Monday, July 27, 2009

The Easy Bake Mobile

We have owned our 1994 Chevy Astro van for almost 10 years now. We have lovingly referred to it as the "beast" for the last several years because it's so old and has had so many breakdowns. Well...the beast now has a new name.

"The Easy Bake Mobile"

Here in the deserts of So Cal we have had above average temps for the last 3 weeks. Sometimes it has reached into the 120s. Let me tell you, THOSE temps are incredibly hard to live with even in the air conditioning. Those wonderful air conditioners can only cool down a building or car so far. Needless to say, we have done our fair share of sweating around here lately!

On to the details behind this new name...

We had an appointment on Saturday afternoon. Walter and I were on our way to it when the whole ventilation system turned off for a few seconds. We looked at each other and said, "Oh no!" Then it kicked back on again. We shrugged it off because this van has so many quirks about it.

We took care of our appointment and left. We pull up to a gas station and smelled an electrical smell...not good. We get some gas and turn the engine back on. No ventilation system AT ALL! Nope, nadda, zilch!!!! It's 105 and very humid outside! Great...now what are we going to do!

We discussed our options (which weren't many) and decided the van is nothing but a money pit these days (the engine is just about ready to go out, the radiator is leaking, etc.). So we set out to buy another car (no brand new cars here...cannot afford new).

We went back to the same used car lot we dealt with about 5 years ago. We didn't really care what we got just as long as it didn't get worse gas mileage than the van and as long as the air conditioning worked really well. We sat in a Saturn (the compact car...the name escapes me right now). That was funny....we don't fit in a Saturn!

We then test drove a 1999 Buick Park Avenue. Nice car but the a/c didn't work well and the salesman admitted they'd had to put more freon in it that morning (BIG red flag). Not only did we see the red flag, but the salesman was very rude.

We asked him if he did car faxes to see if the vehicles have been wrecked. He said and I quote, "I'm not doin nothing!" Not a good start to a potential sale. We shrugged it off and got in the car. The salesman rode with us. I asked if he knew how many miles per gallon the car got. I thought he might know. He turned around and looked at me and said, "What difference does it make? 22, 17, 20, 18...doesn't matter. It's a big car! You're not going to get good mileage!" I was shocked! So I said, "Gee, all I did was ask a question." He said, "And you got an answer!" Are your eyebrows up at this moment reading this? Mine were! This guy definitely did NOT want to sell us a car! So I told Walter that as far as I was concerned he could just drive the car back to the lot because I wasn't interested in buying the car. This guy actually thought he was being cordial! I told him the sale was a bust because of his attitude. He said, "I don't have an attitude. I didn't say anything wrong." Walter said, "Yes, you do have an attitude. All she did was ask you a question and you bit her head off. You obviously don't sell many cars." We took the car back to the lot. This salesman told us, "You just missed out on the sale of the century." I told him, "No, we didn't miss out." We left and went down the street to the next lot.

There weren't any prices in the windows of any of the cars. So we went inside and started asking for any cars within a certain price range. We test drove 1 car and it ended up being the car we bought.

Can I tell you a secret? The car we bought was actually the one I had been wanting for a very long time. I've been praying for this particular model for many months, maybe even a couple of years.

But on Saturday, I really didn't care what we got. I was looking for anything, really.

So, do you want to know what we got?


We


got


a



















2001 Buick LeSabre (fully loaded, I might add). Leather seats, great stereo, fabulous air conditioning, rear a/c, no road noise, smooth ride.

God is soooooooooo wonderful! He loves me. I can tell. I had dropped hints to Walter a long time ago that I would like to get another LeSabre some day but he didn't know that I had been praying for one (I've also been praying for another model of car as well, but that will have to wait for now). God gave me EXACTLY what I wanted. I shouldn't be amazed, but I still find myself in awe of Almighty God and how He works in our lives. He really takes care of His children. We are soooooo blessed.

So...the van is the "Easy Bake Mobile" because there is absolutely no air of any kind unless you roll down the windows and that air feels like a turned on oven!

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