In Which We Buy a Car
Jan. 3rd, 2020 09:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shannon_aSo, today did not go as expected.
I woke up a bit before 7am, and found it windy and rainy outside. I duly put on my brand-new Christmas raincoat to wander down our street for a walk, but my foot started hurting me almost instantly. My slippas had rubbed the side of my foot raw during my 2 or 3 mile walk out to golf course pavilion, which pretty much happens every time I'm in Kauai (and is a problem I obviously need to solve, because you want to wear slippas, not socks and shoes, in Kauai). So it was back home very quickly.
Instead, I puttered around home, cutting up an infinite number of boxes and putting together the cat's cat tree. It's positioned in my office for the moment, right in front of a window. The cats adored it for about 5 minutes before wandering off, but I'm sure it'll get more use once I'm working again ... which is coming up really quickly, on Monday(!).
After Kimberly and I had our lunch, my phone rang, and I figured it was my dad saying he was ready to head out to Home Depot ... but instead it was Mary saying that she'd been looking for a car for us on Craig's List for four months (Mary is incredible!), without any luck, but there'd just been a perfect one offered last night, and so we should go out and look at it before someone else got it.
So within 30 minutes we were headed out to Poipu, where we met a realtor couple who were replacing their 2010 Mercedes Benz 350ML with a 2020 model.
Now, I'm not the sort of guy who ever expected to own a Mercedes Benz.
And though I'd vaguely considered if our life on the island would be easier with an SUV, I was figuring we'd get a much smaller vehicle.
But it seemed like a really nice vehicle, and it was in just about pristine shape. A few small dents, but otherwise it was intact and shockingly clean and up-to-date on all its shots and such. I had my dad to a test drive since I was insuranceless, and it drove well. They were asking $10,500, Mary talked them down to $10,000, which was what I'd thumbnailed for a new car in my moving-to-Hawaii spreadsheet (which went totally out the window when we repainted our house inside and out, paid for a stager, paid for landscaping ...). And I had a new car. Yowza.
Mary headed back home, and my dad drove us out to his insurance broker, who got us signed up with insurance for the car.
And then it was all mine to drive.
I drove all around Lihue: to Taco Bell (for a lunch emergency), to the DMV (to transfer the title, before we realized that we hadn't gotten the current registration certificate), to Home Depot (to pick up a TV hanger and some rubber feet for our sofas), back to the DMV (to get the registration, then to transfer the title, and watch them not ask for the registration at all, even though they said it was required), to Costco (to purchase a desk for my office), and to Walmart (to get any number of sundries).
The driving still had me tense, with two things being the scariest: merging onto The Highway (which I only had to do once, as the other times I had to wait at lights) and parking. It was later pointed out to me that I was finding parking a little challenging because it's a big car! Yep!
And in some ways it was more difficult than driving in Berkeley. I mean, I didn't have all the pedestrians and bicyclists and the huge influx of cars, but I also wasn't familiar with the area, and the car was definitely bigger.
My dad offered directions the whole time, and he was great at it, almost always giving me good warning about where I was going. But still not quite enough to offset the foreignness of the driving, and the fact that I was having to concentrate on driving and a little navigating alike.
After we were done with all of my errands in Lihue, we headed home along the highway. And at first that was fine. Oh, it was bumper to bumper up to the Humane Society, the traditional place where traffic gets blocked up heading out of town. But the part that I actually found much more hair-raising was past that, where traffic sped up and we were suddenly rocketing down a narrow road, with just one lane in each direction, going 50. (Actually, I was often under the speed limit, but thankfully no one was on my tail.)
I'd been tense the whole time I was driving, and that stress was starting to wear on me, so that I was having increasing troubles staying in the lane on that highway. And there was intermittent rain, and I found that managing the windshield wipers and driving was a bit much to do at once.
And I had to not be distracted further by the natural beauty all around!
By the end I was just avidly waiting for my dad to tell me to take a left, to get off the highway and into our neighborhood. I was managing my lane better by the end, but still relieved when we headed in to home.
I parked the car in the driveway, but I think my plans to use the garage for cats and games is going out the window, because this car is in such good shape that it should really be stored in the garage (once I finish cutting up boxes). We can still get some storage in the garage around the sides, because it's a two-car garage.
My dad stayed long enough to help us remove our couches from the cardboard they were resting on, and to get rubber feet under them.
Mary was kind enough to pick him up, which was good because I'm not sure I had the strength to get him home, let alone drive back on my own(!).
One step at a time, as it were. I'm hoping that if he drives around with me for a little more I'll be increasingly confident (and decreasingly tense).
I'd considered putting my desk together tonight, but then remembered there's a problem with my office, wherein it doesn't have any lights that work. So, tomorrow.
Instead I cut up boxes for a little bit.
And tomorrow? I drive more. We recycle some boxes. My dad helps me hang that TV. I put together a desk.
And we still need a bed and a coffee table and probably various end tables before we have at least the bare minimum needed for a house, at which point we can see how our finances lie.
And maybe someday we open up the Christmas presents and book shipments we got here in advance of us? (But I want to finish emptying our suitcases first!)
And maybe someday we swim? Or hike?
I can't believe we've been here three days without doing any "kauai" things (other than going to CostCo); and I can't believe that less than 72 hours ago we were in Berkeley, that five days ago I was sitting around Mike B's table, playing Pathfinder Adventure Card Game.
Things continue to keep us very busy since our arrival, but it's a different busyness than that in Berkeley, less desperate, because if we don't get something done, we can still do it tomorrow ...
The car has not yet been named.
I woke up a bit before 7am, and found it windy and rainy outside. I duly put on my brand-new Christmas raincoat to wander down our street for a walk, but my foot started hurting me almost instantly. My slippas had rubbed the side of my foot raw during my 2 or 3 mile walk out to golf course pavilion, which pretty much happens every time I'm in Kauai (and is a problem I obviously need to solve, because you want to wear slippas, not socks and shoes, in Kauai). So it was back home very quickly.
Instead, I puttered around home, cutting up an infinite number of boxes and putting together the cat's cat tree. It's positioned in my office for the moment, right in front of a window. The cats adored it for about 5 minutes before wandering off, but I'm sure it'll get more use once I'm working again ... which is coming up really quickly, on Monday(!).
After Kimberly and I had our lunch, my phone rang, and I figured it was my dad saying he was ready to head out to Home Depot ... but instead it was Mary saying that she'd been looking for a car for us on Craig's List for four months (Mary is incredible!), without any luck, but there'd just been a perfect one offered last night, and so we should go out and look at it before someone else got it.
So within 30 minutes we were headed out to Poipu, where we met a realtor couple who were replacing their 2010 Mercedes Benz 350ML with a 2020 model.
Now, I'm not the sort of guy who ever expected to own a Mercedes Benz.
And though I'd vaguely considered if our life on the island would be easier with an SUV, I was figuring we'd get a much smaller vehicle.
But it seemed like a really nice vehicle, and it was in just about pristine shape. A few small dents, but otherwise it was intact and shockingly clean and up-to-date on all its shots and such. I had my dad to a test drive since I was insuranceless, and it drove well. They were asking $10,500, Mary talked them down to $10,000, which was what I'd thumbnailed for a new car in my moving-to-Hawaii spreadsheet (which went totally out the window when we repainted our house inside and out, paid for a stager, paid for landscaping ...). And I had a new car. Yowza.
Mary headed back home, and my dad drove us out to his insurance broker, who got us signed up with insurance for the car.
And then it was all mine to drive.
I drove all around Lihue: to Taco Bell (for a lunch emergency), to the DMV (to transfer the title, before we realized that we hadn't gotten the current registration certificate), to Home Depot (to pick up a TV hanger and some rubber feet for our sofas), back to the DMV (to get the registration, then to transfer the title, and watch them not ask for the registration at all, even though they said it was required), to Costco (to purchase a desk for my office), and to Walmart (to get any number of sundries).
The driving still had me tense, with two things being the scariest: merging onto The Highway (which I only had to do once, as the other times I had to wait at lights) and parking. It was later pointed out to me that I was finding parking a little challenging because it's a big car! Yep!
And in some ways it was more difficult than driving in Berkeley. I mean, I didn't have all the pedestrians and bicyclists and the huge influx of cars, but I also wasn't familiar with the area, and the car was definitely bigger.
My dad offered directions the whole time, and he was great at it, almost always giving me good warning about where I was going. But still not quite enough to offset the foreignness of the driving, and the fact that I was having to concentrate on driving and a little navigating alike.
After we were done with all of my errands in Lihue, we headed home along the highway. And at first that was fine. Oh, it was bumper to bumper up to the Humane Society, the traditional place where traffic gets blocked up heading out of town. But the part that I actually found much more hair-raising was past that, where traffic sped up and we were suddenly rocketing down a narrow road, with just one lane in each direction, going 50. (Actually, I was often under the speed limit, but thankfully no one was on my tail.)
I'd been tense the whole time I was driving, and that stress was starting to wear on me, so that I was having increasing troubles staying in the lane on that highway. And there was intermittent rain, and I found that managing the windshield wipers and driving was a bit much to do at once.
And I had to not be distracted further by the natural beauty all around!
By the end I was just avidly waiting for my dad to tell me to take a left, to get off the highway and into our neighborhood. I was managing my lane better by the end, but still relieved when we headed in to home.
I parked the car in the driveway, but I think my plans to use the garage for cats and games is going out the window, because this car is in such good shape that it should really be stored in the garage (once I finish cutting up boxes). We can still get some storage in the garage around the sides, because it's a two-car garage.
My dad stayed long enough to help us remove our couches from the cardboard they were resting on, and to get rubber feet under them.
Mary was kind enough to pick him up, which was good because I'm not sure I had the strength to get him home, let alone drive back on my own(!).
One step at a time, as it were. I'm hoping that if he drives around with me for a little more I'll be increasingly confident (and decreasingly tense).
I'd considered putting my desk together tonight, but then remembered there's a problem with my office, wherein it doesn't have any lights that work. So, tomorrow.
Instead I cut up boxes for a little bit.
And tomorrow? I drive more. We recycle some boxes. My dad helps me hang that TV. I put together a desk.
And we still need a bed and a coffee table and probably various end tables before we have at least the bare minimum needed for a house, at which point we can see how our finances lie.
And maybe someday we open up the Christmas presents and book shipments we got here in advance of us? (But I want to finish emptying our suitcases first!)
And maybe someday we swim? Or hike?
I can't believe we've been here three days without doing any "kauai" things (other than going to CostCo); and I can't believe that less than 72 hours ago we were in Berkeley, that five days ago I was sitting around Mike B's table, playing Pathfinder Adventure Card Game.
Things continue to keep us very busy since our arrival, but it's a different busyness than that in Berkeley, less desperate, because if we don't get something done, we can still do it tomorrow ...
The car has not yet been named.