No The Red One.

"Do you want to go to LaCrosse and look at Subaru's?" my husband asked.

I'd finished chores and was tired.  The week had been exhausting with his PEG surgery and all the phone calls and appointments that we'd made.

I'd sat in the house awaiting one call or another it seemed, all week.  Yes I have a cell phone, but where we live, we can't always get reception.

The weather was cold and dreary.  I was prepared to snuggle down on the couch and sleep all day.  But hubby's question perked me up.

"Yes!" I answered and changed out of my chore clothes and into jeans and a sweatshirt.  I wanted to get going before he changed his mind.  I hadn't owned a new car since 1995.  Well, not that we actually needed one, we were pretty frugal when it came to vehicles.  His 2003 diesel truck was a new purchase but we had needed a power house to haul hay and the 'mule' trailer.

We'd been looking at getting something to replace our 2002 Subaru Outback.  It had been a purchase we made used from a friend a couple of years ago.  20K miles later and lots of $ in repairs we'd decided that it was just going to nickel and dime us until it dropped dead.

I'd purchase my son's Jeep Liberty a few years ago and I still like it, but it does have 145K miles on it.  It gets 19 miles to the gallon period.

Hubby wanted something that wasn't going to need constant repairs and that would be dependable for driving back and forth to Madison this summer.  The vehicle we were interested in averages 34 miles per gallon on the highway.  It is also AWD. What I'd learned from driving the Outback, was that I liked how the Subaru handled in all sorts of weather and road conditions.

Off we went to the Dahl's Subaru in LaCrosse.

After the test drive we got back with the salesperson and the haggling began. Call it wiggle room, haggle, negotiating, or whatever.  My husband can be a frightful person to deal with.

We had driven a red XV Crosstek that had a light colored interior. Hubby preferred a dark colored interior.  He felt we ought to consider the Charcoal colored Crosstek that was 'in transit'.  Our conversation went something like this:

Him:  I like the Charcoal color, dark interior.
Me: I like the Red.
Him: I am buying it for you, so I want you to be happy.  I like the Grey color.
Me:  I like the Red.
Him: Well dark interiors are easier to keep clean.
Me: I like the Red.
Him:  I like the Grey.
Silence.

The negotiating gets done and hubby looks at Alex.
"We'll take the Red one.""

Leading up to Deer Gun Season...

Several fun things happened this week.
I am saying 'fun' in a purely sarcastic type of way.

Monday morning, my neighbor called.  Could I come right away my neighbor had to rush her sick cat to the vet's.
The cat had been having issues on and off during the summer.  This was a cat the the kids really liked.  They called him Rainbow.
[Rainbow died the next day...]

That afternoon things seemed to go quite nicely.  I took Morris for a walk to the creek and we spent a little time looking for tracks.

Later that afternoon we were trying to get fencing and animals ready for the coming deer gun season.  
I went to water the hounds.
Mona seemed a bit off.  Not her normal self.  
Normal self is happy lick you on the hand jump up and down...wag the tail normal.
She didn't eat and refused water.
We took her off to the vet.

She was diagnosed with Lyme Disease and we received a dose of antibiotics. 

That night we took Belle hunting.  Belle was a flop.  Once she heard the hounds at home barking, she went home.

Wednesday it turned cold.  I went to feed Mona some warmed up food.  She refused to come out of her house.
So I moved her into the kitchen.  Hubby thought about complaining but decided that it would be easier to give her the shots and pills if she was indoors.
I put in the baby gate.  Mona went to sleep in a large dog crate.  
Hubby was rushing to get going to his appointment at the VA.  I was rushing to get some things done before it was supposed to start to rain/snow.

I certainly am no ballerina.  I went to step over the gate [rather quickly] and got tangled up in a heap on the floor.  I was hugging myself and trying so hard to breath.  I'd done something to my stupid foot.  The little toe turned white.
I sat and waited until I could breath again and got up slowly.

I still had to get to town.

Short notes now...
On the way back from the VA hosptial, the Jeep lost its brakes.
On my errands in town, the Subaru dashlights came on warning of brakes and battery.
I hurried home and turned the corner to coast down the driveway...all the dashboard lights came on at once and the gauges all stopped working.

Uh-oh.

By now the little toe was purple.  The foot was swelled.  I gimped the groceries inside, grabbed an ice pack and sat down.

My laptop decided to take a dump on me.
No not the dreaded screen of death.
But it seems like the Wifi card has died.

 


For whatever reason, it will not stay connected.  So now I have to resort to making files, transferring any photos to a stick and using my old laptop to post things like photos.
But...
since my foot hurts like a bugger, I'm not photographing.
I am however working with fractals.

So here you go:
Stomach Virus....ewww....I know...but that's what I thought of it!

Attack of the Nano-Bots:

The Great White Hunter has just returned.  He has filled his doe tag.
Looks like we'll have fresh deer roast again!