Sofa, car, whatever

I thought I might buy a new sofa this weekend, replacing the queen-sized sofa bed damaged by the long-departed Agatha-cat back when I lived in Jackson, Miss. However, Friday's attempt to give the current sofa to the son of my college roommate failed (he's a grad student at GaTech), making that shopping expedition somewhat less critical. Then my sister-in-law, knowing that I was planning to buy a car sometime this year, presented me with a half-joking plan: I could buy a new car this week, keep the old one through the summer, and then the nieces would both have vehicles to drive to their various activities of summer school, jobs, athletics, and so forth. In August older niece heads to college (Yale), and younger will go to Italy for her junior year of high school, and the folks next door will go from being -1 in the car-minus-driver equation to +1. I pondered this plan briefly, and decided it was feasible and would get the new-car decision made and the dreaded purchasing process done with.

( More details than most will want to read.... )

The new car is a 2012 Honda CR-V LX (the bottom model), in "Urban Titanium Metallic" which translates as bronze to my eye, or you could call it brown. The Bluetooth is going to be nice, as is the ability to play music or audiobooks through the sound system, the backup camera will be handy, but mostly I'm glad to be rid of the rattle that has persisted for the last few years in the old one.

On the sofa front, no takers on freecycle this weekend for the claw-damaged sofa bed. Will try again, and perhaps shop for a new one next weekend. In my new car.