So, obligatory automobile update first: Friday night I got the call from my insurance appraiser saying that Cher is a total loss. Of course, she couldn’t give me a number since apparently all figures must first go through her supervisor, but she felt pretty certain, as well, that the other insurance appraiser would find it a total loss as well. Sooo…Saturday I went on a little reconnaissance mission to the used car lots to see what, if any, options were available should I choose to go the car-payment route instead of buying a filler-car.

Well, it wasn’t so bad. I spent quite a lot of time at the first lot, Saturn, partly because I was just warming up to the idea and had a lot of questions and partly because my salesman was a chatty fellow. And he’s a fringe SCAdian–what a small world. Anyway, I test-drove three cars that would all work budget-wise (at least theoretically): two 02 SL1 models and one SL1 from 97 (same year as Cher) but with only 48K miles (!)–about half of Cher’s milage. Of course, the 97 is priced about $2K above what Kelly Blue Book says it should be, even with the low milage, and I’d be taking on a car payment (allbeit a low one) for a car that’s no younger than my current one. Of the 02 models the one with slightly more mileage (31K as opposed to 28K) drives better than its cousin, and was a leased vehicle according to the Carfax report. So, for 8900 it wouldn’t be a bad deal and is actually slightly under KBB number.

The Toyota lot had only one car that came close to my price-range, and I test-drove it, but the salesman wasn’t interested in spending time with someone who wasn’t actually ready to buy a car right then and there, so didn’t even go on the test-drive with me. Anyway, KBB shows it to be almost $3K overpriced, and the car itself had a slight “sound” when I accelerated, which it shouldn’t have for a relatively low-mile 01. Doubt I’ll bother going back there.

The Ford lot sported hugh SALE signs everywhere, but the salesman there was trying to show me Focuses (pick a color cause they’re all the same otherwise!) and kept saying $200 when I kept saying $150. Yeah, no thanks. I didn’t even bother driving one because a) I don’t want a Ford and b) I cannot afford it. He kept spewing the “yeah, we have cheaper cars on the lot but I’m not even going to show them to you because their not as reliable and I wouldn’t want to think of a woman out on the roads alone in an unreliable car” yadda yadda garbage crap. Harumph!

So, unless the newspaper “under 2000” section has something to good to be true then I’ll probably go with the blue 02 Saturn with 31K miles otherwise I’d have to probably go to my bank for a loan to do a private sale depending on the amount the insurance company comes back with. And what is with the here’s the most we can pay but it’ll reduce based on cosmetic, etc. work that would need to be done to resell it. Are they actually going to put work into a total-loss car and sell it at auction to some unsuspecting sap and fault me, the victim for being responsible enough to keep the car, pay it off, and drive it as long as possible? Ugh, I just don’t get that and plan to ask a few more questions about that, you can bet on it. Oh, and we’re still waiting for the other insurance company to get off their hands and do something. Rest assured, I will be making some calls tomorrow morning.

And now for the rest of life. Today was a pretty quiet day. Went to Strozier to check out some illumination books (both to round out my scroll documentation for Winter Art/Sci and for inspiration for future scroll-work), passed by fighter practice on the way out…several fighters out (yay!) but a somewhat less than hospitable welcome by 2 of the 3 spectators, so I decided not to linger too long. No biggie, I really did have stuff to do at home. This weeks flowers are a mixed bunch of bright yellow and white daisies, some white carnations and red-purple tiger lillies. I’m pressing some of the extras as well as the heads of the pink carnations from last week. The other pink carnations I strung on some wire as an improptu garland and now have hanging on my french-memo-screen in the bedroom to dry.

I made a big pot of red beans and rice and some yummy bread pudding with the left-over chocolate-orange bread from last weekend’s baking session. Mmmm. Let’s see, I watched Sin City on DVD (yup, bizarre in a fun film noir way and chock full of stars) sketched out a Kingdom scroll words and illumination (including my first actual celtic knotwork border, whee!) and worked on my BritLit response paper. I’m stalled on question 3 and still about 200 words from the minimum, but I wanted to make sure I got an entry up. Hey, people actually read this thing now! (and I’m glad of it 🙂 Tomorrow I need to remember to bring boxes with me because I get to go clean out my (old) car at lunch into the rental, and also need to confirm with Hertz that the rental needs to be extended because the claim is obviously not settled yet.

Back to Chaucer then…