New room, new car, new life! Yes, things are the best they’ve been so far since coming here! Yesterday evening the heater crapped out for good in 338. No wonder it was always kind of funky. When the heat was on it’d make these soft popping sounds. Well, yesterday it started popping louder and the heat wouldn’t stop. I’d get heat when I’d switch it to the fan and even the AC, so knowing we were to be in the mid-70s today, I had this young, wimpy Indian guy let me move into 336. It took me a half-hour to move all the stuff and another half to set it all up. Although I haven’t used the AC yet, the only problem with this room is that the smoke detector battery died and only Satish is allowed to deal with those things, so I have to wait till Monday for that to be fixed. It’ll be just one more thing, along with the housekeeper on Wednesday, to wake us up.

I emailed Tom at work to let him know we moved and he helped me swap mattresses before turning his key in and getting the new one. The mattress in here was old, flat, and hard like the one that used to be in 338.

It’s weird getting used to the reversed direction. I automatically head for the lower right cabinet when I want to throw something away, yet it’s on the right in this room. It’s much darker in here at night, and I’m glad to be away from that damn end room! The only negative is that it’s right on the stairs.

What’s kind of strange is that this room is colder. The kitchen and bathroom floors are icy cold, but that’d be a good thing in the warmer weather.

This carousel is broken too, but at least the fridge doesn’t leak.

The best news is that today Tom got a ‘94 Ford Taurus GL wagon for just under 2K at a dealership. No more uncomfortable antique of a truck that won’t idle, has a driver’s side window that won’t roll down, a passenger door that won’t open from the outside, has plates that expired in May of ’05, and insurance that also expired in January. That’s the part Tom wouldn’t tell me so as not to add to my stress. There just wasn’t any money to pay for it, and by the time we got money, we knew we were getting a whole new vehicle anyway. Where I thought he’d just get a warning or a $200 fine if pulled over for the plates or for a tail light that may’ve gone out unbeknownst to him, he’d have actually gotten fined over a grand and the truck could’ve very well been impounded.

He saw this car online last night and knew it was the one he wanted. He’d actually had his eye on it for a couple of weeks and last night he found that it had come down in price and was worried it wouldn’t be available because it seemed like such a good deal. I prayed several times for it. Then this morning he took the truck out for its final ride, 7 miles to the lot. Once he got there and saw that it was still available, he paid for it and drove back here and parked the truck for good. Right now it’s officially on death row! Yep, as soon as we clear it out, it’ll be towed to a junkyard to await execution after it’s stripped and Tom has a few days of driving the Taurus without any problems. I almost wish I could pull the switch myself!

All works well, but the AC is rather wimpy. Nothing he can’t fix, though. While we’d never want anything too new or too fancy that could appeal to joyriders, it’s the newest thing we’ve had since being together. He had a Nissan Centra when we met, then got a Ford Tempo, both 80s vehicles. Then we had the ‘91 Ford Taurus which was a regular car and sold it before going to Oregon. They were all white, as most vehicles in Arizona are. This one’s shiny dark green with a gray interior. Dull colors, but the least of our concerns. We were surprised to find it has no power locks or windows for a ’94 with dual airbags. It’s been smogged, too.

They accepted the debit card and took care of all the paperwork so he never had to go to the DMV. I signed off on insurance since I don’t drive, so it’d save us money.