We got a car.

We have a new car.

It's a 2014 Mitsubishi Outlander Sport, with keyless entry and start, backup cam, touchscreen sound system with bluetooth audio streaming, and calling. It has "bells and whistles" up the wazoo.

But the old adage doesn't hold up in this case: Getting there was NOT half the fun. There was no fun to be had in getting there. The process was about as stressful and irritating as it is possible to be without adding in thumbscrews and pepper spray. I don't want to get into the details, but suffice it to say that I am a cynic about some things, and I think that car dealers are out to get you for everything they can.

And there are little signs you can look for when you know what they are. Verbal cues, kinesthetics such as the way they shake hands, wear-down tactics, ETC. I can't prove any of that though.

We had to wait for a long time on the financing too, both of us getting very hungry and cranky, because we had no idea how long it was going to take.

But worst was the drive home. I can think of nothing more stressful than driving your Brand New Car which has only like 12 miles on it home through heavy traffic, that slows to a crawl at a moments notice, in pouring rain, which has the dual problems of making it incredibly difficult to see, and making road conditions more hazardous. I was constantly worried that I was going to hurt the car in some way, after having just driven it off the lot. So worried in fact that Tori had to take over for me when we were a little over an hour away from home.

I am so exhausted right now that I'm only writing this blog out of the need to maintain the habit. As soon as I'm done I'm going to hydrate, then fall into a deep coma until tomorrow. Guh.

2 more things. I'm trying to decide how to approach a delicate issue. I think we MAY have been the victims of bait-and-switch false advertising, and I THINK I can even prove it, and if this is true we paid about $2000 more than we needed to for this car. HOWEVER... I don't know how to approach the subject without stressing my wife out over it all, this has been a very traumatic experience for her. ALSO I would feel like a bit of an asshole calling someone a liar if it turns out there was a plausible explanation for this all along. I'm thinking about emailing the woman who initially made contact with me to see if we can come to terms with the discrepancy, and maybe understand how it happened, but again, I don't know how they would react in a situation where they are called out on what appears to be a bald faced lie.

Second: I had a cramp in my calf this morning SO PAINFUL it was as hard as a baseball, and would not go away until Tori massaged it. It's better now, but still stiff. Tori thinks it might have been that I was dehydrated, and wearing socks so tight as to cut off circulation. I think that's plausible, but I'm not sure. I'll be checking online for both of these questions to see if I can find answers, but if any of you dear readers has any comment or suggestion, please leave a contribution in the little box.

And thanks for reading.