Here she is

My daughter's new (to her) car sits in our drive way. This photo was taken from my kitchen window. What looks like smoke under the front of the car is actually spots on my window. I told you I was deficient in the house cleaning area, and I can prove it. Not that I want to and trust me, you don't want to see it. Huh. I guess deficient is a word.

I have not been very active lately in answering e-mails and posting. This is normal for me when I am in the process of making a big decision such as the purchase of a vehicle. I probably put more into this process than when I am purchasing one for myself. Because it is for my daughter and that responsibility weighs very heavy with me. The decision consumes almost all of my thought processes. I am very relieved it is over and done with.

The choice. My daughter has always wanted a Celica. I've been looking at cars for about a year for her. We narrowed it down to what she likes and what I like and what we can afford. Did I go over my budget? Yes. I am hoping I made the right decision in the fact that I got a newer model and lower mileage. It may last longer.

The features. My oh my. I'll zoom in on the funny one. The salesman had one other guy on this lot. The gopher guy. Between the two of them it was comical. We looked at the car on Thursday. This was actually a very hasty decision. The first car (we saw on Saturday) had sold on Wednesday and we changed our course to check this one out.

We drove it back to our home town and had our mechanic check it out. All was good except a broken antennae and hinge on the gas cap cover and one oil leak. There was a little device on the windshield of the car. I asked the salesman at our mechanic's shop what it was. He said it looked like one of those devices that gets satellite radio. Well, we knew that service is a monthly fee so we dismissed it.

Back to the car lot. Salesman said he will take care of everything our mechanic had listed and we could pick it up tomorrow. On Friday I made the arrangements with the bank, insurance company, all that good stuff. There was a snow storm coming, but the roads were good after I got off work and we were on our way. Good grief did the roads get bad the farther north we went. Interstate traffic was crawling at 30 mph.

I wanted to get the car and get back home asap. My daughter did not want to drive her car yet, so she was going to drive my car (old reliable) back while I drove hers. Inside the office the salesman told his gopher guy to go out and start the car to get it warmed up for us. This incident is important because of what we found. It was a good find, though.

My daughter had not driven in heavy snow before. We left the car lot and started our long 40 mile drive home. Over an hour. Interstate still crawling. It was bad. Rush hour traffic. I was so worried about my daughter that I barely paid attention to the Celica I was driving. It drove like a dream. My daughter drove very well. We made it home and parked both cars.

The funny part. It was dark out when we got home. My daughter was checking out the key remote and locking the car, etc.. She said "I wonder what this button does." She pressed it and the Celica fired right up.

I am wondering if the salesman knew this when he told the gopher to go and start the car. Where he was sitting at his desk, we could see the car through a big picture window. All he had to do was turn around and press a button. I'm not calling him to ask him if he knew. It was not advertised as a feature of the car. We may never know if he knew, but now we know what that little device is on the windshield.