Life in the Cheese Drawer

what? monday funday?

you bet! i am on vacation!

here’s a top 3 for a monday.

1. my college is hiring an actual, legit marketing director position, and i applied for it. my interview was this morning, and hoo boy was i anxious about it, but now it’s over. thank goodness because….

2. tomorrow nate and i head out for tuscon! it’s been four years since he and i went on any kind of vacation beyond an overnight in duluth, so we are going to spend four nights in tuscon. we’re flying into phoenix, renting a car, and staying at an airbnb. apart from that, i have no idea what we’re going to do or when. saguaro national part is right there, so we’ll likely go there. there is a creative photography museum in tuscon. lots of good food – apparently it’s the gastronomy capital of the world?? didn’t even know that when I got us signed up for plane tickets and all that jazz. so prepare for some travelblogging the next few days!

3. should i do kablamo?? i hadn’t even thought about it until just now!

the tuesday after i hit that dang deer, nate and i bought a very expensive (for us) new car.

i knew i wanted a hybrid, since my planning time for an electric car was reduced to nil (thanks deer). and i knew i wanted used, since new cars were months out once your order. after some very fast research, nate wanted to check out the hyundai ionic, and i wanted to see if priuses had gotten any better since i last test drove one.

turns out we got neither.

first we headed to the toyota dealership in town to check out the situation there. i was even hoping for a hybrid camry, but the only used hybrids they had on the lot were two priuses (pri-i?) with 100k+ miles on them. i was ok with 50k, but that was a little too much.

so then we drove a block down to the hyundai dealer, and there were a couple hybrids in the lot that fit our critera, kind of.

the mileage was one criteria, the hybrid another. but here were my vanity criteria:

1. adaptive cruise control
2. moonroof

nate’s vanity criteria? not-beige interior.

i had seen a hybrid sonata on their website and was kind of enamored with it. it had all my criteria, but it did have half grey, half beige interior. i wasn’t sure if nate was going to let that fly.

but then we test drove it, and it won him over. there is a SUPER MOONROOF (entire roof is glass), adaptive cruise, and then a whole bunch of other doodads that do stuff. like a heated seat. a cooled seat. a heated steering wheel.

we did test drive the ionic afterward, but it did not have any of the doodads, no moonroof, and its mileage was a little higher. the only things it had going for it were it was a grey interior and it got better mileage (smaller, lighter car).

nate, of course, was all like, don’t let them know we’re interested, let’s tell them we’ll come back tomorrow, we gotta think about it.

but then the guy sat down with us and went over some numbers, then nate was all, let’s get it! i’m on board if you are! some strong will there, eh.

so we bought the car that night. the price, comparing what you got with the ionic we test drove, was pretty decent. and the way used cars are flying off lots, i wasn’t expecting it hang around much longer.

it’s a little bit bigger than the nissan, and sure a heck of a lot fancier, but dang no car payments for 10 years sure was nice. we put some money down since we got that insurance payout, but if i’d’ve been thinking i’d’ve saved each month to be able to buy outright (but that money went toward my student loans instead).

it’d better last 10+ years!

i have never been in a car accident that involved going more than 20 mph. sure, sliding into a snowdrift. yep, someone backed into me at 10 mph. getting stuck in some mud. hitting a quail and having to replace the front bumper (i still say that was nate). not big deals.

but when you live in the sticks and it’s seasonal change and it’s minnesota, i guess it’s no big surprise when you run into a deer going 60mph.

–i’m not hurt.—

i was cruising along on a road i’ve driven on hundreds of times before, just northwest of st. joe, on my way home. it was dusk – that weird time of day when you for sure need your headlights but they don’t do a lot quite yet.

then suddenly a big noise, i was pushed back and everything went dark, and i saw a flash of deer. it was so disorienting – i thought maybe i had gone blind or something had taken over my body, and it was super smelly. it was super duper weird, let me tell you, for about 2-3 seconds. then i realized i was still in my car and still in control of my car, but obvs something was wrong, and there was that deer hide i saw, so i started braking and pulled over. (someone was actually driving toward me at this time and saw what happened and did not stop. not cool. the next car that came up behind me did stop though.)

first, airbags are genius. my chest felt a little like the wind taken out of me, but not bad. and it clipped me on my lip so that was sting-y for about 10 minutes. but no neck stuff, no whiplash, no seatbelt marks. just a gross smell.

second, i think that “blackout” saved me from a lot more injury. after i put on my hazards, i realized that the hood of my car had flipped up. i tried kicking open the drivers door but it only opened about 10 inches. so i crawled out the passenger side, and hoo boy that hood was dented. flipped it down and the windshield was busted up right over where i was sitting. (all those years paying for windshield replacement insurance and never using it – my first thought was well, that’s covered?) the deer hit the front center and drivers front and then rolled up and over the drivers side windshield, even onto the roof a bit. imagine if that hadn’t flipped up! i don’t want to.

deer’s dead. good riddance.

but oh, my poor little nissan.

11 years of driving all over the state, around the midwest. 2 long periods of long commutes between rochester and st. cloud. hauling people and junk around. christmas trees stuffed in its trunk. camping gear shoved in the backseat for a summer. getting the chicakdee plates in 2012 to make it pretty. paddleboard sticking out its rear. driving down bumpy roads it shouldn’t be driving down. car towel to make sure the seat didn’t get too sweaty after driving to the trail for a run. moonroof cracked as the harbinger of spring. barely making it through snow. minimal maintenance needed on it (beyond regular maintenance). i am legitimately sad about my car’s current situation.

278,000 miles on it and we were waiting for it to hit 300k to give it a proper sendoff, all to be done in by a deer 🙁 🙁