford and if they had any repos that might work), which turned out to be a good idea. He knew of some Altima fleet carss being sold by Enterprise Rental, and I hopped on the web page to look at them. I kinda gasped at the price a bit, but I needed something with superior gas mileage and couldn't afford the hybrids (most of which come with a $10k add on to the manufacturer's "recommended price.") Enterprise Fleet Sales is another place like CarMax where the price they quote is what they want and there's no dickering or salesmen playing pressure tactic games. I was not in the mood to go hassle with 4 hours of "well, let me talk to my manager and run some numbers" games, and so I called Enterprise Fleet Sales and arranged to buy a car (sight unseen) over the internet.

I really didn't care what was it it. It was a car, I'd researched the reliability on this one and the gas mileage, and it'd do. The loan officer, who is a large man, said he owns an Altima and it's comfortable for him. That means it'd do for Bruce and me on long trips.

Then came the news of Bob's death, and the realization that our vacation would end with a drive from Florida to Texas with double stops (my dad and my daughter-in-law's mother and grandmother... to let them all see little Maggie) with an almost-3-year old and on Tuesday morning I would have to pick up the cats, get cash for the trip, grab suitcases (I decided to take whatever was clean from the Florida trip... after I washed a load of underwear), buy a car, and start the 9 hour drive to New Orleans. I'd miss the wake, which was being held Sunday and show up to work to help get Bob's house in order.

And that's the way the NOLA trip began, with the help of my son John, who chauffered me to get cats and cash and car.

The car turned out to be quite a surprise -- but I'll write about that in the next post.