New car + weekend happenings

What a weekend. Saturday was very busy… because we FINALLY BOUGHT A CAR! Longtime readers might remember we have been trying to buy a Rav4 Prime (a plug in hybrid) for over 2 years. We were even working with a car broker and were on multiple waiting lists in multiple states to no avail. So this fall we gave up and decided to get a Rav4 hybrid. We could not bare to go through another Minnesota winter without 4WD. So on Saturday morning, we sold my 2015 Camry to Carvana. It was SO EASY - the process once the Carvana guy arrived took 6 minutes! Phil did all the paperwork online which seemed pretty easy. I paid $18k for my brand new Camry in 2015 and we sold it for $15k!! I lucked out and bought my car when there were lots of cars on the lot so paid below MSRP. This is clearly a different car buying environment. Our car only had about 45k miles since we don’t drive all that much so that is part of why the value stayed high, I’m sure. But it’s pretty crazy to think that we got $3k less than the new car purchase price 8 years later! Had we sold it to the dealership, we would have gotten about $3k less so it was worth it to work with Carvana.

The boys were entertained by the towing process!

That afternoon I dropped Phil off at the dealership so he could buy our Rav4 hybrid. We looked it over/Phil did a test drive since we had never seen one or test drove one before and then I took the boys to the zoo for the last hour before it closed while he handled the buying process. That’s the perk of having a membership - you can swing by for an hour. We saw the penguins, monkeys, the Minnesota Trail and the aquarium. We mostly stuck to the indoor exhibits since it was 32 degrees outside! Leaving was not pleasant, though… 

 

Paul has the wingspan of a peregrine falcon; Taco has the wingspan of a pileated woodpecker; I have the wingspan of a Canadian goose.

What a day, though. Buying and selling a car from 2 different companies. Hats off to Phil for dealing with every single aspect of the buying and selling process. He got bids for our Camry, talked to several dealerships, worked with the car broker (who ended up being terrible at his job but refunded the $300 retainer we paid him), dealt with the dealership, etc. 

Our shiny new car - hopefully worth the wait!

Other weekend happenings:

- We were supposed to attend and co-host a pumpkin carving party on Saturday but we had to cancel as one of the host’s kids was sick. We will push it out a few weeks and host a fall party sans pumpkin carving. It was sad but for the best as our family is still kind of limping along. Phil is still pretty worn out from influenza and I’m nursing a pesky cough. Plus I had traveled for work Wed-Fri so overall we just felt tired and worn out. I also managed to hurt my lower back last Sunday when I pushed Taco in the stroller for an hour plus. Apparently my body isn’t used to pushing 50+ lbs of weight and wow has it been protesting. So we carved our pumpkin on Saturday night. I cleaned out the pumpkin which is something I am good at and oddly enjoy. Phil did the carving. Can you guess what we carved? 

- No runs for me between my cough and sore lower back. Instead I wore for a chilly walk (28F) on Sunday am.

The neighborhood geese are ready for Halloween!

- We went to a Halloween party at my former neighbor’s after nap on Sunday. We were kind of late joiners but the boys had fun and I enjoyed catching up with my friend. Phil took our cat back to his mom and worked on some projects for her so missed out on the fun.

The boys in their costumes earlier in the weekend. Definitely going to need winter coats over their costumes for Halloween since the high that day is 35F.

All in all, a good and productive weekend but I am worn out. I decided to make a clinic appointment for Tuesday to have my cough looked at. I’ve had it for 10 days so am not worried about passing it along to others - I wouldn’t be out and about if I was, although I did mask on the plane out of respect for my seatmates. I just wonder if I have developed bronchitis and maybe need some steroids or something to kick it. I’m going to try to snag an office when I am at work this week so others don’t have to listen to me cough (I work in an open air environment without many cube walls, etc).

How was your weekend? Did you carve pumpkins? Can you guess what we (by we I mean Phil) carved in ours?