Car Troubles

Friday night, 9/14/12, started out as a fun night. Tony and I hadn't gone on a date in a while so we went out to the mall to walk around and window shop. We were having a decent amount of fun when the mall announced that they were going to close in 5 minutes. (It closes at 9pm. What mall should close at 9pm on a Friday night? Honestly.) So we walked back, my feet were getting tired anyway, and when we got to the car to drive home to possible watch a movie it wouldn't start, didn't even turn over. O boy! We popped the hood and checked the oil to see that it was dry, very dry. Usually extra oil is kept in the car, but Tony had just used the rest of it the other day so there was no oil. O brother! So my feet are killing me in my shoes and the nearest gas station is approximately half a mile away, too far, but the trek was made anyway and we successfully purchased the oil. When we got back to the car, Tony put some oil in and we just sat and waited; waited for the car to take up the oil and hope that the engine was not seized up too bad. So 9:45 comes around and the car still doesn't start. Now it was time to call on some friends. By 10:20, Zach had arrived and the boys were ready to try starting it up again. Nothing. They even tried to jump the battery to give it some more juice. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. We ended the night with bad service at the Steak n' Shake for some ice cream with Zach and his wife, Jennie, and another couple, Joel and Abby. When we were all ready to leave, Joel amazingly asked us if we needed a car to borrow since they had one they don't use very much. Praise the Lord!

So this last week we have been borrowing Abby's car for Tony to go to work and shopping for a new car. Tony got the car towed to a nearby mechanic who looked it over. It turned out that the air conditioning compressor broke and seized which caused the belt not to turn which caused the car to not start. It also had gasket problems, the battery was going and needed to be replaced, the tension arm pulley for the belt was also bad, and it had transmission problems. We knew something was going to happen, but we'd hoped that it wouldn't happen for about a year. Anyway, for the car to get to a functional level we would have had to put $800 into it, not quite worth it, but it would work and last a bit longer. However, the mechanic called soon after saying that one of the other mechanics was willing to buy it for $500 as is. What!?! That's crazy! But, once again, amazing and true knowledge that God is watching over us. Tony also asked the mechanics expert opinion on what car to buy and he mentioned a Honda Civic or Accord or a Toyota Camry, specifically a 2006 Honda Civic. So this is how our week went from there:

• Shop for cars at the local dealerships online
• Find two 2006 Civics at a Honda dealer in Cedar Rapids on Wednesday night
• Call on Thursday morning to make sure they were there
• Tony went and visited at lunch to find only one was left (the other had just been sold)
• Talk about whether or not we'd want to get it
• Sell the Lumina on Friday to the mechanic guy
• Check out the Civic again on Saturday so I could get a look at it
• Decide we were going to purchase it even though it's a little out of what we wanted to spend
• Realize we have no credit score since neither of us has had a reason to have one
• Still get approved, PTL!
• Drive away to return Abby's car and then take our car home. OUR car!!

So we are now proud owners of a white 2006 Honda Civic with approximately 66k miles and in really good condition.

Hawkeye Craziness

The one thing about Iowa is that it has no professional sports teams. None! Not that this is a bad thing, but it is different. For example, this past weekend was the big rival football game between the University of Iowa Hawkeyes and the Iowa State University Cyclones (whose mascot is a bird...explain?). We were invited over to a friends house for tailgating which was a lot of fun. I felt so grown up bringing something to eat over to someone's house for a get-together. It was a wonderful meal and us ladies had fun times watching the boys play some yard games. However, neither Tony or I own any Hawkeye apparel. I opted for a black sweatshirt to at least try and blend in, but Tony opted for the blue t-shirt. Thankfully, we were warned to not wear red since that is a cyclone color; MSOE did not prepare me for that one. As for watching the game, only one person in our group subscribed to cable so we decided to traverse the two miles to the nearest sports bar and not a minute too soon. It was soon packed with both kinds of, soon to be drunk, fans. The hawkeyes lost, but overall, it was a fun time hanging out with our friends from the church we have been going to.

So onto my rant about football in Iowa. Growing up, I was never a big college football fan and here, it's all about college football, specifically the hawkeyes. It's everywhere. Herky, the mascot's name, is haunting me. Saturday home games, speculating from my single sample of this last Saturday, consist of everyone tailgating, regardless of whether you are attending the game or not. The university rents out part of the driving range on their golf course for vehicles to park so they can tailgate. This is not a bad thing, it's just my observations. Lastly, college football is played on Saturdays and not Sundays. Very strange to me. I feel like my Saturday should be composed of doing something productive, like homework or cleaning. Sunday afternoons are meant for watching the Packers play and relaxing/finishing all those productive things that were started on Saturday. However, when Sunday came around, after church meant the ladies hanging out in a coffee shop while the guys played a round of frisbee golf. I fortunately did get to see the last three quarters of the Packer game with Tony.

So there is my little rant about Iowa football and wishing I could watch all the Packer games without having to pay an arm and a leg to watch them, so here I am watching the play-by-play update on nfl.com as the Packers, hopefully, beat the Bears...again. And I must confess that Tony and I both own Iowa football apparel. (Thanks to my sewing machine, I got to resize the large for me :)