I think our life may be a sitcom, all we need is a theme song.
Take today, for example, we went to go buy a car. (note to those reading: bad credit is bad, m'kay? take care of your credit so you don't end up like us and Jimmy V-more on him in a minute)
We went to buy a car, thankfully we CALLED before we went to the dealership because the car we wanted was sold on Saturday. No big whoop, we thought, cars are easy peasy to find. We went to a dealership a few towns over, granted it was small and looked a little seedy, but how bad could it be, right?
OH blog readers, let me tell you! We told Jimmy V what our price range was, what we wanted, etc and the first car he points us to is a HUGE old ford hoop-d. For those unfamiliar with the term "hoop-d" it means a big old gas guzzling car. Granted, six or ten people could have fit in the car, but uh, no thanks. We decided to take an Explorer out for a spin. Yes, there were some scratches on the paint, but whatever, it was purely cosmetic.
We opened the doors and were hit with an awful odor-dog-no offense dog people, but dogs stink. Ok, again, we can fix that. We took it out for a spin. Um, yeah, no. It was AWFUL. Every bump we hit, the truck rocked and I nearly fell out of my seat. The kids thought it was hysterical, us not so much. Geo then noticed that the "service engine" light was on. We brought it back to the lot and Jimmy V asked what I thought. I said "well, it's kind of bumpy and the service engine light was on" he looked at the truck, looked at me, shrugged his shoulders and said "m'eh"
We took another vehicle out for a ride and were scared to death...of it running out of gas. It was literally sucking fumes, I think I felt it die when we pulled in the parking lot. Nice car if you don't mind that the people in the back can't move their legs. Note: Gabe and SarahAnne LIKE to move their legs, this car was NOT for us.
Not wanting to be rude, Geo went to the "office" and took a business card. He came back looking scared and I think I heard banjos a la "deliverance" Turns out there was a giant dog chained up in the office and it was barking like mad.
The whole thing was so absurd, we couldn't help but laugh. Good ole Jimmy V and the dealership from hell...
As for a car, we're still looking and I know we'll find something soon, but man oh man, I hope to never repeat today's experience...next time the dog might NOT be chained up :P
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5 comments:
Oh my goodness, that sounds like quite an experience!
Btw, you have an award over at my blog! :)
http://www.wonderfullychaotic.com/2010/02/blog-awards.html
Came here from Ellen's place and wanted to tell you that I once made a "joke" about my son driving. I mean, really, I can't picture it with all of his disabilities and she then began to give me a very factual answer about what milestones he would have to achieve to be able to drive. It was kind of surreal. I'm not sure what kind of answer you got, but I'm sorry it ruined you day. Gabe looks fabulous.
Thanks Katy, it was just a dose of reality that I probably needed, to be honest. Gabe is SO high functioning that we often forget his actual limitations. Thanks for the compliment ;) Gabe is pretty great, we love him a lot!
Hi there!
I saw your comment over on Ellen's blog about Gabe driving a car and had to come say hello.
My husband lost at minesweeper over in Afghanistan back in August and came home with some pretty severe injuries to his feet and legs. We weren't sure just how much function he was going to get back for a long time.
As for driving, though-- no problem! They have this fantastic hand control to work the gas and brake pedals that they can install very easily in pretty much any car that's an automatic. You push it in and it gives the car gas, and you pull it out and it works the brake. No feet or legs required! Even better, you can still drive the car the typical way, so you can install it on a family car and multiple people can still drive it. Jer's just not using them right now because he's still on morphine. Narcotics and motor vehicles don't go together so well.
You may already know about these, and I've just been guilty of giving you totally unsolicited advice, which I hate getting, so sorry about that. Just wanted to let you know that there are some pretty awesome options out there, as least as far as the physical side of things goes.
Your kids are cuties!
~Jess
Jess, thanks so much for the kind words..and thank you for your husband's service, I hope he continues to recover and is back to 100% soon. Gabe's pt actually said the same thing about the hand controls for the car and the rehab hospital we go to has drivers ed programs JUST for drivers with disabilities, so thankfully, we've already got some back up :)
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