Three Strikes and You're Broke

So you know how they say that things fall apart in threes? Well I am hoping we have hit three.

I already told you about coming home to sick dog/ high vet bill.

Number two would be my teeth. I am so embarrassed because I have always bragged about having good teeth because that is what dentists have always told me, wow you have amazingly good teeth. So at some point I quit going to the dentist. Okay it was when I got married. Don't count the years, I know it's gross, just move on. My kids and Seth have such bad teeth that I have just put myself on the back burner because that is what moms do. So enter toothache and dentist visit and holy cow those are deep cavities. The dentist was baffled because my gums are super healthy and I had no build up on my teeth and anyone else with cavities that deep would have had teeth breaking and caving in. So basically I had good teeth and I screwed that up by neglecting my dental visits. Hello walk of shame.

I have had two teeth filled on the top left and one still hurts so I think it is headed for a root canal and as they were filling one on the top right the whole inner wall collapsed so they had to rebuild the tooth to fill it and that one is probably heading for a root canal at some point as well and we still have a few cavities left to tackle, although I am told the remaining ones are much smaller. So yes, I am painfully ashamed of myself and my dental bills are laughing at me. Looks like one more year where the flexible spending money I have earmarked for Lasik will be redistributed but truthfully I am thankful we put that money there every year because it always finds somewhere to go.

If only these things only came in twos, but no, there's more. When I went to my first dental appointment (the day after we came home from  Door County) I backed out of the driveway in Seth's car and it died in the middle of the street. It was the timing belt and a sensor and the cost of the repair was more than we could get for the car. Bummer but we knew it was coming sooner or later since the car had 210,000 miles on it and it has never needed even a dime's worth of repair work. No one would even take it as a trade in without the work being done so we sold it to the lady who was working on it and spent all of Monday and Tuesday car shopping.

Since Seth's car is primarily used to commute we planned on a used Honda Civic but Honda's hold their value so well that a used Civic was hardly lower than a new one. We ended up looking at everything at 8 different dealerships. Some of the dealers were annoying and pushy so we walked away from them. Some couldn't get the price where we wanted it so we walked. Some played tricky silly games so we walked. And finally we decided that our local Honda dealership was the easiest to work with and we narrowed in on either a 2012 Toyota Camry with all the bells and whistles or a brand new Honda Civic HF. We hadn't even heard of the HF but it is only about $500 more than the regular Civic but gets better gas mileage and has some upgrades inside (bluetooth, voice command, rear backing camera). We could have gotten either the Camry or Civic for about the same price so I told Seth to choose one, do the paperwork and come home and surprise us and me and the kids hung up our car shopping shoes. I was 90% sure he would get the Camry because it was bigger and had leather and a sun roof and all the stuff guys care about. I personally would have taken the Civic because it was brand new and gets great gas mileage and because I am 100% a Honda person. Yes, I drive a Town and Country but that is only because they were a dime a dozen when I needed a van so we got an awesome deal...my next van will be a Honda.  But anyway, we went home and waited and it took forever but at 9:00 last night Seth pulled in to the driveway with a new set of wheels and I was truly shocked to find that he had chosen the Civic. He said it just felt right and he is loving it even more after driving to work today and getting over 40 miles per gallon.

It was nice and dark when Seth got home so the pictures could be better but here it is. In case you can't tell, the color is Kona Coffee Metallic, or brown if you'd rather, but doesn't the official name sound prettier? We have now had a 1993 Honda Accord, a 2003 Honda Accord and a 2013 Honda Civic so I am just going to plan on another one in 2023.

 

We took the kids on a ride and they were amazed by the voice command and bluetooth. Since we buy cars and drive them until the wheels fall off there is a lot of technology in new cars that they had never seen before. The new Honda Odyssey has a vacuum for crying out loud. I can't even imagine what they will have in another 10 years.

Anyway, I am so glad we had a couple years without any car payments but we got a good deal and we should save a chunk of money each month on gas so it is what it is.

And now you know why I am not caught up on the DC trip yet. I will return to posting about that tomorrow.