The Spring Break That Never Was

I have to apologize, it seems that previous post was a little pre-mature. Our spring break did not involve any California sun. Instead we enjoyed some rather unpredictable Oregon weather ranging from hail, snow, wind, torrential rain, and some random breaks of sun (just to tease us). I guess that kind of thing happens when you put your faith in uncertain horizons...

... You see we had one step between us and the open road to Palo Alto, a "pre-purchase" inspection by our trusted auto-mechanic. I awoke early to get to the mechanic with enough time to come home and whisk my wife away to sunny California before noon. However instead of getting the green light from the mechanic I received a very blunt and very urgent recommendation to "Get out of this deal as soon and as fast as you can".

Apparently our crimson Honda Civic had been in an accident (unbeknownst to us or the dealer who was selling the car on consignment from a "mechanic" friend). Our mechanic referred me to a body shop where I received a detailed tour of all the things that were wrong with the car and how crappily they were fixed (crappily isn't a word but I reserve the use of such made up words for blogging purposes... for brevity's sake... not that parenthetical explanations appeal to brevity either... i digress). We got home and called the small dealer who sold us the car, and he said he would allow us to unwind the deal and get our money back. So we did. soon and fast.

We returned home carless, and decided to take the day off from car shopping. Just for fun, instead of going to California we decided to deep clean our apartment (joy!). Needless to say we were pretty bummed about our failed attempt at buying a car. What hurt the most was the fact that we didn't (and still don't) know if we can trust anyone when it comes to buying cars. Regardless though, we need a car, and someone needs to sell it to us. So we moved on the next day...

Long story short, Friday we found another great deal... not quite as good mind you but through a more reputable source (NOT CRAIGSLIST). We are now the proud owners of a used car loan that lets us drive a gunmetal gray 2004 Honda Civic. All the same features as the one we blogged about before, except it has an aux input so we can play our iPod in the car without one of those FM broadcaster things. The dealer was so easy to deal with, and the car passed all inspections with flying colors.

Now, i think I'm going to stop talking and thinking about cars for a while. Except maybe to join the chorus of complaints about rising gas prices.
Ours is the gray one in the middle... notice the streaks of rain and hail, yay Oregon.