I Had A Wonderful Day

Today is a Sunday.  I am off work today.  It is an extremely windy day with gusts up to 50 and 60 miles per hour.  Small trees and branches down along the roads.  I actually had to get out of the car to move a small tree that fell across the road coming into our "estate."  I made two loaves of banana nut bread (with chocolate chips and walnuts), and a pot roast in the slow cooker.

Three days ago we picked up a brand new car.  Ever since I hit a deer in November of 2013 I've been driving around in older cars.  Nice ones, but older.  I've been so afraid of traveling any distance in case something would happen.  Just over two years ago I purchased a 2004 BMW 325xi.  It's been a great car but I knew I would only be keeping it two or three years.  I was paying off a loan I took out to pay for my insurance deductible when I had my neck surgery.  I had the equivalent of a car loan payment amount every month for three years so I've been waiting to pay it off before I had yet another payment.  I did lots of research regarding cross over vehicles (I wanted something that sits up higher than sedans as it's difficult getting in and out of low cars for a man of my height).  Drew and I went to the auto show in Grand Rapids.  We looked at the five vehicles I was interested in, sat in them, looked at pricing and narrowed it down.  We then went to Hyundai in Holland to test drive a Kona, which is really what I thought I would purchase.  Then we went to Crown Motors and looked at a Mazda CX3 and a Honda HRV.  The Honda was at the bottom of my final list of three.  I didn't even plan on driving it but the salesman was so good at what he did, the pricing was right, and my gut said "go with it"...so I did.  This was the same salesman that sold Ray and me our Mazda when we took advantage of the "cash for clunkers" back in 2009.  I was comfortable with him.  As odd as it sounds working with him and Crown Motors made me feel some type of connection to Ray.  It is so nice to drive a brand new vehicle.  I've gone through so much in my life over the last six years it feels like my life is starting to finally get together.  Let's hope it keeps moving in that direction.

So, being that I had yesterday off as well (which I normally don't have Saturday's off) I decided we needed to do a road trip in the new car.  We went to an indoor art show in Kalamazoo.  It was called a "Garage Sale Art Show."  We bought some nice things.  It was a decent show.  Too much pottery/ceramics though.  Drew bought me a beautiful vase/bowl for my birthday (which is in April).  When I saw something I liked he would ask "do you want me to buy that for your birthday?"  It was so sweet.

After the show we went to Stein Mart in Portage/Kalamazoo.  I purchased a great pair of shoes on clearance for $30 and a watch with matching bracelets for $6.  Then we went to a mall across the street to have Gyros at Olga's.  Drew asked if we could go shopping after we ate and I was happy to oblige as he hasn't had the "shopping urges" for a while.  I was glad to see he was interested in doing something.  We went into Macy's and I bought another pair of shoes for only $14!  Drew bought a pair of shoes with the money Tom sent him for his birthday.  Then he saw a "Super Dry" jacket he really liked.  He wanted to buy it.  I told him I would buy it for him for his birthday which was three days ago.  I didn't know what to get him for his birthday so I asked if he wanted gifts or dinner.  He said dinner.  So we went to Clearbrook for dinner on his birthday.  But I know he really liked this jacket so I told him I would get it for him for his birthday.

With all this...I just wanted to blog it down to remember what a fantastic day I had yesterday.  Our day trip to K-zoo was great.  I had a wonderful day.  - Jimmy