Life As I Know It

Let’s see………………The last time I was able to login was sometime in Dec. 09, until this morning. 

I believe I had posted something back then about my minivan being repossessed.  Well, the bank refused to lower the payments from  $398 to $250.  They said:  "we’d loose too much money."  So I said:  "then you’ll have to take the van.  I don’t have the $$$$ for that kind of payment anymore."  So, they took the minivan. Now someone at the bank is driving it.  They tried selling it and got no offers.  I economy here is pretty poor.  I knew that would happen to them.  Part of the banks problem is:  they just built a $2 million dollar building that they didn’t need.  When you walk in the front door you are greeted by a receptionist who has you sit by a huge fireplace in great big bulky chairs.  When someone is available to wait on you (teller) they call your name.  Then you have to walk up to the counter, present your drivers license and PIN # to be able to see your account.  If you are there to see a loan officer, they call you back into another portion of the bank that is huge.  Each cubicle is top of the line desk systems and computers that money can buy.
This bank has lost many members due to their greed.  I closed my account before I turned over the minivan.  Best thing I could have done.

So for one day, I had no vehicle.  I had been praying about a car.  I needed something that was going to allow me payments around $200 per month.  I figured something in the price range of $4500..  Well, God did even better than that.  I bought a 1995 Volvo 850 Turbo with 87944 miles on it.  It’s fully loaded with:  heated seats, power windows, locks, mirrors, steering.  It has an anti-theft system on the stereo/cassette/CD, 4 brand new tires, power sunroof, split 60/40 backseats and a computer dashboard.  The only thing that I’ve done to it was put new wiper blades on and a new battery.  Runs like a dream.  And the best thing was the price.  I got it for $1497.00  Yup, that’s right.  I know the dealer personally that had the car.
I contacted Volvo to see what goes wrong with these cars at 90,000 miles.  The guy in Madison told me that it’s basically a new car at 90,000.  The cars aren’t broke in until 200,000 miles.  I’m like what???  He said:  "they are a well built, steel bodied car.  Built for the mountains and the cold weather in Sweden.  They run good, and they have been know to get up to 450,000 miles before anything has to be replaced on them."  He said the best thing I could do would be to get a complete tune-up and engine emissions control check.  Other than that I should be good to go."

I’ve only had one car that’s ever made it to 250,000 miles.  That was a Dodge Spirit.  It has 238,000 miles when it died.

We’ve had lots of snow.  I missed work on Thurs.  The roads were terrible!!  My son-in-law was plowing and he said not to drive on the roads, so I called work and told them I wouldn’t make it.  Someone complained and said :  "they made it in, so I should have made it in."  The person who complained lives 5 minutes from work.  I live 30 minutes on a clear day.  On bad weather days it sometimes takes me an hour to get to work.  Simply because I live on a 2-lane country road that is not plowed right away, and the place I work is in the middle of a corn field and the road isn’t plowed out there either.

Mom is doing good.  She stopped all treatments in Madison.  It’s too hard on her to go up there and wait for 4 hrs. until the Dr. has time to see her.  So she only wants her breathing monitored.  She was in the hospital over Christmas.  That was a bummer to our family.  Since I can remember we’ve gotten together as a family on Christmas morning.  I still went to my daughters house.  Then I went to work from her house.

Right now I’m tired.  Went to a movie after church.  Saw "Leap Year".  It’s a good movie everyone.  And yes, I’ll take that Irishman any day.  Woohoo!!!

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