What a Life!

Yesterday morning, soon after Ben woke up, he stood at the front window looking out and saw this:

He started to cry. “Mommy’s car got scratched,” he said. I, being the good mother that I am, cried with him.

It happened the night before. I had a Mary Kay appointment I was going to. I needed to leave at 6:30, right after I put Joey to bed, and so I had planned for supper to be ready at 5:45. We were grilling steaks with the charcoal grill. [Last week we grilled on the gas grill and it did the ball-of-flame thing again when Steve opened it and this time it singed his eyebrows so he swears he is never using it again.] Steve was going to take Ben for a walk at 4:00, returning by 5:00. I assumed the grill would be hot by 5:30 (it takes about 30 minutes to warm up), and that the steaks would be ready by 5:45 so I wouldn’t have to eat my supper in haste and rush out the door (not good when you’re trying to get a baby to settle down and go to sleep).

What actually happened? My husband, who hates to hurry, didn’t get back from his walk until ten after five. The grill wasn’t lit until 5:30 – he told me “had to get the bag of charcoal and open it…” when I sounded surprised that it wasn’t ready to go at 5:30. Then the steaks were finally ready at 6:15. I inhaled half of mine, put Joey to, donned my clothes, and rushed out the door at 6:37.

The evening sun was shining directly into my eyes as I was driving down the street. I don’t know if I took my eyes off the road to put down my visor or what happened. All I know is that suddenly I was parked crosswise, my airbags had gone off, and my car was totalled.

This is what I saw when I got out of the car. (The pictures of the actual accident were taken by the owner of the Explorer – the officer wanted me to stay at the scene while he wrote up the report and then it was too dark by the time I called a tow truck and got back down there with my own camera.)

From the other side…

Look closely now to see the damage on the left end of the bumper where I caught it – we’re talking mere inches.

The force and angle of the impact were enough, though, that the front passenger-side wheel got popped up onto the curb (I’m pretty sure all four wheels were on the street before the impact).

Gracious!

I got that car back in 1999, I believe. It had 37K on it. Yesterday when I wrote down the mileage on the title…161040. I went quite a few miles with that little car. It ran well and was low maintenance as far as costly repairs were concerned. We’d replaced the tie-rods and the alternator in the last year. The tires were about a year old. Other than gas and oil, I spent about $100 a month on repairs averaged out over the course of each year. Gas mileage was about 33 mpg the way I drove it – part highway, part in town. So I really didn’t have anything to complain about in those terms.

It had all sorts of bells and whistles on it such as the sun roof. The sun roof quit working when I moved to Lincoln in 2000. It was rusted, but the dealership told me the rust warranty only covered rust that had gone completely through – as in, left a hole. Then it was $800 to fix the sun roof because you had to replace the whole thing – they didn’t just have parts for it. For that reason as well as the fact that my husband called it a go-cart because it sat so low and was hard for him to get in and out of (he’s 6’1″), I will probably not be buying another Saturn any time soon.

It had power windows, and the rear ones didn’t work. One quit the summer of 2001 and I paid $250 to have it fixed. Then the next summer, both of them quit and I decided I didn’t want to pay $500 every year just to have windows that rolled up and down.

Then the speakers were horrible. The driver’s speaker always worked, but the front-passenger side speaker worked only about 50% of the time. When it worked, you had to turn down the radio, and when it went out, you’d have to turn it up. With that, keeping the radio at a volume that worked for more than one person was nearly impossible. I’m sure it was just a short in the wiring, but I never bothered to see what it would take to get it fixed.

I was planning to get a new car in the next twelve to eighteen months, and was starting to gear up financially for that. So much for that idea.

I have no idea what I want instead. I did like the Impala Mom rented when she came after Joey was born. It was comfortable, I think Steve would fit in it just fine, and it wasn’t so tight with getting the car seats in back. With the Saturn, whichever side Joey’s seat was on had to be where I sat when we went anywhere because the front seat could not be rolled back all the way. I don’t think the Impala had that issue.

At the same time, I’d kind of like to get a standard transmision again, as my Saturn had. Such a car would get better mileage, and I like my good mileage. I also like driving a standard, though Steve thinks it’s a pain. I like driving, and you just feel more in control of and a part of your car when you’re shifting the gears manually. I like that.

We’re renting a minivan tonight which we had planned to do anyway since my parents are coming to visit tomorrow. I have a weekly rate on the minivan, and hopefully we’ll be able to find a new car before I have to return it. My parents leave Monday. Steve’s mom has said she can watch the boys while we car-shop. Now I just need to figure out when we’re going to shop.

Good-bye, little Saturn! It was nice knowing you!