Making It Up As I Go Along #283

(click on images to enlarge... the "Little Red Jellybean" just prior to departing and the new car below)

MONDAY...
— Not a bad night at work. It seems what I thought was something bad I ate last week (when my stomach didn’t like me) was sickness after all. Well, maybe. I talked to three people tonight who all had fairly similar thing going on with them over the last week.
— Hour and a bit walk after work.

TUESDAY...
— Not much out of the ordinary. My stats at work are fine... I watch Dexter on the movie network before work (good show made by Showtime).
— After hour+ walks Sunday and Monday, I take a night off.

WEDNESDAY...
— Early work day. In for a luncheon. I pick up Leslie, Janice and Laura and then Sue and Michelle join us at the restaurant. I haven’t talked with Laura or Janice very much at all this summer, so spending some time around them was pretty good.
— Work after the luncheon is distracted by an evening storm. It’s the heaviest thunder and lightning storm I’ve seen since moving to Ottawa more than four years ago.
— Still wet on the ground after midnight but the rain stops and I go walking anyway. Out for little more than an hour... and it does rain some while I’m there... also, it’s odd. Paramedics and what look like police are out around. The paramedics dealing with a guy in a van and the police just standing, looking out into a dark and open field. But they don’t tell me anything so I figure I won’t be mugged for going on.

THURSDAY...
— Work is fine. Get some Chinese food for supper and it’s only Glen, Josee, Martin and me there today (Dave is off sick).
— No walk. I have to get up early tomorrow so I thought I’d just watch some Scrubs on DVD and go to bed.

FRIDAY...
— Out early to return the Echo and get the Mazda. It all goes pretty easy and in about two hours. It was weird waiting on the curb at Toyota and seeing the people there go out and get in my old car and drive it off to get cleaned up. I almost felt like saying “Get away from my car!”
— Take a glob of mud from a truck on the drive to work. It smacks the front fender and I’m wondering if I damaged my new car on day 1... but it came off fine.
— Take extra time at supper today to go eat at Grace O’Malley’s with Sheila and others for Sheila’s birthday. Linda, Michelle and Sheila’s roommate, Nicole are also there... plus a few guys I didn’t really know.
— Skip out on a return to Grace O’Malley’s... they didn’t call me before work ended and I was getting tired anyway... so home I went.

SATURDAY...
— Around the house for the morning with some DVD of Scrubs and some baseball on tv. Off to visit with Karl in the late afternoon, then supper and a movie. Knocked Up is really good.


Changing of the Guard

This past week marked a change. Out with the old and in with the new. Gone is the flashy red environmentally friendly... here is the blackness with a bit more substance.

The changes of which I speak are to do with the cars. I’ve let the red Echo go and am now the owner of a Mazda 3 sport.

This is actually my first car purchase done basically on my own. Mom and dad helped out with some finances but the legwork, decision making, and negotiated was all on me this time around. It actually went better than I expected although who knows, maybe I’d have been able to get an even better deal with a hard line closer helping me out.

Negotiations have been ongoing for little more than a week. Toyota came calling about my soon to expire lease and I went in to discuss options. The only Toyota option I was seriously considering was the Matrix. And, truth be told, test drives and negotiations on such a car were going pretty well. The Matrix has plenty to offer and I left Toyota feeling as though it would soon be my new car.

Toyota is a fine company. They generally treat you well. But the last few times I dealt with them in maintenance calls on my Echo, I was a little less than impressed. I couldn’t help but feel Toyota were trying to get me to make more and more unnecessary spendings and, when it came to their strong suggestion that I spend $550 on new summer tires rather than $75 to put my old ones back on, it was the final straw. It didn’t help that they still tried to charge me the $75 for the tires I didn’t have them put on... and the fact that another garage said the old tires were good enough left me leaning towards a departure from Toyota.

Still, switching my lease from and Echo to a Matrix is tempting. It’s set up to be a smooth transaction and the salesman kept showing me the ease in it... that I could be in a brand new Matrix with two days.

The Matrix drives well and it has loads of room for anything that I’d want to drive off with (bike, IKEA goods, stolen items). Lots of room for everything. And although it’s no Echo on the gas, the Matrix is solid at the pumps too.

On the down side, my first time on the highway is memorable for all the wrong reasons. I’d say 80% of my Ottawa driving occurs on the highways... and the Matrix has about as much acceleration as a Viking ship with two rowers. I get on the on ramp behind another, non-to-sporty car and I watch it pull away from me as I ease my way up to 100 km/h. Eventually, the ol’ girl gets up to speed, but if I am to go with the Matrix, it won’t be for the getaway abilities on that theft trip I alluded to earlier.

Still, my feelings by midweek (two weeks ago) are that this will be the way I go. I’ve always known Mazda has a hatchback version of their popular 3 model but I also always assumed it would be enough of a price hike over the Matrix that no Mazda deal would get done.

So a week ago Friday past, I decide to drop by Mazda before going on to Toyota for, what I expect, would be the day the deal is done.

To my surprise, the Mazda 3 Sport is actually within the same price range as the Matrix. The fancy Matrix is actually more expensive than the base 3 Sport. And, upon examination, the 3Sport has about as much to offer in it’s basic model as the Matrix does loaded.

With that, the game is on. A quick ride in a Mazda tells me it’s definitely in the game. And I go back to Toyota for another Matrix test drive and leave promising them nothing. If all goes right the following day, I’ll become a Mazda Man.

And the next day, all does go right. Before I know it, I’m signing on the dotted line and phoning Toyota with the thanks, but no thanks.

This past Friday was switch day. I take a final picture of my little red Echo (the Little Red Jellybean... as it became known at the office). I hop in and pull away from home feeling a little sadness. The poor ol’ girl doesn’t know she isn’t coming back. I feel like a dog owner bringing man’s best friend to the vet to get put down. Maybe the Echo has an inkling of change the night before, when I clear out my personal stuff... perhaps it wasn’t an easy night’s sleep for the poor thing in her favourite parking space.

Either way, the drive back to Toyota is a solemn one. And I fear an accident just before I turn it over. But the accident doesn’t come and I get out for the last time at the Toyota dealership.

The salesman is all business today. Nice enough but not in it to make much small talk. He just goes out, gives the car a check over, and brings me my licence plates. We’re all done in twenty minutes and I’m left on the side of the road, waiting my pick up from Mazda. It’s an awkward silence. Me on the sidewalk back on and less than a hundred feet away from the Little Red Jellybean. I consider one last picture before I go, and am about to take out my camera, when the Toyota guys make their way over to my car, pawing over it and discussing it’s future... a future without me.

I turn away again, looking for my ride, and I hear the familiar cough of startup. I look back to see my car pull away and drive around the corner, out of sight... gone forever.

With my memories in place, I get out to Mazda. A refreshing start... a new relationship. It feels good. And there’s my black new friend (Nothing racial in that by the way). A sexier, cooler looking friend. Ready to take on new adventures... ones the little red one was never totally comfortable doing (like taking four friends with us... only my sister ever sat on top of the cup holder that is the middle seat in an Echo).

With power, grace and confidence, my new friend takes me home. I hope the Little Red Jellybean has a good life ahead.