Cars and Books

My beloved Expedition bit the dust a couple of weeks ago.  Well, it didn't actually die, but it was close.  The check engine light came on and when Jeremy took it to the shop, the mechanic advised us to get rid of it, pronto.  Apparently there had been an underlying problem we didn't know about and it had done major damage to the engine....blah, blah, blah, mechanical talk. 

Jeremy might have felt a tad vindicated, as he never really liked my vehicle.  When we found it a couple of years ago, I loved it immediately, and I have loved driving it ever since.  We had a friend check it out before we purchased it (it was a few years old when we got it), but he didn't find the problem that was likely there back then. 

Anyway, to make a long story short, we either needed to get rid of the Expedition or sink several thousand dollars into it....which was not going to happen.  We weren't sure what we were going to be looking at in trading it, but of course we weren't going to sell it to an individual, knowing the problems that were present.  I began praying we would find an affordable, dependable vehicle that would suit our family, and that we would get the money we needed from the trade.  (We didn't get nearly what we needed, which was hard to swallow, but thankfully, it all worked out.)

After a very long and stressful day at two neighboring car dealerships (an hour and a half from home, where I had found a couple of SUVs we were interested in), we came away with a new-to-us Nissan Pathfinder.  The longer we looked at it, the more we felt like it was just what we were meant to find (I hadn't seen it on the internet...we actually pulled in to look at it while test-driving a car from the rival dealership!).  It has low miles, looks brand-new, has the space we need, and has more amenities than we were counting on.  We have been very happy with it so far--in fact, Jeremy commented that he liked it better than the Expedition and felt like it was much more "us".  I just pray this one lasts a good, LONG time.

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I heard about a website the other day that had never come to my attention before.  If you love good quality, inexpensive used books, I highly recommend checking out Thriftbooks.  I have had a hard time finding the later books in a series of YA fiction I started a couple of years ago, and I really didn't want to pay full price for a copy from Amazon.  For whatever reason, they are hard to find in our local libraries also.  I found them on thriftbooks and paid $7.40 total for two paperbacks...not bad!  And even better, shipping is free in the U.S.  

(By the way, I was NOT asked to promote this website, and I get no referral credit or anything like that.  Just passing it along!)

Another bookish happening this week that was exciting (to me):  I discovered the library at the college where I teach part-time has an excellent fiction section.  I don't know why it never occurred to me before, but I just never checked out the fiction and literature section there.  I am particularly impressed by the selection of YA fiction they offer, which is one of my only complaints about my city's library--a small YA section.  I'm on the board at my local library, so I'm certainly not overlooking  it by any means...just glad to have new options.  AND the college library has several ebook titles to lend, which we haven't bought into yet at the city library.

Do you use your local library?  As a lifelong library lover and now a board member, I feel compelled to encourage you to check it out if you haven't been in awhile.  It's hard to beat free books, right?