New Cars Come To Those Who Keep Their Old Cars For Way Too Long

 Our friends know about The Snowdog.  When we reference the Snowdog, you know that Jim spoke of him with love and I spoke of him with disdain.  The Snowdog is a 1997 Nissan Maxima, pictured on the left with my handsome, perfect, Lovey.  He was riddled with rust spots; He was missing logos; And worst of all, he had an exhaust system so loud that it was impossible to have a conversation while riding in him, and even more impossible to go unnoticed while driving him...rust spots and all.  Which is why I didn't have the nicest things to say about Jim's sweet Snowdog.  But, we have history with that stupid car too.  Jim bought him in 2001 when we first started dating.  I didn't have a working car at the time, so we kind of shared the Snowdog.  You know, back then, it was only a 4 year old car and it was the nicest car my Lovey had ever owned. And it was super sweet of him to let me drive around town in it after I dropped him off at work.   He was very protective of him, so I didn't tell him until years later about the time I accidently left him running and unlocked while I went tanning.  I panicked as I was leaving because I couldn't find the keys, so I went back out to the car grudgingly assuming I had locked them inside.  NOPE!  I'd just left the car running and unlocked for the 30 minutes I was getting my tan on.  Whoopsies!  The Snowdog was actually a loyal, reliable, car for us for 16 years.  In fact, we joked that this year in 2017 Lovey could register for special plates because at 20 years old, The Snowdog was considered an antique! We always laugh as we remember the night the "MAXIMA" logo fell off the back of the trunk.  We were at our best friends, Mike and Cricket's wedding and we were getting beer out of the trunk with the MAXIMA logo fell onto the parking lot. I'm sure Jim has many of his own fond memories of The Snowdog, but here's one of the classics:  Over the summer, Jim and I had driven him to work because we had left the Jetta for Kristi, who was babysitting Keats for us.  We got to the overpass by Menard's on the way home when the Snowdog decided to start puttering.  In fact, it died, but when Jim tried, he started right back up, but it wasn't responding to pressure on the gas pedal.  "It seems like we're out of gas." I said trying to see the gas gage.  "We're not out of gas!" Jim said very confidently.  "The gas gage says we've got 3 quarters of a tank." he added as the snow dog sputtered to a stop once again.  "Yeah, but when's the last time you put gas in it?" I asked. He never wanted to admit something was wrong with the Snowdog.  Like a doting best friend, he always made excuses for it. Long story short- we were in fact, out of gas. And that is the day we found out the gas gage was broken as we somehow coasted the 6 miles back home.  It didn't get a lot of use the past 9 years because Jim and I would carpool to work everyday in our "good" car, the Jetta.  But, since I started my new job in October, The Snowdog was back in action.  Jim drove him to work every day with pride.  Him and our brother in law Evan, spent an afternoon fixing the exhaust so that it sounded like a regular car again.  And it was so nice until 3 weeks later, when we crested a steep, concrete, entrance into the parking lot of a car dealership to look at fancier vehicles, The Snowdog came ROARING back to life.  Good 'ol Snowdog- full of heart and an undercarriage that would not be silenced!  Even Lovey knew that although we had spent many adventurous and loving years with Snowdog, it was time to start looking at something a bit bigger and safer.

  And even Lovey knew that it was only a matter of time until we'd be able to see the road through the floorboards.  So, on Saturday, December 2, 2017 at the ripe, old age of 20, we traded in the Snowdog.  You can imagine Jim's heartbreak when our friend Matt came back to the desk with the paperwork saying that they were going to give us $200 for the Snowdog.  "TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS?!!!!!" Jim exclaimed.  "I thought I'd at least be able to get $400."  Matt grinned at him and said "Did you see the boot sized rust spot on the side?"
 Defeated, Jim sadly accepted the $200 offer, and got even after we had made the deal when he told them that the gas gauge didn't work.  :)     Jim loved The Snowdog which is why I tried to take as many pictures of him with his old friend as I could without being annoying.  Jim's mom took a picture of him with the Snowdog the day he bought it, and it was framed on Jim's desk in our home office for years, but now since we have moved into the newer house, of course when we want it, we can't find it anywhere. So, I will post the ones I did take on Saturday.  They are not the greatest, but they're sweet memories for us now.

I obviously have super terrible photography skills as you can tell by the picture that I took that would have been great had I not taken it into the sun. 
Sorry, Love, I tried. 
The Silver Lining is, that we left the Honda Dealership with a brand new 2018 Honda CR-V EX.   We'd been researching for weeks about what we wanted to buy.  We had the Snowdog for 16 years and we've had the Jetta for all of it's 14 years.  Naturally I assumed we would be keeping our next car for at least 15 years; and as a Mama looking towards the future, I'm thinking that we need to get a gigantic SUV with a third row of seats with plenty of room for Keats and all his friends and the activity equipment we'll no doubt need. Taking a break from the online car researching, we went to the ISU Christmas Party for kids on Friday night where Keaton was a dick to all of our friends and my co-workers- (see picture of him being a dick...notice how there's no one else around and it doesn't look like a party? Yeah, that's because we had to give our ticket to see Santa back and get the hell out of there to save our sanity) this was him defiantly standing in the area I told him not to go in while Lovey got the car.

So, after a quite a few beers and yet more research on Friday night, Lovey convinced me to slow my roll and told me that we'll be smarter this time and not keep the car until it's rusted, busted, and decrepit, and instead do a smart trade in 5-6 years for the bigger car we'll undoubtedly need and want.  It was about 1 am I think that we decided we were going to look into a CR-V that was a couple years old.  At 10:15 am we drove the Snowdog, to Brad Barker Honda to meet our friend Matt to hopefully sell us a softly used, practical, CR-V.  I knew as soon as I realized I could raise my driver seat up in the 2018 CR-V to sit up high that I loved her.  I was ecstatic to find out Jim felt the same way.  By 11, we were inside filling out paperwork.

This is us being adorable while they checked out the Snowdog for trade in value (before Jim's heartbreak at it's worth). And by 2:30pm we were driving our new gal to our celebration hotspot, Fiesta Ranchera.  She's a beauty. She's All Wheel Drive which was a must for me because I have a fear of getting stuck in the snow and/or losing control of a vehicle in bad weather.  She's got all star safety ratings and amazing customer satisfaction reviews.  She's got a high tech computer system and screen that I mostly have no idea how to use, she's got a sunroof, and heated seats.  She is Hilda the Honda.  Hilda means "Protector" in Scandinavian, so we thought it was fitting to name her that.  Because she will keep Keats and I safe and protect us as we drive through life.

And a safe car for our Keaton was the number 1 thing that Jim and I wanted.  So, here's to Hilda the Honda; I think she'll be a loyal girl to us for this next phase. We drove her to the farm Saturday evening to show her off to Jim's parents Doug & Dolly.  And then Sunday we drove her down to Decatur to show her off to my parents and even took her to visit Grandma Tootie who was excited for us even though she refused to come outside and see her.  😁

This is Gram being happy from inside. Isn't she so cute af and tiny?

  Can you even see her?  That's her in the pink- smiling above that beautiful, stupid, garland. 

So, Hilda the Honda is here, and she's a badass.  R.I.P. Snowdog 7.  You were a gentle, loving, embarrassing hunka hunka junka junka and we'll always remember you! 

Hilda means we've done yet another grownup thing.  The adult decisions, and wants, and needs, seem to keep happening and changing since the arrival of our Best friend and sometimes cutest enemy, Keaton James.  Jim and I might be the ones making the decisions, but almost all of them have everything to do with him. 

To The Snowdog-Thank you.

To Keaton- We love you.

To Lovey-I love you. Thank you for everything.  You and I are a fucking great team and we make me proud!