Goodbye, Blue, I'll Miss You

I will miss my sweet Blue, but after twenty years of being such a blessing, it's time to let him go. Believe me, I've cried and may cry again when we drop him off tomorrow. In fact, I'm tearing up just thinking about it. It is one thing to know it is time to let go and another to actually let go. I may bawl like a baby. I hope not.

Blue was given to me after I graduated and before I headed to college. He was faithful to me then and was faithful to me now. I would have liked to have kept on with him for a while longer, but a major oil leak (pour it in, watch it drip out) made that impossible. When you add that to the fact he had no air conditioning (compressor went out six years ago), it made putting our money into a newer vehicle a smarter move. I wish I could have been Blue's forever home, but Blue can now move on to his new life after serving me/us so faithfully. And to not have to have a car payment to worry about during college and during the first eight years of our marriage, well, that was perhaps one of the biggest blessings of all (Thanks Grandad and Grandma, Dad and Mom).

And now for the good news... This is our brand new (to us) blessing! A Phantom Gray 2007 Toyota Matrix! Being partial to hatchbacks and wanting good gas mileage made this car very attractive. We went last night to look at vehicles and ended up at this lot. We liked the car, but at 11:00 pm, we left without purchasing it (after sitting at the table) because the interest rate was too high. We spent kind of a tense day calling around, trying to get a better rate. We found several, so in order to beat what we could get, they came down to 5.75% interest (which sure beat the 6.95% it started out as). Yeah to Pooker for walking away from the table!

So tonight, we drove off that lot at 9:35 pm with our brand new gray baby. We were looking in the "trunk" one last time before we went to sign those papers and happened to look in this sack that said "Do not remove" and we found that the car we were told didn't have keyless entry had keyless entry! Out of the bag, to our surprise, Todd pulled out a keyless remote. He was surprised and so were we. That was one thing I couldn't believe it didn't have when we were purchasing it and BAM, out of the trunk comes a blessing. (Todd is the very kind salesman, whom I'd recommend, shown in the middle picture with Pooker.)

After we got home and ate (and after we called Dad and Mom to share the good news), we had to move the lawnmower and clean up the massive oil spot left over from Blue so we could park the Gray Baby inside (didn't want him spending his first night out on the street). I've been in the garage twice now just to stare and I can't stop smiling.