StormBorn

SO, this happened yesterday.  Blogger is acting up this morning, and this is the best I can do with the pictures.

I traded off my jinxed-but-adorable little green Mazda for a larger, somewhat ugly, Ford Focus hatch back.

Dave doesn't think it's ugly, and he actually spotted it and picked it out.

My car payment will go up about $120, but we can handle that.

This car is about the size of the Toyota Matrix that I had for 10 years.  It's MUCH more capable of doing long road trips with lots of luggage, and even of doing our big grocery running trips *wink*.

There were times when we could barely fit all of our bags in the Mazda when there were a lot of groceries.

We looked on the Carmax website,  found something to test drive, and made an appointment.

The salesman who met us was FAR more helpful than the one at the Mazda dealership last weekend, and was actually willing to work with me to find something that fit within my budget range.

The one I wanted (a Buick Encore crossover/mini SUV) at first was out of range, so he pulled up some other options, and I suggested we step down one size class to the 5 door hatch back idea that I loved so much in the Toyota.

Perfect.

Her name is StormBorn, after a character in Game of Thrones who has silver hair.

StormBorn is a 2016 Ford Focus SE (mid-range features), with almost 44K miles, 2 liter dual overhead cam 4 cylinder, 6 speed manual trans, with 160 horsepower.  No, that's not a typo.

I'll be "hexing her up" today, fending off all jinxes, and getting to know her via the owner's manual and possibly some driving around.

There are a couple of fancy features, like the back up camera, sunroof, and satellite radio, but some much appreciated basic features, too, like it still has a cd player (newer cars no longer have them), and nifty automatic headlights.

The two things that I want to add pretty quickly are window tinting, and a dash cam.  I've become accustomed to the privacy allowed by window tinting, not to mention the protection from the harsh Oklahoma sun.

The dash cam comes about for obvious reasons.  My paranoia about driving (and parking) around OKC in general is HIGH, after having my previous vehicles hit so many times.

(Not just the Mazda with its numerous times, but also the Toyota was run into in a parking lot once, too, and that Caddy loaner we had was hit while we had it, also when it was parked!)

We will be driving Stormy to Chicago in September, Colorado in October, and our cabin camping trip in November.

I feel a LOT better about having it for those trips than Dave's old Pontiac, which has been our road trip car, but which, as mentioned, OLD.

We had our lawn guy come and remove the bushes and tree suckers and stumps (oh my!) from the back yard that we have wanted to remove for years.  Dave said, every year, he was going to do it, and even bought a chain saw, but he was just feeling overwhelmed by it, and preferred to pay someone to do it.  He used some of the money he got from selling his musical instruments.

I hope to get out and mow today, if the grass dries enough.  We had heavy rain yesterday, and it's cool and damp this morning.  Maybe by late afternoon, it will be do-able.

Other than that, learning about the car and cooking are on my agenda!  Oh, and cheering on the Cubs, of course.

They finally broke their 6 game losing streak last night. Hoping things go up hill from here for a while!