Captain's Corner

So for Superbowl weekend Ann and I decided to go see her parents, because she has a long history of eating olives, betting a dollar on the game, and watching the Superbowl with her dad. So Thursday afternoon prior to the big game we start loading up our pickup truck to head up there… We decided to take the truck because it’s actually more comfortable than our Cavalier to drive, plus (since it has a tape deck) we can use the iPod in it fairly easily. Not to mention we thought we might be able to talk her parents into buying us Lilybeth‘s crib while we’re up there… and then we’d have something to bring it home in. Whilst packing her dad calls and tells us to bring our Cavalier. To which we say… ummm… no. We have a very good reason for bringing our truck. To which he says… “and I have a good reason for you to bring the Cavalier” (which we had just sunk $800 worth of repairs into… for the third time in a year). “One last thing,” he adds, “bring your title.” So off we went in the Cavalier.

We get there and he shows us a 6 year old (the same age as our Cavalier) Crown Victoria… which my wife just about refuses to test drive based on it’s “Old Lady-ness”. All this time, we’re still thinking Pops is gonna help us with a down payment on a car we didn’t intend to to buy… So we tell the Ford guy that we’ll think about it and head on back to Chez Burnett. Jim tells us that he doesn’t want to see his grandbaby ride around in that piece of crap we’re currently driving and is pretty set on this car business…

So, the next morning we get out of the house at the crack of noon. The girls head off to do some baby shopping and us guys head out to car dealerships… we stop at KIA and look at a sensible mini-van… only to get jerked around by some guy that completely missed the point of the phrase… “If you work with us, we’ll leave here with a new KIA…” So that’s a no-go… Then we’re off to the Chevy dealer that Alberta (my mom-in-law) went to nearly every day for a year before she picked out just the right Chevy Impala… and we look at program Impalas… nice low mileage 2006 Impalas… I drive one and it drives great… it’s about a ga-billion times the car our “No Options, Stick-Shift, No-Power-ANYTHING-EXCEPT-STEERING” Cavalier is. Needless to say, I’m impressed… but I know there’s no way we can afford it. So again, we go home to think about it…

Over the course of the rest of Saturday and Game Day (called by some Sunday, and rightly called the Sabbath, though possibly for the wrong reasons… ;) we continue to talk about it… and eventually her dad tells us his plan… to buy the car for us… and not only that, but that fancy Apple computer I need to make us some extra money without having to stay at the office all night… because I need to be home with my family…

So, Monday morning we head back to the Chevy dealership, buy the car and head home… in a 2006 Impala:

The next Friday my Intel-based Mac Pro arrives:

All in all, I’d say it was one heckuva good Superbowl.  On top of that, I know that my in-laws truly care about both their daughter and I… and their soon to be born grandchild.  Thanks Mom and Dad!

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