June 15, 2010: Goodbye *sniffle*

Oh, I'm not going anywhere! I'm just saying goodbye to my dear 1999 Chrysler Intrepid, the car I've driven and loved dearly for eleven years. Mr. Granny finally broke me down, and I bought a new car yesterday. New to me, that is. It's actually lightly used, because I'm too cheap....er, frugal to take that big hit for the first year's depreciation.

I've been trying out cars for the past month. I had my heart set on a Hyundai Elantra Touring, but the only used one I could find didn't handle well on the highway at all. It was a 2010, just 6 months old, and already needed a front end alignment. After a month of trying to deal with the Hyundai salesman, who wasn't the brightest star in the sky, I gave up and started looking elsewhere. Nothing drove as well, or was as comfortable as my old car, and nobody (meaning Mr. Granny) could convince me to part with good $$$ for something worse than what I had! Then I drove the Chevy Malibu, and I budged.

So goodbye to.....

The Intrepid


And hello to ......
The Malibu


Kelly was asking if Annie and Otto were digging the new car. They haven't ridden in it yet. I'm going to buy a couple of comfy throws for the back seat before they get a ride. Annie tends to barf every time she gets in a car, but she loves to go bye-bye!

Now, back to gardening. Look at what I just harvested for tonight's stir fry! I'll add some of my frozen red bell peppers and the meat from a couple of pork chops, and toss it with noodles.


Tuesday's stir-fry ingredients, fresh from the garden.


28 comments:

  1. Ugh, I hate car shopping. Hope you enjoy the new car for many, many years. Your stir fry looks delish. I just had my first broccoli yesterday.mmmmm.

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  2. How in the holy what's-it do you possibly manage to grow things that large! Those are amazing carrots and the onion!? Oh my goodness. There's voodoo going on over there. There has to be.

    I'm sad for the old car, but you are going to love your new one also!

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  3. Henbogle, I hate it, too. It bothers me to go out driving in traffic, in a new car that doesn't (yet) belong to me. Once I sign the check and call my insurance company, I'm fine. Our Tri-Cities traffic is becoming big city terrible!

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    Ribbit, I jest plants 'em and they grows. Or not. ;-)

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  4. ooooohhhhhhhh.....me likey.

    I'm still driving my 98 Nissan Maxima and am proud of it! I told myself that I would drive it into the ground but who am I kidding, I want a new car now. See what you did! Bad Granny!

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  5. LOL, Thomas. I would have been absolutely happy driving my Chrysler into oblivion! I told Mr. Granny, it was such a shame the value was so little, when the car was still so nice. In fact, we sold it to our son, cheap, rather than "give" it to the dealer. It had 112,000 miles on it, but they were gentle miles. I wanted to drive it until it wouldn't go any more, then just sell it for parts. It looks as good, inside and out, as it did when it was new! I'll miss it.

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  6. God, i'd rather take a beating than have to deal with the purchase of a new vehicle. It's quite depressing - even for a redneck such as myself. Ha!

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  7. Beautiful new car and I am sure it will be a good one for you.

    Great stir fry mix of veggies there - my favorite combo is carrots, broccoli, sugar snap peas, onions, and some red peppers - so you have it all!

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  8. EG, I feel the same, and I'm no redneck.

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    Kitsap, my favorite stir fry veggies, too. And they were good! Fresh peppers would have been better, as the frozen ones tend to have rather tough skins, but good none the less.

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  9. Nice car Granny! GM has started making some really nice cars the last few years, suppose to be much more dependable as well. We have been looking to trade in the truck at some point this year. We need a truck that doesn't eat gas!

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  10. Oh, WOW,. does that broccoli look pretty. And just how do you harvest carrots with clippers?

    Congrats on the new ride, and now I'm off to catch up on all your stuff.

    Oh, hey, how do you deal with the beginning trickle of pickling cucumbers?

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  11. You dodged a bullet on the Hyundai. I would say, without reservation, that they are the biggest pile of crap ever made by man, and yes, I'm serious about that. Depreciation is terrible on them, build quality is shocking, and customer service is very poor.

    Mrs IG foolishly bought one a few years ago. Luckily it went on fire a few weeks later due to an electrical fault, which allowed her to get her money back and run like the wind.

    If anyone tells you they like their Hyundai, they're just too insecure to admit they made a mistake; either that, or they stole it.

    Nice carrots, by the way.

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  12. Sorry you had to part with your old car-that's so hard to do.
    We STILL haven't gotten rid of our old truck Handy. We tried to last year, but decided against it. We simply couldn't find anything that could compare. Now at 171,000 miles, we're still going strong. It's become more of a game to us-how far can we take her........
    Hope you have many years of good service with your new car!!

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  13. Gee when I get rid of my car I'm going to have to do a post like yours. But the new "car" will have to be a bus or a bike as I'm not going to replace it.

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  14. I hate spending money on cars too. You're gonna be one "Hot Granny" in your new car though.

    Those veggies look great! It looks like your broccolit did better then mine. I can't believe the size of your onion!!

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  15. What time is dinner? And do I have time to catch a cross-country flight?

    Congrats on the new car - it's a beauty! I'm with you on driving cars until they just won't go anymore. Mine is "only" six years old - ancient compared to the cars of my coworkers, who feel it's necessary to move up to a newer car everytime a new gadget is added.. What a waste!

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  16. It looks a nice car, although I have to admit that I know absolutely nothing about any of them. My favourite was the little red Corsa that I had in the UK.

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  17. congrats on the new to you car... :D i'm with you on the frugal side of life... perhaps your son will occasionally 'allow' you to drive your old baby...
    as for the veggies... mmmm stirfry..

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  18. Nice Granny! Great pick for a new to you car! Dh has a car that he is running strait into the ground. It was free to his family and been passed around his family and now he has it and it gonna drive it till he can't fix it no more! Though I am sure he would love a truck to boost his ego a bit, he does well with his little Ferrari (95 ford escort). LOL! Now, you would understand how funny this was if you saw one of his pictures (take a peak at the last post by the Classic car to see him), he is a big guy driving that little Ferrari....uh hum Ford Escort around.

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  19. word verification was "logran".... maybe you should have bought a low-rider?

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  20. I like the way you think, Gran! I'm glad you sold it for a bit rather than get taken at the dealership. Hope you love your new ride!

    As a rabid Subaru fan, I will open an honorary place in Subaru heaven for your Dodge - the Intrepid should knock 3 times and tell the little 1988 3-cylinder Justy that Erin sent you, they'll take good care of it! :)

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  21. There is not much worse than car shopiing- maybe if they didn't cost so much $ it would be more enjoyable.

    Car sick dogs, not a fun thing. I hope the kids enjoy the new rife once it is outfitted for their comfort (and ease of cleaning, lol!).

    That onion bulb size is lovely, I hope I see something like that eventually out of my garden.

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  22. Dan, one of these days we'll have to replace our 1998 Ford Ranger pickup, and neither of us is looking forward to that. We like it as much as I liked the Chrysler, but it's getting right up there in mileage.

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    Stefaneener, I needed something that could show the size of the broccoli and carrots. The knife I was using could have been any size, so I grabbed the clippers, 'cause every gardener knows how big they are ;-)

    I make refrigerator pickles with the few early cukes. It's easy to make up a quart of the pickling liquid and keep it in the fridge, then just take out enough to cover your sliced cukes, boil the liquid and pour it on. Stores in fridge for weeks.

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    TIG, actually, my daughter owns a Hyundai and loves it! She's the one who got us looking at them. We have friends who are driving their third one. They lease theirs and trade up every two years.

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    Sue, it will be hard to get rid of our 1998 Ranger pickup, but that time is nearing. It has nearly 140,000 miles on it.

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    Daphne, go for the bus. It will haul a lot more compost than you could carry on a bike ;-)

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    Robin, that was one of the smaller onions at 4 ounces. Quite a few of them have tops that have fallen over, but on many it is from the wind, so it's difficult to tell when they should be pulled and dried.

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    Caffienated Mom, dang it, you missed dinner! It was good, too. Except the snap peas squeaked on my teeth when I chewed them. Green beans do that to me too, if they aren't cooked until soft.

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    Jan, my favorites were my '86 Camero Z28 and my 84 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am. They were almost identical cars, white with T-tops. We've had some pretty cool cars through the years.

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    Roasted Garlicious, I'm not too unhappy, since the new car drives as well as the old one....but it isn't quite as comfortable for sitting. That was one thing I loved about the old car.

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    Shawn Ann, we've had a few cars, through the years, that I wish we'd kept. Beginning with my 56 Chevy Bel Air convertible!

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    Erin, I'll tell my Chrysler Intrepid to do that. Yes, it is a Chrysler, not a Dodge....it was manufactured in Canada ;-)

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    LOL, Erin. I've had some really good verification words. One was a female unmentionable part on a comment to EG. I took a screen shot and sent it to him, it was that baaaaaad :-)

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  23. Kelly, I hear you. What is really upsetting, is how much your old car depreciates in value.

    I give Annie Dramamine for long trips, but sometimes she gets sick just riding to the grocery store. Poor baby, but she still begs to go along. Mr. Granny is very patient with her, and he gets the cleanup job while I drive.

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  24. I'm loving the new ride! Congratulations!

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  25. Hope you enjoy the new car, I really dislike car shopping and do it as infrequently as possible. Your onion is huge! I tried onions for the first time last year and nothing really happened so I just left them there. I was pleasantly surprised this Spring when 3 plants formed cute little onions which I just recently picked. Nothing as grand as yours, but I was pretty happy. And they were absolutely delicious. What time of the year do you plant yours? I'm hoping I have time to try some more this year.

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  26. Linda, I bought and planted the onion seedlings on March 11, so it was less than 90 days to some good sized onions. It doesn't look as though they are going to get as large this year as they have in the past, but they are still a nice size for what I'll be using them for.

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  27. Oh, I'm with you. I can never see the point of buying a new car until the old one just won't go anymore. DH doesn't agree, though he is coming around, now that the blasted things are so expensive. You'd have to go some to have to make enough repairs to a vehicle to equal what some of those car payments are!
    And your new one is purty, too. Always have liked Chevys.

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