NEW WHEELS...

Three weeks ago Monday, I had worked late and stopped on my way home for dog food.  When I got back to my car she would not start.  There I stood at 20:30 at night on a cold and wintery night stranded......Fortunately, my brother came to my rescue and he got the car started.  It did not give problems for the rest of the week so I thought everything was ok.  On the Saturday afternoon after having lunch with a friend I took my car to the car wash.  As I sat there between the machine rollers I thought to myself "won't it be funny if my car does not start"  And guess what it did not start.  Once again my brother had to come and help me out.

After a lot of trouble it turned out that the car's battery was on its last legs.  So closing my eyes to the expense I bought a new one.  For a week things went fine....

But then I was driving home late (AGAIN maybe I need to stop working so much) and all of sudden my car started to make the most awful noise.  It sounded like steel grinding against steel.  I immediately slowed down and what should have been a twenty minute trip took an hour.  My brother took my car for a drive so he could hear what kind of noise it was and won't you believe it she did not make a sound not even a squeak or a peep!!!

The next morning as I got onto the highway the noise started up again so I drove directly to the service center.  To cut a long story short it turns out the entire braking system had gone and it cost a packet to fix. I was so upset because really who has that kinda cash lying around and also my car was letting my down at every turn and I was feeling a little unsafe.

I know that sounds unreasonable as brakes and batteries are normal wear and tear but I just could not settle down again.  

I was talking to a friend at work about my car woes and she asked if I was interested in a new car and I was kinda non committal especially since I only have a year left on my car payments. But she had a contact of hers at Toyota call me ten minutes later and we chatted about what I would be looking for if I was looking.  Half an hour later she had found exactly what I was looking for.  The next day I was filling in papers and my financing was approved.  The day after that they took her to be registered and had her serviced and the day after that which was last week Thursday I fetched my new car....

At this point I should tell you that I have never bought a car on my own before.  My dad would have me look through magazines and choose cars within my price range which I liked, he would then work through all the specs and from there whittle the list down to about three models. Dad and I would head off to the dealer where dad would ask a number of questions and then test drive the cars.  I would sit in them and have my photo taken to see if I look good in the car and then I would choose a colour....you laugh but that's exactly what we did. I would then choose the car I looked best in and that's the car I would buy.  This time round it was so difficult.  I had to deal with the paper work, the financing and the test driving all by myself and let me tell you its not easy knowing about BAS and EBD, instrumentation tachometers and all that stuff!!! It made my heart yearn for my dad and it made my brain hurt!!!

But God as always was faithful and had already put people in my life who could help me long before I ever needed them.  So I made it through and signed all the papers and sorted out insurance and everything.

Picking up the car on my own was difficult.  I missed having my dad cheering me on as I drove off the showroom floor but once again a sweet friend had arranged for a bottle of champagne and the most beautiful card to be on the seat waiting for me.

So it is goodbye to MoonDust (Dusty):

And hello to SnowWhite (Snowey)