Wordless Wednesday: My New Ride
Camarillo the Cali Camry
I’m really attached to my car.
Last week, Camarillo the Cali Camry (Or Cami for short) hit 150,000 miles. I felt that it would be an opportune time to give an ode to my dear vehicle. We met in 2007 in Orange County. I’d been a Honda Girl who went to the lot originally scoping out Accords. After an unimpressive test drive, I decided against purchasing a particular Accord, and decided to browse the lot a bit more. Tried a Jetta with a shimmy. Quickly played with the idea of a small SUV….and then I saw a pristine looking Camry. I quickly knew it was for me, it drove well and was exactly in our price range. We signed on the dotted line and drove her home to La Verne. I was a little nervous buying her so quickly, as I hadn’t sold my other car yet, but things quickly worked out with the sale of the Fittle.
Her name, Camarillo, comes from a town in Ventura County, near where Taylor and I went on our honeymoon. When he was in his flight training, we took a day trip and flew out to Camarillo for dinner. It was such a fun experience to fly over southern California and point out the freeways and landmarks, and have the sun set behind us over the ocean on our way back.
Cami and I have traveled much of the country together. In our two years, we’ve driven through California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Missouri, Michigan, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, and South Carolina. She’s worn license plates for California, Michigan, and Georgia (and possibly Utah soon.) She’s driven through temperatures from -15 degrees to +115 degrees, through wind, rain, sleet, snow, hail, blinding frozen fog and scorching heat. She’s seen gas prices from $1.43 to $4.80 per gallon. She forgives me when I don’t wash her often enough. She’s taken me to stores, churches, concerts, schools, parks, restaurants, family and friends’ houses… as well as many, many trips to airports. She’s been filled to the gills as we moved from California to Michigan, then to Georgia, then to Utah. She kept me comfortable and safe on my commutes to Montclair, Ann Arbor, and Emory. Her speakers have blasted my favorite music through them. We’ve spend a LOT of time together. Over 40,000 miles in 26 months.
Of course, she isn’t without her quirks. When I purchased the car, I was only given a valet key, which means I can’t open the trunk without popping the latch. The brake light on the dash has been wonky since the day I started driving it to Detroit. The cigarette lighter adapter has been broken for months. It has a rusty scar by the rear driver side wheel from when it was wounded in a Good Samaritan attempt. And last week the moulding on the passenger side started coming off. But I love her still.
Here’s to another 150,000 miles!
The Damage
I had a hard time getting a shot that accurately shows the damage. The headlight and grill is displaced about 6 inches, and the side headlight fell off (I stuck it back on for the picture) The bumper is amazingly completely intact, and only slightly scratched. The hood peaks up about 4 inches. It could be a lot worse, but it’s still a bummer…a $500 deductible bummer.
Picked up the paper, it was more bad news…
Now that I have a bit of time to blog, I’ll give you the gory details on my last 24 hours. I got to the sleep center at 8:30, registered, filled out questionnaires, and told the sleep tech that I’d like to get to bed around 10:30. She said that it wasn’t likely, but she’d get me to bed as soon as she could. I sat around for a while and enjoyed the hospital’s sporadic, yet complimentary wifi. I watched a terribly outdated video about sleep apnea, and was told by the tech that she’d come to hook me up around 11:00. I wasn’t happy about this because I remembered from previous sleep studies that it takes over a half hour to get all hooked up to the monitors and electrodes. When she came back in, she took a sharp red marking pen and marked a variety of spots on my head and neck. Then she roughly scrubbed cleanser over these spots to take the natural oils away so the electrodes would stick. Next, she put freezing cold gobs of sticky electrode gel on each spot, and jammed on each electrode with her thumb. Each electrode had a colored wire that connected to a control box.
After the head, neck, and face electrodes, she repeated the process on my abdomen and calves (luckily she let me guide the wires through my clothes myself). Then she clippped two different monitor bands around my midsection. Once I got in bed, the two sets of nasal cannulas were stuck up my nostrils, and I was told that I must sleep on my back for at least 3 hours. I know that my doctor ordered a CPAP test, but the paperwork confused the tech and she decided to be “safe” and go with a baseline study (which I’ve done twice already) I allowed to go off into camera-monitored dreamland around 12:00 am.
Six hours of sleep time was required for the full study, but I was wide awake just around 4:00 am (just like usual). I sat up, streched, and was told that they needed at least 90 more minutes of sleep time. I layed around for about 30 minutes before dozing back to sleep. I dreamed that I was having my sleep study in a high-rise hospital in California during an earthquake, and it made me fall off of my bed. I nearly choked to death on the cords around my neck. Luckily, Chandler from Friends (and I don’t even watch Friends) saw the whole thing happen from the car wash next door to the hospital, and he came to my room to save the day. Bizarre.
At 6:00 am, my Blackberry alarm clock went off, despite the device being turned off. It was across the room, so I couldn’t reach over and turn it off. It blared on for about two minute before the tech came to the room to turn it off for me. At this point, she said I needed 15 more minutes of sleep time. Luckily, I fell back asleep immediately, and I got up around 6:45. The tech removed all of the wires, monitors, and electrodes, and then scrubbed all the spots with acetone to remove the electrode goo, and I was sent on my way at 7:40.
I was driving home from the hospital down LaVista, and the sun was blaring in my eyes. I was driving in a school zone at about 20 MPH, and the lady in front of me slammed on her brakes when the crossing guard walked into the croswalk. (My guess is that the driver I hit wasn’t paying attention, and had to brake immediately) Even though I was going an acceptable speed with an acceptable following distance, I skidded into a shiny new Volvo. Her hard plastic bumper had very minimal scuffing on the bumper, but the whole front of my hood was crunched (although my bumper remained completely intact) We pulled into the neighborhood to exchange information, and she was a lot more difficult with me than she needed to be. She asked if I worked for Emory, and I told her I did, and she told me people she knew from my division. She repeated, in a menacing tone, “I really want to trust you” about 40 times. She wanted to leave so she could drop her kid off at school, and threatened “If you try to throw this situation around, and make it seem like it was my fault, my attorney will be after you.” I’ve tried to call her twice today to give her more of my info, but she hasn’t returned my calls.
So now I have a car that needs to be repaired, and a $500 deductible I honestly can’t pay. It will drive, but I know it won’t pass the state inspection that needs to happen before my Michigan car registration expires on Thursday (happy birthday to me). And since I haven’t been able to get in touch with the “victim” of the accident yet, I can’t complete filing my claim nor get my car repair started. At least I opted for the rental car reimbursement.
To top off the horriblenes of the day, Taylor and I had a meeting with a credit counselor today. We have been drowning in our student loan debt and wanted to see if we had any options available to relieve our financial stress. The rep checked our credit scores, reviewed all or our monthly expenses and consumer debt. We were told that they have no pull with the student loan companies, and we were basically left on our own to try applying for more consolidation loans. As for our consumer debt, he offered a credit card consolidation plan that would RAISE our monthly payment. And as for the deficit of our income vs bills..he suggested we both look into supplementing our income with part time jobs. We’re screwed.
Should I scream or should I cry?
The sleep study was frustrating. Details to follow.
On the way back from the hospital, a lady in a shiny new Volvo slammed on her brakes and I rear-ended her. Her bumper has a little scratchy ding, but the front of my Camry is smashed in.
And I’m so broke I have no idea how I’ll pay the $500 deductible.
WALL-E and BBs
Today started out so great..slept in with Taylor, ate some yummy french toast for breakfast, watched a beautiful rainstorm, and then saw WALL-E with Rosie, Taylor, Mike, and Erin. As we walked out to the car after the flick, I noticed seven bullet holes in the side of Taylor’s Civic!!!
I just came back inside from talking to a police officer who took the police report. A few silver BBs were in the cracks of the asphalt at our apartment, so it didn’t happen in the parking lot of the theater. The officer said that two other people had filed reports in our neighborhood for BB vandalism. I guess that I didn’t notice the holes in the car when we left for the theater because the car was still covered in rain from the storm.
This is the third incident with Taylor’s “new” Civic since he bought it in March. First was the drivers side rear fender, then it was the rear bumper….both hit-and-runs in the airport parking lot. Now BB’s at our apartment?
At least WALL-E was wonderful. I totally loved it and suggest you see it.
Requiem for the Silver Bullet…a.k.a. Taylor’s Lament
Last week, we decided to take Taylor’s ’97 Accord, the Silver Bullet, into the shop for a tune-up. It has been running rough for a few months, and was starting to be super noisy on the freeway. On Wednesday, Taylor got the word from the repair shop, saying that it would be approximately $7000 to fix all the problems. The engine was fouled up from a bad piston, and would need to be replaced. There were other issues with the electrical, exhaust, and spark plugs. With a diagnosis like that on an 11 year old car…we made the decision to let it gracefully “bite the dust.”
Taylor loves the Silver Bullet. It has been his road mistress for the last year. It’s driven from the Pacific Coast Highway in California, to the A1A in Florida. He passed within miles of the Mexico border, and up close to the Canada border. He got pulled over by a trooper in Texas for breaking the state speed limit. He upgraded the stereo this year, and had fixed the radiator and other systems recently. But even with all the hassle, it was worth it for the Silver Bullet.
This morning, Taylor and I IM’d back and forth with links to car websites for cars we liked. I found a 2002 Civic LX with low miles, within the price range we were looking. He went to the dealership, test drove it, loved it, and the dealer offered $1000 for the trade (on the pretty defunct car). He drove home with it today and it’s his big “gift” for Valentines Day!
Here’s our new car!Only in California…
Only in California do you see:
A Jaguar parked at the Dollar Tree
A Wal-mart parking lot with more BMW, Mercedes, Porsches, and other luxury cars than sensible economy cars
A spankin’ new Bentley stop up traffic on Fairfax just to stop for a coffee and newspaper at the sidewalk vendor
Prius Envy
Yesterday, my neighbors two houses down came home from the dealership with a shiny new Toyota Prius. I’ve been a closet fan of the Prius since my friend’s family purchased one a few years ago. And as a self-described “autophile,” there’s a part of me that has a deep sense of envy when someone I know gets a new car.
I only have to look back one year to the day I came home with the Fittle…my black 2007 Honda Fit Sport. It was unique-looking, fun to drive, and had tons of fun features. I was over-excited for the chance at being the envy of my neighbors. But it didn’t take long before someone else got a cooler car, the payments became out of control for our budget, and I knew that having the newest and greatest car wasn’t a necessity.
I’m happy with my Camry. It has it’s quirks….like a super-sensitive alarm system that blares out for no apparent reason occasionally. But it’s dependable and affordable, and a sensible option for a mom. But a small flicker in me feels the “Prius Envy.” So here’s my little blog about the Prius…and then I can get on with my homework.
Let’s Connect