Changes | once again

Well, a lot has happened in a short time! Hence

Changes were in order.

So, David is doing a post today, regarding the chain reaction that resulted in our garage being a little less empty. We have survived as a one-car family with Claudia’s Xterra for a year and a half now and it has worked pretty well. Just before Christmas however, an opportunity came up for Claudia at a company, and for a position that was really a perfect fit. Freiberger USA Inc; small but growing US subsidiary of a German food products company, was looking for someone who knew exports and imports, customs and regulations pertaining to foodstuffs, oh and German speaking didn’t hurt either! To make a long story short, changes were made and she is now their manager of logistics. Oh, and their business: selling frozen pizzas. I was a bit surprised at a German company importing frozen pizza into the US, but they seem to be quite successful. And will be even more successful once Claudia puts her mark on the business 🙂

With her new position, Claudia also has a very short commute, just like I do, but unfortunately in the opposite direction. So that second car that we had been considering for the last year and a half suddenly became a high priority. After much analysis between Christmas and new year, I decided on a Mazda Miata. Yes its quite small, but with Claudia’s car, we didn’t need a second large car – and since I preferred the styling of the prior generation, and was not interested in plunking down 25 or 30 grand for a new one, I was on the lookout for a used one.

Fortunately many people use them exclusively as summer cars, so there are a few older ones around with low miles. I was able to find one through a private party in otherwise good condition with one caveat: it had exactly 60k miles, which is when the timing belt, among other (fluids, accessory belts, various gaskets) is due. After analyzing the whole situation, and pricing the whole thing, including the cost of the service (about another 1000, or so) it still seemed pretty reasonable, and I would at least know that it was all done. Buying at a dealer, you can’t get the service records, and have no idea what was done and what was not.

So we spent a very productive weekend washing, polishing, waxing, vacuuming, armor-alling (can I use that as a verb?) and removing many years of accumulated dirt, grime, strange odors, gum wrappers, etc. And of course we couldn’t let Claudia’s car (sorry TRUCK!) go without attention. So he got a washing and vacuuming as well. Oh, and our final treat to ourselves?

We purchased a new shop-vac. The old one seemed to produce more noise than vacuuming results, so we treated ourselves to a new orange “R2D2” What can you say; we suck – I guess 🙂

Claudia couldn’t resist trying out her new ‘funky’ lens to document our efforts. Meaning that all the blur is intentional.

Now I can’t wait to get my car registered, so I can actually drive it! Tomorrow morning – DMV – here we come!

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