Where’s my car???

Our car was supposed to come in by July 12th but apparently it’s lost somewhere in the wide world of shipping. It could be sunk to the bottom of the ocean for all we know and I’m not even kidding. The last time we actually got a real human on the phone they said they were confident they would locate it “soon.” I was a little surprised at Jason’s hopeful regurgitation of this news. “Don’t worry babe,” he said, “They said it should be here soon.”

Have I just gotten overly cynical in my 10+ years of working under the federal government, because I kind of laughed at Jason. When the powers that be can’t give you a date and try to band aide the issue with “soon” it’s kind of like the doctor telling you that a bone marrow test might be a little “uncomfortable.” They have no idea where Big Green is. Until he’s located and delivered to Washington state (via Houston) the kids and I are pleasantly stuck here taking advantage of my family and seriously outstaying our welcome. My sister Kerry’s family is headed for sainthood, and I have to say that being here has prompted me to make a few new and improved parenting goals. Thanks to their good example my kids get a time-out if they leave a dish on the table for me to clean up. Why didn’t I think of that before??

Back to the auto zone, we just got a used Jetta wagon for Jason, it’s a TDI which means diesel and 45+ miles to the gallon. Jason dragged me all over the northwest for an entire week hunting for the best bang for his muffler until he finally happened upon some poor Russian dude who had exactly what he wanted (actually this was the fourth Russian dude we’d met selling a TDI). I pitied the fool when Jason started the haggling process. The guy was practically in tears by the time they were done and Jason managed to get a car for $2000 less than we had budgeted. We need to get the windows tinted ASAP so at least there’s a little money for that.

This is the second in our gently used car buying spree. In Germany we bought Big Green, a Ford Excursion we found on the Lemon Lot before we moved. It’s a loaded 2005 and only had 84K miles on it, plus it’s a diesel. The poor guy who took it to Germany didn’t realize that you can’t get very far with them in Europe unless you want to pay the funeral costs for all the innocent old German ladies you’ll kill while driving through the villages. His family is now grown and the car had been sitting still for years.

Talk about a buffalo hunt. The moment Jason got behind the wheel of that massive beast he started to giggle, which kind of ruined the effect. He wanted me to test drive it (since it’s apparently going to be my car) and I will admit there was fear in my eyes when he boosted me into the driver’s seat. I didn’t take it out of the parking lot because it was so out of control massive. We kind of got a disgusting price for it because the man just wanted to get rid of it and no one else would take it. Funny, apparently they have a bit of a cult following here in the states.

Driving Big Green through villages is a panic attack waiting to happen because I swear that car has a mind of it’s own. You want to go one way but the car is already doing something else so you just have to hold on and go with it. Turning? Oh! Yes! Right! Hold on kids it looks like we’re taking the autobahn again. I think that car is smarter than me. But now that I’m back in the states I feel like the roads might be able to contain it. Some.

So now I’m just waiting. Jason took the Jetta and left this weekend for Vegas via Utah to get house keys before he heads back to Germany for a few days. I’m wishing we were all with him. Our fun summer plans that included a week or two in Utah have been completely thwarted and that bugs. But, I’m sure the Lord has us here for a reason so I’m trying to find something useful to do with my time (the kids pray every day that they’ll please find Big Green so we can have our car back).

I need to be better about tracking my time here.