New Wheels

Well, after just a few weeks we were able to replace the van we lost in the accident. MLM located this one on the CarMax website. It was up in Waukegan but they transport to different CarMax locations free of charge. It's the same make, year and model - KIA Sedona - as our old van, only it's the higher-end model loaded with accessories including a DVD player. It looks brand new as you can see below and only had 13K miles on it! It's even the same color as our old one. The best part is that since it's two years old, our payments are going to be around $200 less than what we were paying for the Sedona we bought new. Could not have done it without the help of Dave, my father-in-law, doing a co-sign on the loan. My credit is still in the toilet from last year's period of unemployment and I'm still working to catch up a lot of credit card debt. The fun never ends. Anyway, here's the new rig:

Looks good don't it? Slight difference on the seating compared to our old van which had six captain's chairs - this one has a pair of wide seats for the back row that make a bench so we can conceiveably seat seven people. I was hoping we could move the bench seats up to the middle row so MLM could have a place to lay down and we'd have the rear of the van for her cart and luggage on a trip. However, the anchor tracks in the floor are different widths apart from the bench seats to the captain's chairs so this will not work. MLM says then we'll take out the two middle row captain's chair and leave the bench available in the back and put the cart and luggage in the mid area. While I salvaged the electric chair lift from the old van, we're going to wait before installing in this one to see how the seating thing works out. At least her current cart breaks down a lot easier than her old one so I can load the parts in the van pretty easily.

Not much to report on the work front - the new Global Campus Initiative will be giving me more work to do in the near future and the first employee for that arrives this Friday. So I'll be a lot busier soon. MLM is going in for surgery in August to have her left shoulder joint replaced. That will hopefully help her with some pain and give her a little more mobility (once she recovers) - then they do the same thing with her right shoulder about six months later.

I am back studying for my Network+ exam and am getting ready to enroll in classes here at the U of I - been here almost a year now so I can do this. I just have to pay for fees and books as the tuition is waived. Yea! That's it for now. I will report soon on other fun things. Oh, I just learned that Fred Thompson is maybe going to run for president since no other Republican seems able to capture anyone's favor. Interesting, I think. Reagan was an ex-actor too, of course. Maybe a Zaphod Beeblebrox type is best for the job after all. Douglas Adams wisely wrote that anyone who can be elected president under our current system should be congratulated and then in no way be allowed to actually do the job! I like that idea. Let's just hire a good office manager with diplomatic experience who has to keep the board of trustees and the accounting department happy. Could work.

Be optomistic.