Live Wire

As you can see from the post time on this entry, it's either very early in the morning or in the middle of the night depending on your point of view. I'm extremely annoyed at present because irrespective of how much I've been working, how little sleep I've gotten, I don't have to be at work til 9am today. So I could have slept til 6:30 - which would have been an enormous treat since I couldn't fall asleep last night til midnight.

There's a lot of anxiety drivers in my life right now:
1. Company Merger on the horizon
2. A system flaw that must be overcome by my team - major issue with huge visibility that is adding dramatically to stress level
3. February is the Month of Visitors..which is not the problem, but I want to see everyone and I have testing and this enormous gap to fill before March 1st. Work/Life Balance is tipped in favor of work
4. Car problems. My car is 11 years old going on 12. The Trade In Value is lower than the repairs that would need to be made.
5. A lot of politics at work

As you can see, work is the main anxiety. The car is causing me a lot of anxiety. It's totally not suitable for my back (it sits very low to the ground and it causes me pain to get in and out of it), and with over 150,000 miles on it, it's not an appropriate vehicle for driving on I-4 regularly in stop and go commuting traffic. Though the last thing I want at present is a car payment, I did get a good deal from Capital One on financing with no downpayment required. So, I am going to shop for cars this week. I talked to my dad at length and it seems that given how much I drive now, putting more than the value of the car in repairs in is a bad idea. My fear is I'll get the rear brakes and new AC put in and then something else could go wrong a year from now. I've already put $1000 in it this year and last year I spent $1500 on repairs to the struts and suspension.

I started internet shopping and got the Stamp of Approval on vehicle choices from my friend's husband who is a Lexus tech and he gave me the scoop on the dealer process (he works for a dealer). He confirmed internet pricing is in fact at Invoice and possibly below. Mechanically he likes the Matrix and some of his buddies at work has one and of course the Civic I can't go wrong. So everything is in order. Tam helped me with financing shopping, Dad helped with deciding to buy or investing in repairs and budgeting. I called the insurance company and got insurance quotes for the cars I'm considering (which is now down to two). All ducks are in a row.
Now I just need to make the decision. My financing packet arrives tomorrow so it's not a done deal til I fill the check out (it's one of those blank check loans, no muss no fuss).

I just don't know if I want a car payment right now. But I also know I can't afford to keep paying big repair fees every six months - credit card can't take any more.

So the cars I'm looking at are the Toyota Matrix and Honda Civic. Here's what the Matrix looks like:




They seem to offer the most car for your money. And it's the same price as the Corolla which is an insanely good deal.