So, last Monday, I bought a used car. We’ve been a one-car family for a few years, now, and The Theory was that we would remain so, having moved Into The City and All.
Unfortunately, we moved to a city without transit buses, where the taxicabs are overwhelmed, and came up against a series of events in very short order which required two cars to accomplish. Now, granted, I could rent a car, at 3 days at a go for the local place and approximately $300 each time.
Anyhow, it just seemed like the universe was arguing for a second car, and we went looking for a used Subaru Forester (we have our reasons).
Reader, this is not the time to be trying to buy a used Subaru, if you also like to live indoors and eat.
After several disappointments, we wound up at Charlie’s Motor Mall in Augusta, where we’d purchased our last four or five, or maybe even six vehicles, including the Forester we have now.
The salesman at the Subaru side confirmed that this is not the time to be shopping for a used Forester, and after some discussion, and a test drive, I allowed myself to be sold a 2014 Honda CR-V EXL in Kona Coffee (or, as the registration states — “brown.”)
I like the car. A lot. We had some previous experience with the Honda CR-V, from that time that Amtrak dumped us off the train at 2am in Cincinnati and told us to find our own way back to our car, which was parked at the Albany station. We drove that rented CR-V 700 miles in 20 hours, and it was solid, uncomplaining, and a complete good sport about everything we demanded of it. Tinsori, as the new-to-me Honda has come to be called, is equally solid, and uncomplaining, and I think we’ll get on fine.
So — bought the car last Monday. Noticed a couple things weren’t exactly as they should be, including the back lift gate catch was broken, and there was a stutter in the transmission at certain speeds. So, I called the Honda Section of Charlie’s Motor Mall and made an appointment to have Tinsori brought up to spec while he was still under warranty.
It was here that things got a little squirrelly because I hadn’t purchased the used Honda from the Honda Section; I’d purchased it from a Subaru salesman off of a mixed lot, and Phone Calls therefore Had to be Made, Permissions Granted, and long story short, the Honda Section did fix the back gate, burnished the transmission, replaced the broken fog light I hadn’t noticed was broken, and! topped off the window washer fluid, and the cost to me was — nada. Zero. Zip. Zilch. All good, thank you, ma’am, and if anything else goes wrong, you know where to find us.
Now, in order to get these repairs done, I had to leave the car at the Honda Section early in the morning. Repairs were finished by 4:15ish. In Maine in these days of late fall/early winter, it gets dark at 4pm. What with One Thing and Something Else, I haven’t actually driven in the dark for almost 3 years.
Therefore, as Steve was driving us to the Honda Section, we made A Plan for the drive home. I would lead, driving Tinsori, and I would go the “back way” home, avoiding the interstate because I felt safer that way.
We picked up Tinsori, checked the hatch and the fog light, and Implemented the Plan.
Almost immediately, Steve lost me in Augusta end-of-work traffic, but he knew where I was going, and how, so he kept to The Plan. As I did. It’s a little exciting driving in the dark, but I hope to become used to it, and everything was going along pretty well until I came to the intersection of the Belgrade Road and the Pond Road, in Sidney, which was to be my turn toward home. This corner is dignified by the presence of Steve’s Furniture and Appliance, which has a big light-up sign on the corner of its property.
By now, I was pretty much out of Augusta traffic, but there was a — backup right before I got to my turn. A long line of cars, and — hold it! a car without lights sideways across the left lane, and — good grief, two cars in the bushes off the road on the right, and a positive sea of glass in the intersection, where one guy with a flashlight was trying to guide cars around.
I realized that Steve was behind me, and was going to come on this disaster area and Make Assumptions. I therefore cleared the intersection, pulled into the parking lot at Steve’s Furniture and called him.
“Steve! There’s a big crash at Steve’s, but it’s not me! I’m OK!”
“Good,” he said. “I was worried, and pulled into Steve’s parking lot –”
“I’m in Steve’s parking lot!”
After a muddled few moments, we found each other, and got oriented to head off for home, Steve in the lead this time.
Two ambulances passed us on the Pond Road, heading toward the intersection with the Belgrade Road, but we got home with without further incident, parking the cars, and went inside to toast each other with a glass of wine, and kinda let the adrenaline flow away.
So, that happened.
