Movie from my childhood, but it seemed a fitting title. Savannah is the newest member of family. Andy and I have always wanted a Maine Coon cat, so when the opportunity arose to give Ms. Savannah a home, we were happy to do so. Savannah is a pure bread Maine Coon. I’m not really sure how old she is, but she’s an adult. She came to us through the death of a quasi-family member. My step-father’s mother’s longtime boyfriend passed away recently and along with is estate left 3 cats. One went to live with his daughter in Florida the other two went to my step-grandmother. After some time with our Savannah in her house, she learned that she is allergic to cats and needed to find a new home for her. My mother and step-father recently traveled to Wilmington to visit and brought home Princess Savannah.

Anyway, that’s a whole lot of information to get to the main point…..we LOVE our new cat. She’s beautiful, has an incredible temperament and seem to fit right in with our crowd. She even does great with Ollie and Emmett. She’s quite the princess, though. We’re used to our two fat male cats that graze on their food bowl and don’t require much. They like a strategic pet every now and then, a warm lap to spend their evenings and a nice spot in bed. That’s about it. Savannah, on the other hand, has been royalty her whole life. She has her own pad for the desk, is used to being brushed everyday, gets canned food in the evenings and will even let you know when her litter box needs scooping.

FYI- Orange Kitty from the previous post was returned home on Tuesday. He lives about 3 blocks away, but it would seem that he had been missing long enough the he came home to a new kitten.

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Well, we had an unexpected visitor wander up during our yard sale today. One extremely fluffy, orange kitty. My guess is that he’s a juvenile Maine Coon. He’s got huge feet and a long face. He’s obviously somebody’s baby. He’s well groomed and is wearing a collar with a rabies tag. We got an answering service for the vets office that issued the tag. It’s from a town about 30 minutes away and the lady who answered said they could look up the tag for us when the office re-opens on Tuesday. In the mean time, we have a house guest. We’ve set up Orange Kitty in the office with his own food, water, and litter box. Our thought was that this would disturb the other animals in the house as little as possible. Of course, my fat cats are too lazy to be bothered by the intruder. they sniffed him and hissed once when he came in the front door, then they were off to their respective napping spots. Anyway, here he is….his tag says he’s from Williamston, NC. Please, drop us a line if you know him.

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Anonymous pamphlets, leaflets, brochures and even books have played an
important role in the progress of mankind. Great works of literature
have frequently been produced by authors writing under assumed names.
Despite readers’ curiosity and the public’s interest in identifying
the creator of a work of art, an author generally is free to decide
whether or not to disclose her true identity. The decision in favor of
anonymity may be motivated by fear of economic or official
retaliation, by concern about social ostracism, or merely by a desire
to preserve as much of one’s privacy as possible. Whatever the
motivation may be, at least in the field of literary endeavor, the
interest in having anonymous works enter the marketplace of ideas
unquestionably outweighs any public interest in requiring disclosure
as a condition of entry. Accordingly, an author’s decision to remain
anonymous, like other decisions concerning omissions or additions to
the content of a publication, is an aspect of the freedom of speech
protected by the First Amendment.

U.S. Supreme Court, McIntyre v. Ohio (1995).

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No, I have not dropped off the face of the earth. I’ve been spending almost every free moment I have working on the Barack Obama campaign. We’ve gone door to door throughout the county and even a surrounding county. We’ve made countless phone calls, hosted cook-outs and breakfasts and in between we’ve tried to enter every house and every phone call into a database. We’ve been some busy folks.

I’ve taken today off, for the most part (I still did about 100 pages of data entry this morning) because today is an anniversary of sorts for Andy and I. Our first date was 14 years ago today. It’s hard to believe it’s been that long…..then it’s not. He’s my best friend and we’ve been through a boatload together…..not just our marriage and our two boys. Here’s to many, many more years to come.

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So, Andy and I have decided to buy a car. We want something that gets better gas mileage and might be new enough to have some warranty left on it. Since the boys and I had a little time to kill in Greenville yesterday afternoon, I thought I would stop in to our local Volkswagen dealer and see what they had on the lot. I should’ve known it was a mistake from the beginning. We’ve been less than impressed with Joe Pecheles dealers’ high-pressure sales tactics in the past. I don’t know why, but I honestly thought with all of Volkswagen’s talk about customer service oriented dealerships, that maybe they had changed. Nope.

I drove through the lot, really didn’t see anything that was in our price range and was about to drive off the lot when I was approached by a salesman. I told him about the deal I had recently seen at another dealership. I knew there was no way they could touch it, so I was looking for an older car. He assured me that since it was the last day of the month that they would be really willing to come down on price. He asked me to give him a minute to get a set of keys, that he actually had a car that was in our price range that he could deal on. I should have driven away…..I should have.

The crappiest part about having a budget? The drive to try to get as much for that budget as you can. So I stuck around to see if they really wanted to make a deal.

I loved the inside of the car, but I knew that before I ever sat in it (I like Passats, that’s why I’m looking for one). I asked him how much. He fed me some line about how they don’t tell people the price of a car until they drive it. What? Sign number two that I should have left. Problem with this one, I had the “getting the most for my money” thing going in my head…and I had had enough of my beautiful boys and saw a chance for a break. My mom was across the street shopping and I thought she might watch them for a few minutes. So I kept telling myself, “Why not?”. Ma agreed to watch the boys for a few minutes and I drove back across the street to drive the stupid car.

It was great to drive, no surprise…..The salesman then had to take me inside to sit me down to get all of this information just to give me the price of the stupid car?!?

Turns out it was a pretty good deal….but a little more than we were going to spend. Car dealer man said he was desperate to sell the car and asked me what it would take to sell the car today….I told him, straight up and honest. I knew exactly how much I was going to finance, had it taken care of with my bank and I had my truck in trade….if he could work that, I’d leave with the car. Period.

Well, that, of course, led to several more discussions with sales managers. He brought me back about 4 different lease options for a new car. No, I told you when I first arrived, I don’t want a new car. He comes back and asks for the keys to my truck. He walks out with me, looks it over, starts it up, etc….We go back inside…..another trip to the sales manager. By this point I have to go get the kids from my mom. I’m not going to leave her with two insane little guys in Barnes and Nobles but for so long.

Car salesman informs me that his mechanic needs to look at the truck…..fine. I’ll be back with my boys in a few minutes. At this point, I’m getting pissed, it’s been about an hour and a half. So I go pick the boys back up, bring them in the showroom, hand over my keys, and resume waiting for 2, that’s right 2, more trips to the sales manager. The result of these trips were financing options from the dealership for the used Passat, and then for a new Jetta, which I wasn’t interested in, had never mentioned and is too small. Oh, and did I mention that this clown brought more lease payments in this time, too?

Finally he goes in for the last meeting with his “sales manager” and some other individual I recognize as the dealership owner, Brian. He comes back….after 2 hours of wasting my afternoon….with the MSRP on the Passat and insult of a trade for my truck.

That’s right, it took these sleazy car dealers 2 hours to just come back and say no. Haven’t we reached a point where these games aren’t necessary? I was upfront and honest from the beginning about what I could afford and this land shark of a car dealer didn’t have enough respect for the customer to just say he couldn’t do that….instead he screwed me around all afternoon.

So I guess there will be no Volkswagen for our family. My husband has had 7 of them and he was so excited that I would finally get one…..but now, there’s no way. We’re going to get one new enough that it has some warranty left. To get that warranty work done, I would have to see the exact same folks that toyed with me all day yesterday. Nope. Guess I’ll get a Honda.

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