My wife and I live with our cat Snick on a small hobby farm where having a truck is most handy.
My current truck a 2007 Ford Ranger is on lease and the lease expires at the end of this month. It has been a good vehicle and my only complaint is that it is very hard on gas. This is the second pick-up truck that I have owned or leased.
And, they have certainly come in handy. Our kids and friends have found them to be most helpful as well.
Just yesterday, I went to town with my son-in-law to purchase lumber for a deck my son-in-law is kindly building us. Some of the boards totalled 16' and the truck to them without complaint. Anyway, they always seem to come in handy.
That is why I started several months ago to find a replacement truck to my Ranger.
I looked at several "used" models but could not seem to find the 'right one'. One used car dealer was so honest with me that he suggested I buy new since new trucks were selling for about the same price as older models. I started looking at new.
And, I found the perfect one. It too was red - a colour I get teased about from time to time due to my right-wing bent. It too was a Ranger but had more features than my current truck and sold for the same price as under my current lease. It was a no-brainer - this new Ranger was made for me.
Rather than tell the dealer I'd buy it then and there, I told him I would think about it over the weekend and let him know "first thing on Monday".
Then I got thinking. I did not want another truck regardless of how convenient it was around our farm; I wanted a car - and I wanted one with all the 'bells and whistles'.
Saturday I was off to see the local cadillac dealer. I picked one out and he let me take it home over night. My wife loved it too but she was quick to point out that I was so much like my late father who also loved nice cars. A week before he died, he told me that he was thinking of buying a new buick. This despite the fact that he was living in a nursing home and that his doctor had taken his licence away some five years earlier.
So I asked my father the obvious question: "what would you do with a new car that you were not allowed to drive?" Without missing a beat, he replied: "I'd sit in it".
You know, I understood what he was saying, there is nothing in life better than sitting in a new car - with that new car smell. It even beats driving it. I told my father he should go for it and he might well have done so if his worn out heart had gone on a little longer.
The next day, I took the cadillac back whereupon I broke all rules - I told the salesman immediately how much I loved the car. No hard sell for me.
So here I am, with a car that I really don't need and I truck that I do need but will be returning to the ford dealer in a matter of days. It really makes no sense, but life is often like that.
Did I mention, my cadillac is the colour 'blue'.
"Galagher"
