My Commonplace Book

Awwww, I didn't get to do the car study yesterday.

They always schedule more people than they need in case some don't show up, but this is only the second time I was dismissed. I wasn't happy about it -- this one seemed like it would be particularly interesting and I had been looking forward to it.

So I drove 50 miles, half of it in very heavy rush-hour traffic, and waited around for a half hour, only to find myself all dressed up with no place to go, as it were. But I can't say it was all for nothing. If you show up you get paid, whether they use you or not, so I got my $125 and used the time to do some shopping at the nearby Trader Joe's instead. I like Trader Joe's, and that's actually the nearest one right now, but they're building one about 5 miles away from me, and I'm eager for it to open (I think it's scheduled for November).

But I'm disappointed that I didn't get to show off my car or talk about what I like about it, or get comments on my collage (they took it, but I didn't get to talk about it). It was a tiny study -- five of us were in the waiting room, and only three were taken, two men and a woman.

I don't know how they choose the participants from among the people who show up, whether it's random selection or they choose which ones they want. While the other rejected woman and I were getting paid, though, someone came out and reported a problem. One of the men had to be removed -- either he was being loud and unpleasant or he had a relative who works for a car company, I couldn't tell which from the cryptic conversation. I can't see how it would be the latter, since they screen that pretty carefully on the phone when they qualify you for the study, so maybe he was being uncooperative and when they realized two outsiders were standing there they tried to put a good face on it.

But I don't know where I can break a $100 bill! I guess I'll just take it to the bank. The twenty and the five will be noooo problem.

I get to do a focus group tonight. I've gotten calls from time to time, but I haven't qualified for any of the studies, so I'm happy that I'm finally doing one. They were looking for people who purchased a new car in the past year and who are happy with their purchase. That's me, all right -- I love my CR-V!

The focus groups are fun to do, but the main advantage is that they pay well. This one is an hour and a half, from 7-8:30 pm, and it pays $100. Even better, a day or two after they scheduled me for the group they called back to ask if I would do some "homework," for which I'll get an additional $25! They emailed me a Word file with three questions and a blank page to make a collage.

Turns out the study is about trust.

( Homework )

I'm usually the iconoclast at these focus groups. I'll never forget the one I did on paper products, where the facilitator asked our reaction to seeing "New and improved!" on a package of toilet paper. Most of the other participants responded positively, saying it made them want to buy it. The rest were neutral and said it didn't make any difference. When it was my turn I said, "I hate seeing that on a package. I like my toilet paper the way it is, and I don't want it changed just for the sake of changing! And 'new and improved' often means nothing more than the amount of product in the package has gotten smaller!"

Everyone else just kind of looked at me, but the whole idea of focus groups is that they want to know your feelings about the way the product is presented. The spiel at the beginning always tells us to say what we really think, not just nice things, and a good facilitator is completely neutral no matter what the participants' comments are. But a few facilitators seem really insulted if you say something negative. The whole thing is filmed through a two-way mirror, though, and the company's people are also back there watching, so it gets through. I know I can't affect an entire advertising campaign single-handedly -- my focus group is only one of many being conducted here as well as all over the country -- but I do try to get my licks in to improve logic and honesty in the marketplace.

Tonight's group appears to be focused less on a specific proposed advertising campaign than on how the feeling of TRUST can be communicated in new car ads. I'm looking forward to seeing how it goes ... and to going home with an extra $125!

This wouldn't have happened if eudyptes had been her driving instructor.

JASPER, Ind. -- A 15-year-old girl crashed her SUV into Jasper High School during a driving lesson, causing $50,000 in damage, police said.
       
Jordan M. Sander was practicing Sunday afternoon with her father, John C. Sander, in the school's parking lot.

She was making a right turn when the sport utility vehicle went over a sidewalk and into the north side of the building, police said. Neither Jordan nor her father was injured. No charges were filed.

The accident also caused about $3,500 damage to the SUV.

I ventured out yesterday for the first time since the sleet storm started on Tuesday.

( Chocolate )

( Birdseed )

( Hiking boots and Yaktrax )

I tried them out, and they're great! I highly recommend YakTrax to those of you who get snow and ice!

When I got home I found that my strategy of shoveling two strips in my parking space worked perfectly! I put ice melt in them before I left to get rid of the residue I hadn't been able to remove, and when I came back I backed the car in, and not only did the wheels fit right into the strips of clear pavement, I had a few inches on the left side to walk (well, sidle) in. I was very proud of myself for not only shoveling exactly the right places, but also for backing in so perfectly. I used to be terrible at backing up, especially after I stopped being able to turn my head and had to do it with only the mirrors. But I've gotten much better at it over the years.

The MoveOn.org house party I signed up for was cancelled --  not because of the weather, but because the host said something had come up that afternoon and she had to do something else. I was half disappointed because I really wanted to go, and half relieved that I wouldn't have to go out with the parking lot still so icy and worry about the condition of parking at the host's house. So I just stayed in and stayed cozy.

This morning eudyptes came over to pick up his Yaktrax, and while he was here he brought in the birdseed and filled the feeders for me. (Thank you, Ken!) They've been empty for months so I asked him to scatter a bunch of it on top of the snow, both for the ground feeders and to show the birds there was something there. Unfortunately the squirrels found it first -- within 15 minutes there were four of them sitting in the front yard going to town on the seeds.

( Good Deed for the Day )

I've been absolutely thrilled with the way my car has been getting in and out over the ice! I was apprehensive yesterday about whether I could even get out of the parking space -- the plow had shoved some snow in the way, and it had frozen solid. But the CR-V barely even hesitated, and went right over the big slippery lump! Backing in was the same, as was going out today, so I felt confident enough to pull straight in tonight instead of backing in. I'm glad I didn't pay the extra $1200 for all-wheel-drive. Since I'm retired I usually just opt not to go out when the roads are bad, and on the rare occasions I may have to (or choose to), it looks like my front-wheel-drive car will do just fine!

So I got a lot accomplished in the last few days and I'm feeling good about that!

I keep saying this, but nobody else ever seems to notice. I'm glad someone else is paying attention ... but is anyone listening?

A Deadly Story We Keep Missing

The non-story of 2006 was also the non-story of 2005. It is a non-story every year going back decades. Yet the number of people who die in car crashes in the United States is staggering, even if it is absent from the agenda of most public officials and largely ignored by the public. ...

Avian flu has killed 157 people since 2003, according to the World Health Organization. West Nile virus has killed 931 people in the US since 1999. Exactly 5 people died during the anthrax scare, but over a billion dollars has been spent on bio-detection systems for the postal service, which is expected to cost $120 million a year to operate. A total of 2,973 people died on September 11, 2001, and it's considered an enormous tragedy --  just look at the lengths the government has gone to in order to prevent a repetition. When a commercial airplane crashes and a few hundred people die, it's a major deal, and airline industry and the FAA tighten things up to prevent future crashes. As of today, 2,983 members of the U.S. military have died in Iraq.

The list of killers that the public and the government are running scared of and/or up in arms about could go on and on. Billions upon billions of dollars are being spent on these issues to keep more people from dying of them. Yet the carnage on the highways goes merrily on to the tune of 44,000 deaths every year, with practically no publicity and little being done to lower the toll.

A few important automobile safety features have been mandated, but most of them are left up to the manufacturers to include or not. Half the states have secondary seat belt laws, which can be enforced only if the driver is stopped for another infraction -- and one state, New Hampshire, doesn't require seat belt use at all. (Their state motto should be changed to "Live free and die.") Drunk drivers are scolded, slapped on the wrist, and released to drink and drive again and again until they kill somebody.

If 44,000 people were dying of a disease, the government would be throwing billions of dollars at it in an effort to eliminate the cause and find a cure. If 44,000 people were dying of terrorist attacks every year, just imagine what kind of publicity and response it would get!

Consider:

• At the 2006 casualty rate of 800 soldiers per year, the United States would have to be in Iraq for more than 50 years to equal just one year of automobile deaths back home.
  
• In any five-year period, the total number of traffic deaths in the United States equals or exceeds the number of people who died in the horrific South Asian tsunami in December 2004. U.S. traffic deaths amount to the equivalent of two tsunamis every 10 years.
  
• According to the National Safety Council, your chance of dying in an automobile crash is one in 84 over your lifetime. But your chances of winning the Mega Millions lottery are just one in 175 million.
  
• If you laid out side by side 8-by-10 photos of all those killed in crashes this year, the pictures would stretch more than five miles.
  
• If you made a yearbook containing the photos of those killed this year, putting 12 photos on each page, it would have 3,500 pages. If you wanted to limit your traffic-death yearbook to a manageable 400 pages, you'd either have to squeeze more than 100 photos onto each page or issue an eight-volume set.

Automobile deaths are the leading cause of death for children, for teenagers and in fact for all people from age 3 to 33. Yet this annual tragedy is not a cause celebre.

Opinion leaders largely ignore the ubiquitous massacre. No marches, walkathons, commemorative stamps or fundraising drives are organized. It is not brought up in the State of the Union address. It is rarely the subject of public affairs shows. Statistics aren't updated daily in major newspapers or broadcasts.

Gruesome crashes are reported just one at a time, each as if it might never happen again. Little attention is paid to the aftermath: safety measures taken or not taken, the workings or non-workings of the justice system. These avoidable deaths, as well as more than 2 million nonfatal dismemberments, disfigurements and other injuries that go along with them, have become part of the fabric of everyday life in the United States.

The safety of both vehicles and roads need to be upgraded to stop the carnage. But it's not going to happen unless the media takes up the kind of hue and cry that the more unusual causes of death receive. Paradoxically, I think highway deaths are too common. If they were rarer, they'd get more attention and maybe more money for prevention.

But just think about that number. Over 40,000 deaths every year, year in and year out, year after year after year. Tens of thousands of young people are losing their lives, and tens of thousands of families are robbed of loved ones, every year, year in and year out. But little is said or done.

I've ranted about this before. I'll probably rant about it again. The illogic of getting all worked up about something that causes a relative handful of deaths, and ignoring the huge toll on the highways, drives me crazy.


( Full text )

ConsumerGuide - 2007 Honda CR-V Full Review

About:SUVs - A preview before the review -- 2007 Honda CR-V

USA Today: Revamped CR-V has wow factor

London Times: Honda CR-V (this is the one that says CR-V stands for Comfortable Runabout Vehicle)

Cars.com:  2007 Honda CR-V

Now that there's been time for crash- and safety-testing, the 2007 Honda CR-V has earned top ratings and awards!

The all-new 2007 Honda CR-V has earned 5-Star safety ratings for both frontal and side impact performance from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), American Honda Motor Co., Inc., announced today. A 5-Star rating is the highest government safety rating. ...

As part of Honda's "Safety for Everyone" initiative, all trim levels of these vehicles include standard Vehicle Stability Assist(TM) (VSA(R)), standard side-curtain airbags with a rollover sensor, standard driver's and front passenger's airbags (SRS) and standard front-side air bags with a passenger-side Occupant Position Detection System.

I like the idea of "Safety for Everyone." I've always been annoyed that safety improvements take so many years to trickle down to the low-end cars I buy. A big reason I picked the CR-V was its safety features -- but the new ones hadn't been crash-tested yet, and since the car has been completely redesigned, the fact that the 2006 got top ratings didn't necessarily mean the 2007 would.

And, it also earned an Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) TOP SAFETY PICK Award because it earned the top rating for every aspect of front crash tests and side impact crash tests. (Hmm ... except for one -- driver pelvis and leg -- which rated only Adequate rather than Good: "Driver — Measures taken from the dummy indicate that a fracture of the pelvis would be possible in a crash of this severity. The risk of significant injuries to other body regions is low.")

Even the rear crash protection/head restraint ratings were all Good.

With the emphasis on safety Honda has given the CR-V, I'm not surprised. I do feel safe driving this car. I love the way it handles -- it really feels exactly like driving the little Protegé and Corolla! Although it's much higher, tight turns feel just as solid as the small cars.

And I just love the height! It's exactly right for me! I don't have to plop down to get in, yet it's not so tall I have to climb up, either -- the seat is only a few inches lower than my butt so sitting is easy. Then I simply swivel in, and a brief 90º knee bend is enough -- I don't have to painfully crunch my legs up the way I did with my previous cars.

And getting out doesn't make my back hurt -- I just swivel out, put my feet down, and stand up -- I don't have to pull myself up by hanging onto the roof the way I always did. Even in friends' large sedans I have to plop down and pull up to some extent -- but the CR-V is just the right height. This is the easiest it's been to get in and out of a car since 1980! And the height is nice for driving too -- I have much better visibility now.

I had to go to Timonium on Thursday, so I had an opportunity to check the mileage on the highway. (The only other time I've been out of town with it was on Thanksgiving, and there were too many traffic jams to count it as highway mileage.) I was delighted -- in straight highway driving, it gets 34 mpg! Its best mileage is at about 60 mph, according to the current gas-mileage gauge. It also gives you the average mpg since each trip meter was set, so I set one of them when I got on the highway, and all the way there and all the way home it stayed between 33 and 34.

Around town it only gets around 23, which is a little disappointing, but the roads here are overcrowded and there are traffic lights everywhere, so there's a lot of stop and go. Sitting at all those red lights is especially hard on gas mileage -- even though the engine is only idling, when you're stopped you're getting 0 mpg so of course the average plunges when I'm just driving locally. A hybrid would have been perfect for the type of driving I do, but a Prius is too small, and the only hybrid in a small SUV is the Ford Escape -- which costs $6,000 more, has fewer safety features and poorer reliability.

But for an SUV-type vehicle it gets great mileage, and all in all I just love my new car!

The car that has been my faithful steed for 14 years is gone.

The shift from having a spiffy but underpowered Mazda Protegé and an old but sturdy Toyota Corolla to having a shiny (in every sense of the word!) new Honda CR-V has been so sudden that it's rather disorienting. And I'm missing the little cars that have been there for me for so long ... especially the Corolla.

I am NOT complaining! I adore the CR-V! Apart from all the state-of-the-art bells and whistles, the simple ease of getting in and out has made an enormous difference. I drove the Corolla one last time tonight, and the back and knee pain while climbing down into it and hoisting myself up out of it reminded me of why it was so important to make this change.

And both cars are staying in the family, so to speak. woofiegrrl bought the Mazda and eudyptes is buying the Toyota. So I know they're both going to good homes, and I'll be seeing them both again. And I'm glad to know that people I care about are getting such good cars that have been maintained very well and have very low mileage for their age, rather than having to take their chances on buying a pig in a poke from a stranger and/or paying an exorbitant price to a used car dealer.

( One last goodbye )

So between the drive tonight and writing this post, I feel much better. Meredith and Ken, I wish you both the best of luck with your new cars! Enjoy, and drive them in good health!

Awww.... I was going to go out and get plastic floor mats to keep mud and gunk off the built-in floor mats, but I don't want to go out driving in this weather:

...Severe thunderstorms are expected with tornadoes possible today...

An intense low pressure system will move from the Ohio Valley today into the northern Great Lakes tonight. A strong cold front extending from this low will cross the region today... reaching the Chesapeake Bay this evening. Thunderstorms are expected to develop along and ahead of the front this afternoon.

Unseasonably strong winds aloft will lead to some thunderstorms producing severe weather today. Winds in the atmosphere today also are favorable for tornadoes to develop.

This storm system has a history of producing severe weather and tornadoes for the last few days.

Much of the severe weather is expected to be along and east of Interstate 81. The greatest risk of severe weather today is in the Baltimore and Washington metropolitan areas and southern Maryland. The most likely time for severe weather will be during the afternoon hours.

In addition... much of the area will experience moderate rain through the afternoon hours. The heaviest showers and thunderstorms will produce a few areas of torrential rainfall will be possible which could lead to isolated flooding.

Everyone across the area is urged to very closely monitor weather conditions today. Be prepared to seek safe shelter immediately today as thunderstorms will be moving very quickly... in excess of 50 mph... leaving little time to seek safe shelter.

Not great weather to take out a new car if you don't have to -- and not weather I want to be out in at all if I don't have to!

So I guess the protective floor mats will have to wait till tomorrow. I should have gotten them on the way home from the dealer -- I went right past a WalMart and a Target and was only a few blocks from a KMart. As I was leaving the dealer, which is almost adjacent to the WalMart, I was thinking there was something I wanted to get and I should stop, but I was too excited about getting into my new car (!) and couldn't think of what it was, so I just went home.

I keep peeking out the window at it, though, and it's still there, right in front of my house, so it must be real!


ADDED 12:57 pm: We're now under a flood warning, too!

at 1213 PM EST...radar indicated thunderstorms with very heavy rain over the region...and more on the way through the afternoon. One to two inches has fallen so far...with the heaviest totals over Montgomery County and northern Virginia. Another one to two inches will fall through 400 PM. Small streams and creeks will overflow. Road flooding is likely... especially in low spots and where storm drains are clogged.

I got it!!!

Here's my new Honda CR-V LX 2WD, parked in front of my house!  =squee!=



This picture doesn't do it justice because it was very cloudy today, so everything looked a little gray. I tried to adjust the color, but I couldn't get it the right color. It's really pretty in the sunlight -- a slightly warmer gold than it looks here. And it's metallic, so it practically sparkles in the sun!

I love it! I'm so excited! Getting in and out is sooo much easier (which is the main reason I wanted a car of this type). I like the higher view of the road, too.

But although it looks very big, it's built on a Civic chassis and is actually a compact car! The wheelbase is 103.1 inches -- only 6 inches longer than my old 1993 Corolla, exactly half an inch longer than the Mazda Protege I sold to Meredith, and over an inch shorter than a current Civic! So it gives me the feel of driving a big car, but it handles just like the cars I'm used to driving, with the same nice small turning radius that makes small cars the easiest to drive in this crowded suburban area.

( More excited babbling about the car, with pics )

The transaction was smooth as silk. The salesman, Mick, came to my house to pick me up so I could drive the new car home. When we got there, he already had everything ready to go. It's already registered -- Maryland lets you do a lot of things via the Internet now, so they ordered the registration themselves (for an extra $20 fee =sigh= ). Mick said it usually takes an hour or two, so he did it for me before I came in and had my new plates (I got the Chesapeake Bay plates) already on the car! (Boring old Maryland has only two fancy plates available. Some states have a lot of choices, but all we can get is the plain old black-and-white tag, the farm scene, or the bay scene. Fortunately I love new bay scene, so I'd probably get that even if there were a range of choices. (I haven't had a bay tag before because the old ones were ugly, with a really cartoon-ish heron. But they redid them a few years ago, and the new ones are very pretty.)

( More excited babbling about the process )

So here I am with my new car! Now I have to sell the old one. Any comments or advice about that would be appreciated.

One other question I have is about the extended warranty. Mick was great, and didn't push at all, but he did tell me that they offer a 50% rebate at the end of the warranty period if the warranty hasn't been used. I normally wouldn't even think of an extended warranty on a Honda, but because of that I'm actually considering it. A 7-year 70K warranty is a little under $1400. Obviously if I need it for something major it would be worth it -- but if I don't ever need it for anything, I'd get half of that back. So is seven years of peace of mind worth $700? Do you have any experience with an extended warranty? Should I even bother on a Honda?


ADDED: Some things I forgot to say ... I like the way it looks much better than the last model CR-V (no offense, goingdriftless! ). It's not as sharp as the RAV4, but I think it's a really good-looking car. While I was test driving my car, I passed another CR-V, and I felt so proud of the way mine looks!

But there's so much to learn about it! I spent a half hour in it today with the owner's manual, fiddling with the seats -- learning how to put them down, fold them up, how to work the middle seat belt, etc. (It's exceptionally easy to do all that -- even with my wimpiness I can fold and unfold them with little effort. They're beautifully balanced, and the release latch is a pull-tab so you don't have to push a button with one hand and pull with the other -- it's a one-handed operation, just pull the D-ring and that releases the catch and pulls the seat up or down in one smooth motion.)

The salesman showed me how to set the clock and work the radio, but there's still a lot to learn. So much that they give you a quick-start guide in addition to the thick owner's manual! It's going to take awhile before I stop referring to the documentation all the time!

I had a long, busy day today!

Since woofiegrrl is buying my Mazda, I needed to find the title to give to her -- but I wasn't the one who had put it away, and I had no clue of where it was. After searching for awhile, I said the heck with it and figured I'd get another one from the MVA.

I went MVA website and was pleased to find I could order one online! But it turns out that you need the title number to order a new title! Well, if you lost the title, how are you supposed to know the title number?!

I called the MVA, whose phone system is as abysmal as any tech-support system. I spent about 10 minutes getting a busy signal over and over, and then another 40 mninutes in the hold queue before I finally got through to a human being. At least I lucked out and got a helpful one (which isn't always the case, by any means).

I explained the problem and she said it was on the registration. So I explained that the car and the registration are in Virginia, and she volunteered that she could get it for me if I gave her my driver's license number. Yay! So I got the title number.

The problem was, I had a doctor's appointment as was running very late by then, but after all that I didn't want to have to start all over again! So I scribbled down the number, thanked the clerk, hung up and raced out the door.

And forgot all about the title. Until Meredith asked me about it yesterday. I didn't want to take another 10 days to order it online, so I said I'd go to the MVA and get it today, even though that's a real ordeal in this stupid state. They only have a handful of full-service offices -- the nearest one is about a half-hour away, and the lines are always horrendous. I decided to go to the main office in Glen Burnie, hoping the lines would be a little shorter.

There was an accident on the highway, so traffic was horrible, but once I got there it actually went pretty fast. On my way home I ran an errand, and then I was near the Honda dealer that had given me the lowest quote, so I decided to stop in and look at colors again.

Thanks to those of you who took my color poll -- your comments helped me rethink my choice! I realized that the silver and gray is boring ... in restrospect I can't imagine what made me think I would want it!  lesliepear pointed out that the colors probably look better in person, and that really got me started thinking.

I once had a beige car -- it was called beige but it was really more of a deep cream color -- and I didn't like it. So I was hung up on the name "Borrego Beige." But glittery_lizard picked Borrego Beige Metallic in the poll and as her reason, she said "gold!" Hmmm.

When I looked at a Borrego Beige CR-V today, I saw that it's actually an attractive warm gold, not the odd greenish-beige shade that the Honda website shows. The salesman I talked to even referred to that color as simply "gold"!

(On the other hand, while the Green Tea Metallic doesn't look quite as bad in person as on that website, it's still not an attractive color -- at least to me. If you're old enough, remember all the avocado green cars in the 1970s? This is pretty much that same color, except metallic. Ugh.)

I really liked this salesman. I made it clear that I was working with the Internet person and didn't want anyone to waste their time in the hope of selling me a car themselves, but he said he can work with Christine, and spent some time showing me the different colors.

I looked at a Glacier Blue one, too, but the salesman confirmed my own first impression when he said "I have a hard time telling that one apart from the gray one." It's not nearly as gray as the website depicts it, but it's not very blue, either -- more of a bluish "gun-metal gray." It's subtle but pretty in the sunlight, but unless the sun is shining on it it just looks gray, and with the gray interior it's almost as boring as the silver one.

So I've decided to get a gold one! I even saw the very one I might get -- they have a gold FWD LX right there on the lot! It's out on the unpaved storage section, and the tires (and probably the whole underneath) are full of mud, but the salesman assured me they'd clean it up.

He also mentioned that they don't gussie the cars up with options except what the buyer specifically asks for. He said that other dealers put on thinks like pinstriping and wheel locks and then add them into the price, but this dealership doesn't do that. (The place where I went to test-drive the car has pinstriping on every car on the lot, and I found wheel locks in the glove compartment of all three of the cars I drove or sat in!)

I've run into that in the past. When I bought the Corolla, I didn't find out until I was actually purchasing the car that the price was suddenly hundreds of dollars higher than the price we had agreed upon -- the new total included pinstripes, an upgraded sound system, floor mats, and whatever else. I said I didn't want them, and he said they're already on the car so I have to pay for them. I said "Take them off, then!" He said he couldn't. We ended up compromising -- he took a little bit more off and I paid the rest. So I ended up paying most of the price of options I didn't want, and the whole situation left a very bad taste in my mouth.

I had been planning to ask Christine if that was a firm price, or if I came in to buy the car would I suddenly find that a bunch of unexpected options had been added on. But without my even having to ask this salesman assured me that wouldn't be the case, and I was pleased by that. I told him if I wanted pinstripes I'd go to Trak Auto and get a roll of pinstriping tape for a few bucks and do it myself! He said there's a guy who does it for $25 or $30, who's really good, and he sends customers there, rather than having them pay $129 for it as an option!

I mentioned that I want a cargo cover but that I did not want it as an option, I'd just go to the parts department and get one when I was ready, and put it in myself -- after all, it's made to be taken out and put in by the owner, and I do it with the Corolla wagon all the time when I want to put something bulky in the back! He said any option that I ordered with the purchase would be more expensive than getting it directly from the parts department, because they tack on an additional amount!

I liked that he leveled with me, and that they aren't going to try to force me to pay for options I don't want. And although he encouraged me several times to come in and talk to Christine, to put a deposit on the car, etc., he didn't do it in an unpleasantly pushy way.

So I think some time next week I'm going to screw up my courage to the sticking point, and go and buy this car. I'm really, really nervous about it -- I'm going to have to empty out all my bank accounts. Once Meredith pays me for the Mazda I'll be in better shape -- she gave me $500 and is waiting for some money she's supposed to receive to give me the rest. I hope it's soon, because it's going to be a little scary meeting the bills until then. I might have to wait to get the car ... but I really don't want to, because after all this agony of making decisions, now that I've decided what to get and where to get it, I want to do it already!

Then tonight I went to the Welcoming Congregation's monthly movie night, and saw Home for the Holidays. It was okay, but I wasn't all that crazy about it. I saw one of the other people there wiping her eyes at the end -- I cry very easily at movies, but I didn't find this one anywhere near poignant enough to cry over. The funny scenes were funny, but that was about it for me.

Here's a crucial question: What color should I get?! You can see the car in all the colors here -- after you read my thoughts about the various color combinations, take the poll below and tell me what you think I should get!

The problem is that there's little choice of interior color -- nearly all are assigned by Honda's designers. I like the ivory interior best; the gray is okay; but the all-black interior is terribly dark, and I don't like it at all (I can't imagine trying to find anything in the car at night!).

But the only paint colors that can be had with an ivory interior are beige, green, and black -- I don't like a black exterior either, and I think Honda's shades of beige and green are odd and unattractive (unless they look better in person...? The beige looks like a not-too-bad metallic gold in this photo).

The Mazda was white, and I really regretted the choice of color. I chose white because I think it looks sharp -- but only if it's kept clean. If it's a nice enough day to wash a car, I'd much rather take a walk in the woods, and I'd much rather spend my money on other things than going through car washes all the time. The air in this area is so dirty that even if the car isn't being used, black soot settles on it and makes it look terrible. Also, the Mazda had an ivory interior -- white with a gray interior just looks wrong (as well as boring) to me.

I love the deep red, which looks right to me with a gray interior and won't show dirt -- but that's the exact color of the Corolla wagon I've been driving for 14 years, and I'm really tired of it.

My favorite paint color of the choices available is the dark blue, but that comes with a black interior, which makes for a really dark overall atmosphere. (Wouldn't that deep, rich blue look spiffy with an ivory interior? What's wrong with those designers?!)

Then there's the silver, which is available with either black or gray interior. It seems like an attractive color, but a gray -- even a metallic silver gray -- car with a gray interior is borrrr-ing, and will also disappear completely in the fog, which is a safety hazard. The light blue looks to me almost a gun-metal gray, and I don't think it would look good with a gray interior (I would have paired it with black).

So obviously I'm going to have to compromise somewhere! (The only color that I would completely rule out is solid black inside and out.)

Now that you know how I feel about these colors, which one do you think I should get?! I have to narrow my choices down before I go to a lot, because they're very unlikely to have one of every color, and I have to know whether to say "I want to wait and see the [whatever color]"!

Poll #858489 Colors!
Open to: All, results viewable to: All

What color CR-V should I get?

Why did you pick that color for me?