Quirky little critters aren't they?

searching

The car search goes on.

We own an 8 year old pickup that is very nice, but gets 16 miles per gallon average. I bought it when gas was a little over a dollar a gallon! The other is a 20 year car that gets almost twice as many miles out of a gallon of gas, but is showing it’s age.

I bought the last 3 vehicles new. Buying used is a hugely different deal.

I heard of a people making fast decisions about these thing, but not me this time. I comb Ebay. I look on Craig’s List. Edmonds.com has become a regular visit, as has fueleconomy.gov. Did you know that there was once a Geo and a Pontiac that were made by Toyota? I learn stuff like that.

My spreadsheet calculates the actual cost of a vehicle, including maintenance (Edmonds will guess for you). I calculate which car might save more than it costs. For some reason I compute that on an 8 year clock.

I found a beautiful VW New Beetle in Florida that would be a fine ride. It will get around 50 mpg on a gallon of higher priced diesel. And there is a beautiful Ford Focus (bright yellow) in Spokane. There are others that look really good, but to many fit my criteria.

My spreadsheet tells me that the VW would be good, that mileage is great, but the VW costs a lot more to buy and Diesel cost more than gasoline, and because that 50 MPG is in demand the newest I might afford is 11 or 12 years old. The Focus, on the other hand, is only 5 years old, and though it gets less MPH, my spreadsheet tells me it is a better buy for me.

So I analyze and hope I am making the right decision for the right car.

"Mommy, can I have one?"

thinking

It looks like the sale of the house is coming along quite well.

That means I might have the luxury of thinking of what I might do with some it.

A newer small car to travel in? A small stand alone studio/shop? Retrofitting a space here? Moving the Coachmen travel trailer and where to put it?

A flood of thoughts mash and bash in my head. Some of them are conscious and some just below the conscience line.

There had been talk of buying another piece of property that had a shop/studio, but the owner's price was way not acceptable, and no one has the heart to negotiate too seriously.

So I think an think. Haven't spent any money.

And the car thing. I do spreadsheets of cost estimates. I research every small car I can think of. Price? Dependability? Miles on a gallon of fizz water and so on. I am liable to research this one completely to death, but I do it any way.

There is no hurry on much of this, but it would be nice to have a warm dry studio space before the cold wet fall sets in.

And so I think and think.

Wheat harvest is in full swing, about a month late.
This Elevator, which might look abandoned, is filling or full.
Later the wheat will be trucked to the Snake river and loaded on barges heading somewhere

dull

This has not been an exciting time here of late

Aside from moving and putting the house up for sale, there has not been too much to do this summer.

The garden here is in a keep up with it stage, which is not too hard. I don't have a studio yet and much of my art/craft stuff is still in Idaho, so I have been busy doing not too much. In Idaho the garden always needed more than i had time.

I am told we have a deal on the house, and there has been inquiry about a place here, and negotiations are ongoing, I am told, but I am not in the middle of it. Once in a while someone tells me a bit of something.

It is not that my family is being secretive, there just isn't too much of substance to talk about, so we don't.

Tomorrow I go to a luncheon at the only local nursing home that has an AD unit. I am sure it will be interesting, but hardly exciting.

Oh well, maybe the joy of excitement is over rated!

“Stay hungry, stay foolish.” Steward Brand on the last Whole Earth Catalog.