Car shopping, the moon, schedules

Mama and I drove to Burkburnett, TX yesterday evening to look at a car I had found online. The dealer, once I had called them about the car, was very persistent in encouraging me to make the trip to look the vehicle over. It was a 06 Ford Fusion with relatively low miles. The one concern was that it had a manual transmission, but with a little four cylinder engine it was a good candidate for great fuel economy.

When I got home Mama was willing to make the drive so we dropped off the truck to Victoria and we headed out. It was not far past Wichita Fall so the drive was less than an hour. After meeting the sales lady we went out to look over the car. It was a very clean, nice looking car so we went for a test drive.

When we were heading back to the dealer we started to smell a burning oil smell and it was only a moment later that the car started to fill with smoke. Fortunately we were almost in the parking lot of the dealer by the time it became intolerable. We are not sure what happened. They will look the car over this morning, but Mama and I were relieved it happened on a test drive. It potentially saved us from buying a big problem.

On the way back we stopped at Smash Burger in Wichita Falls and ate dinner. We also stopped at Sam’s for a few items. There was nothing we desperately needed but there were a couple items I wanted to price for potential future purchases. We went ahead and bought a little window air conditioner for the apartment so we would have it available when company is here next week. Who knows what the weather will be then but the heat is coming.

There was so much yet to do at home that it was a sacrifice to take the evening to do what we did but it seemed appropriate to the time to start looking at vehicles. It is a shopping effort that I do not particularly enjoy; a necessary evil. We did not get home until late but both of us enjoyed the trip.

While we were driving home we got to watch the moonrise. It was spectacular. The moon was just at the horizon, five times the size it normally it and sunset red in color. It maintained both size and color for the duration of the trip as it edged into the sky. When we got home we found out that Victoria had been watching it also – while she played with the piglets. It was a good finish to the evening together.

I am looking at the possibility of taking tomorrow off. We have Friday off this week for the Good Friday holiday and I could use the extra time at the farm to catch up. I will know later today if I will be able to forego coming into the office tomorrow.

We already have one on my days off planned – and it will be all day away from the farm. I have to go to Jacksboro to pick up some cedar posts so we can reinforce patches of fence near the house. Since it is close to a friend’s house we will probably stop for a visit on the way back. That will take one day out of the farm work catch up schedule but it is a trip I have to make none-the-less.

We’ll see how it all works out.