Checking In, Up and Check out mine and Chargee's Selfie

Hi all!

So sorry to be so long posting.  I have been keeping up and do check in from time to time believe it or not!  I did a maternity leave long term sub for a kindergarten teacher from Jan. 5 to March 6 and have just started another one in kindergarten this past week that will go thru end of year.  I am truly grateful for these and feel blessed to have done these.  This makes 3 long terms this year.  That being said, I think to myself, Praise the Lord and Thank You, Jesus, I'm on the retired side!  I don't know that I will do long terms next year but I committed to these so I will see it thru, but I tell you this getting up at 5-5:30 a.m. to go to work is for the birds!  I now have a new car as of Dec. 31!  I think I told y'all I had to put out $2800 on my Equinox last Aug. for head gasket job.  It had 135,000 plus on it at Christmas and I felt like it was beginning to run a little rough and pulling left.  So on the way home from NC the day after Christmas, I thought I'm going to Nash Chevrolet (who we bought the 3 previous cars from and now this makes #4!) and just be honest with them, tell them what my income is, the chapter 7 etc. etc. I figured the worst they could tell me  was no plus the end of the year deals were good too!  Well I called them on Mon. 12/29 and our service rep was no longer there but my friends that I had referred to them and they bought a truck there 3 years ago referred me to their rep who, by the way, has been with Nash for 16 years!  I think that says a lot for a car dealership!  So I talked to him told him all the above, how much was owed on mine, what I wanted in a car payment and then added when he said I think we work this out for you,  I said, "Larry, one more thing, I am not your little old widow lady you can run roughshod over and rip off!" (Charlie taught me well) He laughed and said, "Do you think we would do that?"  I said, "No, not really, because Nash has been great to work with over the years"!  So, I went down there (which it's only 10 min. from my house!) on Dec. 31.  It was an emotional thing, I tell, you.  I loved my equinox and it was the last car Charlie bought for me and had promised me.  However, at 135,000 plus miles I felt like any repairs would be at least $300 if not more and I was looking at having to replace the air conditioning compressor which would have cost me about $1500.  So I said a prayer in my kitchen before I went down there, "Lord, you know what I want, but you also know what I need and what I can afford - so you and Charlie please be with me!"  I drove out with a 2015 Chevy Sonic LT!  12 miles was on it when I first test drove it!  Ask me how long it's been since I drove a brand new one off the lot!  It's a four door automatic; has good trunk space.  Does not have a cd player but has infotainment center, you know it's like a baby flash drive but you can download 5000-9000 songs on it.  Now I'm not one to download songs from internet and such but I'm hell on wheels ripping cd's to the computer and then downloading them to the little drive!  Of course with all that I have put on there sometimes the Rolling Stones, "Let's Spend the Night Together" and then the next song might be a hymn from the Statler Brothers! And I love the bluetooth connectivity that Larry my rep set up for me.  And it's been fun whipping in and out of the lanes and it's been real fun pulling up to the gas pump as it's mileage is 25/35 whereas the equinox was 19/26!  It's silver with black cloth interior and I named it Silver Streak II.  We aways named our cars and Charlie named our malibu we had Silver Streak so I named this one Silver Streak II.  But I got a great deal; they gave $3000 on trade-in; paid it off and there was an additional 20% off for year end deals.  And all maintenace is covered for either 2/3 years or 36,000 miles which ever comes first.

Now that I've caught y'all up on that let me tell you prayers are appreciated and continued ones as my best friend's husband Steve is doing pretty good.  All scans show everything is stable.  He's 2 years out from lung cancer tx 1 year out from whole brain rads. for the mets.  They told him he had responded to the tx better than they expected!  God is so good!

At last but not least, hope the new pix (the selfie of Chargee and me) comes thru decent for y'all.  I promise I won't be so long checking in next time.  Hope all is well with everyone and everyone had a great Easter!  Love y'all and God Bless!

Jan (Basketcase)