Nissan Upgrade Plan

Now that I have successfully chased off all of my faithful readers (both of them) by my failure to update for going on two months… I guess it is time I write something. My guilt and failure have been highlighted by my enjoyment of a friend’s blog that has had an enthralling thread of entries about her courtship 18 years ago as recorded in her journal at the time. What a fantastic window a journal is into your own mind. While some events are communicated through facebook, there is no lingering record of my status posts. I have come to realize that my blog is the only form of journal I am likely to keep in the foreseeable future so I better make a few attempts at entry every now and then.

So, where was I when I left off? I had just been cleared to run by my physical therapist, my Salt Lake City Half Marathon was 2.5 weeks away, and I was still driving a Nissan Sentra… I guess things have changed some since then. I will try to catch up, but I won’t do it in one MEGAPOST that takes forever to read and covers everything from then to now… I’ll try and break it up some.

I progressed quickly after I was cleared to run. I didn’t do too much or go too far but I had a couple weeks in the upper teens in terms of mileage. The PT asked to see me one last time on Monday the 13th at which point I would be on my own. I got up and left to that appointment. It was raining pretty hard and I was driving a stretch of road that I am normally on an hour earlier. The added traffic, the poor visibility, and I will admit, my mind being elsewhere, culminated in me wrecking my 2000 Sentra.

A mini-van had stopped and was waiting for oncoming traffic to turn left into his subdivision. There was no turn lane and the right side of the road had a guardrail preventing me from ditching off to the right. This road is about a mile long with just this one 8-10 house subdivision on it. I had never encountered cars going in or out of it before in all my years of passing it. After turning on the road my focus was diverted to something else, what I have no idea. I just remember I was not looking straight ahead when I realized that this silver mini-van, shrouded in rain and low clouds, blurred by the early morning light… POPPED out of nowhere to be parked 40 feet in front of me with me going 40mph on wet pavement.

I locked it up but the damage was done. I did manage to avoid hitting him square, more my front left to his right rear. I think that is why my airbag didn’t deploy, thank goodness. It probably resulted in more damage to my car however. Being paid for with liability only, my Sentra was a complete write off. Of course, Jamie had to show up with her cell phone camera to document the damage…

I was fine. The only damage was a small scratch on my left shin and a HUGE gouge in my ego that will heal over time. I ended up taking the day off, never going to my appointment (or back to PT since), and buying a new car that day. We really are a family that can’t function without two vehicles so waiting to buy was only an option if we were to borrow a car for a few days, which a friend offered, but I didn’t want to mess with it.

Long story short, we ended up buying a white 2005 Nissan Altima 2.5SL. We discovered last year (after Jamie similarly totaled the van) that if we went with a slightly used car, we could load up on the options and still have it be affordable. So our van has the built in DVD w/ 6 disk changer, stow-n-go seats, heated leather seats, sunroof, and the tow package (slightly bigger engine and a tow hitch). Similarly, my Altima has the heated leather seats, BOSE sound system w/ 6 disk changer, and the sunroof. I really have enjoyed the added features that we could never afford or justify on a new vehicle.

A month later, I cannot tell you how much nicer my commute to and from work has been. I get 3-4 less miles per gallon than my Sentra, but I should have traded up long ago. To think, all I had to do was sacrifice my perfect driving record...