New Car; Ember

Very strange. My darling husband starts looking at new trucks a week ago, and yesterday I lease a new car. It's a charming, cherry red, 2008 Ford Focus. In the back of my mind, I've always thought of the Focus as a very small, very cheaply made car. What a surprise to find out it's not. It's comparable to a Honda Civic, and may be a bit bigger.

I first saw the car I got on the showroom floor of a local Ford dealer when Ron went there looking at trucks. With my former 1999 Saturn having over 111,000 miles on it, I think a bright shiny scooter would have looked good, so this shiny new car looked wonderful. And it really is wonderful. It gets good gas mileage; is a great color; has enough bells and whistles to make me happy (the Saturn has none at all -- not even electric windows); and is full of pep and power. The big long hills coming south to where we live didn't slow it down one bit.

Ron has yet to get a new vehicle. He is still mulling and ruminating, ever so slowly and methodically, about it. My darling husband moves in slow and mysterious ways.

It's not been the nicest of days in Upstate New York. Gray gray and gray. Toss in a chilly temp, and I barely enjoyed myself at the park with Ember.

Em and I had a real good day, though she protested loud and clear when it came time to leave the park. She cried walking to the car. When I opened the back door so she could climb in, she sat on the curb and cried. I coaxed this wonderfully terrible 2-year-old into the car, where she sat on the seat instead of getting into her car seat, tears rolling down her face and her lower lip stuck out saying, "I want to fwing. I want to fwing." I coerced and threatened and boosted her bottom and she eventually -- and slowly -- climbed into her car seat, but she folded her arms so I could not put them through the halter belts, all the while crying, nose running, tears pouring down her face.

I maneuvered her into the seat properly, wiped her nose and face and we finally got home, only to have the front door lock stick so it wouldn't open. Arghhhhhhhhhhhhh. By then Em wanted IN THE HOUSE so she could get "Beah" (a/k/a Bear) and have a "dwink of juuuce." Instead, Grandma had her sit on the stair while I not-so-patiently tried to unlock the door, which set her to sobbing again. It took me over 5 minutes of wiggling before I got the lock to unlock. By then, I wanted to cry.

The upshot of this is that Em was very very tired, and after a lunch of mac & cheese, she took a three-hour nap. I snoozed on and off for about an hour of that three hours.

Today's weather - Gray, gray, gray. Cold, chilly, damp. It's been a really bad March.

Life changes - Last week I said I wanted to hang on to the old Saturn for at least another 10,000 miles. I changed my mind when I saw that pretty little red car, not to mention I knew the future would bring more $$ being put into keep the Saturn running.