Bluebaru

Hello gentle readers out there in the interwebs. I took last weekend off. I had nothing really of vital necessity to write about, nothing annoying the shit out of me enough to vent online about, and nothing really deep or meaningful. So, my husband and I took off to enjoy a wee bit of nature. It was the day before spring started after all.

Yes, Goat. Spring is finally here...although in Montana, that means there still will be snow at some point.

We took off mainly because we had just bought a new car: a bright blue Subaru Outback. I love it. I've never bought a new car from a dealer before, and I think I did fairly well. I emailed with dealers around the area. If they didn't email me back or tried calling me when I expressly said not to, they were disqualified. I was getting close to buying one about 3 hours away, but Subies are popular and they go fast. Missed out on that one. There was one about 90 minutes away, but it wasn't the right color. It was red. Red jacks up your insurance. Frankly, I also figured this was my first ever purchase, and I wasn't going to settle for some other color. It had to be blue.

That's right, Pusheen. I was going to wait until that blue one came along.

Then one popped up here in town. So I emailed the dealer about it. I got a peppy call back. Oops. Forgot to tell them in my email not to call. After that though, he did email as a follow up and we communicated that way from then on. It was blissful and suited my schedule.

That's right, Kermit. If we were going to do this, it was going to be on my terms.

Once it seemed like a really good idea, I started shopping around for loans. I actually got turned down by one credit union. I was a bit taken aback. They said they couldn't verify my employment. What? Did you even try asshats? I work for the school district. Verifying my employment is easy. Anyway, I got approved through 2 other credit unions,  but the interest rate was much higher at my credit union, the one I've been with since I was 13. I thought, "Hmmm, that's not going to work." I emailed my credit union and let them know I really wanted to go through them, but that another CU had come in under their interest rate. Low and behold, my CU said they'd match the other one. To which I replied that the dealer was going as low as 1.99. This is true. They did quote that. And guess what? My CU then said they could do 1.9%. Ha! If you don't negotiate a lower interest rate, you're missing out. I know some big banks can do 0%, but I don't want a big bank. I don't want to feed into that system. Besides, it wasn't through the Subie dealer here either. Consequently, 1.9% was really the best I was going to get.

Thanks, little turtle. I felt like clapping for me, too.

Anyway, the price on the Subie was also about two grand under blue book. I got a good deal all around. Funny enough, the fellow who sold me the car looked about 16, but he happened to be the son of a man I used to work with. Small world. I made sure to thank him profusely for all of his hard work and for being so forthright and not being pushy. He was great. He also wears bow ties every Friday. I appreciate a good bow tie.

I know you do, Doctor.

If you even noticed I didn't blog last week, this is why. We took our new Subie out for a highway run to a nearby water fowl preserve to watch the snow geese. We went about an hour out of town and tested the cruise control. I haven't used that in a long time. It's pretty cool. We tested the sound system. I love the bass. We tried out the heated seats. I don't know how I ever got along without them. It's ours. It's blue. It's beautiful. I made it happen. Rather proud of my accomplishment. One week on and absolutely love driving it.

That's right, Moose. That's the face I make every time I get to drive the Subie.