Kiwi-Lemonade

What a crazy week this has been! Last thuursday I picked up that car, i worked on it all weekend until Tuesday when we decided it wasn't worth fixing. we talked to the Dealer about it and convinced them to take the car back and give me a full refund.(that never happens!) So when I went to the dealership there was a a little hassle with getting a check back because it hadn;t processed into their account yet. They told me to wait until Thursday to be sure it had gone into their account, then they could give me the refund. When I went in yesterday to bring the paperwork back, the sales manager gave me the cvheck and also told me to keep the keys and title to the car! HE WAS GIVING ME THE CAR FOR FREE, NO STRINGS ATTATCHED! I guess he realized that it would be even more hassle for them to try to resell it again in the condition it was in. He said Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas and enjoy the car. He said I could do whatever I want with it.

When I got home I was chatting with my awesome landlords in the drive way and gave them the Readers Digest version of the Taurus story. They asked what I was going to do with it and I said,

"Now that it is a free car, it might be worth putting a little more money into it to make it run really well."

They said, "OK. Well, keep us updated on what you do!" They proceeded to go into their house and I went to mine.

Later that night there was a knock at my door and it was Tim and Janet again. They seemed kind of excited and came to give me news that they had been informed that an anonymous donor who knew of my vehicle situation is giving me a CADILLAC! They said it's in really good shape and the anonymous person(I know who it is) is taking care of all the registration and liscencing and all that too. I don't know what kind it is(does it matter?) or what year it is, but they said it should be really reliable for me for several years at least.

Mom I know your reaction is going to be, 'Oh Zach that's going to be expensive to drive!' I understand that, but I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. Especially if it's a thoroughbred. This might also be my escape from the junk car syndrome I've been stuck in. We'll see how it goes.

So I'm going to put spark plugs in the Taurus and sell it for a couple hundred bucks just to cover the money I put into it.

A new personal record- The parable of the kiwi fruit

Imagine yourself wanting to have a kiwifruit. You don't want to have an extravagant kiwifruit or a super exotic kiwifruit, just a nice simple tasty kiwifruit that will satisfy your wanting for a kiwifruit. Most everyone else has their own kiwifruits and theirs seem to be good kiwi's for them. You know people who have kiwifruits for sale and you get one from them. You love your new kiwi and you take extra special care of it in order to enjoy it fully. Then out of the blue someone comes and destroys your precious little treat! Ahhh! You are sad, but the person compensates you for your lost kiwi so you can get another one. You find another one for a good price and you have high hopes that this kiwifruit will be the kiwifruit for you. Nope, this kiwi seems to not be for you either, it dies a horrible death for reasons beyond your control. Something was wrong with the insides of this kiwi. So you get another kiwifruit. It dies too! For some unexplainable reason, you can't seem to keep your kiwifruit like everyone else can, but you don't give up hope! You keep searching for that one kiwi that will will be able to have and keep and it will give you the same satisfying feeling that other peoples' kiwifruits give them. You don't know why every kiwi you get seems to either get destroyed by someone else, die on it's own , or turn out to be a lemon disguised as a kiwifruit. the lemon /kiwi's seem to be the worst ones because you don't even know that it is a lemon inside until after you've bought the so-called kiwi, invested in to it and bitten into it that you find out that it is really a lemon inside. And it's not a good lemon either! It's an extremely sour lemon that is full of seeds and rotten spots and there's just no way to make lemonade out of it. You must throw away the lemon. Every time you get a new kiwifruit, you have high hopes that this will be your kiwi, but the cycle of bad kiwifruits can't be stopped! you've been through over a dozen kiwis this way and you wonder to yourself, "How can I stop this cycle of bad kiwi?"


In case you haven't figured it out yet, the kiwi in the story is a reference to my ability to go through vehicles like kleenex. My latest kill is the Taurus I blogged about only a few days ago!
After spending several days worth of labor and more money than I should have, we confirmed That this car is not worth putting anymore effort into. We called the dealer and they were gracious enough to accept that they sold me a lemon disguised as a kiwifruit. They are going to refund my money and then they'll probably haul it to the junk yard for giving them such a hassle.

Mom, you were right- This car was a twin to the other one, they both have their end in the junk yard.

In fact this car helped me break my old record of the number of days of owning a car before it's demise. The old record was five days + a few hours and this car wass five days minus a few hours! It's not a record I strive to beat, but that's what happens when you are me...



__________________
/ ~~~Here lies~~~ \


Another '87 Ford Taurus


May it Rest In Pieces...

De ja vu

Some of you might remember the tan Ford Taurus I had several years ago? Today I bought it's twin sister- Nearly identical in every way, even down to the ghetto speakers sitting on the back deck!(hey Joel, remember those?) She runs a little rough, is quite sluggish and there are a couple little spots of rust, but I think she's in pretty good shape for a 21 year old car. I'm especially not complaining about the purchase price of $200.00! OK so it was from a dealership and all their document fees, tax and junk added up to a little over $500.00, but I'm still not complaining to be able to have a car thats legal for me to drive! I'm sure if I had been pulled over in the manual transmission car I was driving before, the ticket most likely would have cost me more than that. . .

Here she is, this is the prettier side:

The not-as-pretty side: (still not too bad, though, eh?)

And last but not least, the ghetto speaker:

A little vacuuming, shampooing, pounding out a few dents, and she'll be good as new!

(edit) Here are a couple more from Saturday after a thorough washing

Perpetual Bonsai

About 5 months ago I gave this plant to a friend. It is a Schefflera arboricola, or Dwarf Umbrella tree. As I was trimming it back before I delivered it, I kept one of the branches and grew it out to start a new tree.

Today I potted that branch up in it's own pot to send to another friend, but not before trimming a branch from this one to grow out as another tree later!

I've got a good head start on this branch because it came with roots already!

I'll keep you updated on it's progress . . .

I did it

I turned on some holiday music today. I know! Me, the one who despises all the retail stores who start decorating for Christmas in August! I succomed to their overcommercialized, money-grubbing plans to drive away the true meaning of Christmas.

Although I only eased into it by listening to only the instrumental music and not the Santa Clause/Rudolf/Jingle Bells stuff, I realize that now I've started listening, I just can't go back...

What have I done?? Who knows, next year they might get me tostart in October and then September and before I know it I'll be one of them! AHHHH! I'm pretty sure I'll be able to restrain myself from putting up lights and the tree and all that till after Thanksgiving though, thank goodness!

Don't get me wrong, I love Christmas. I just don't like how commercialized it has become. It shouldn't be about how many twinkle lights you can cram onto your roof or having a herd of glowing reindeer running through your yard. It should be about Christ, don't you think?