Florida, No Thank You

So. Dexter likes to give us warning barks sometimes at night. From the couch. Seriously. He'll bark at shit without every troubling himself to get off the couch. Joe just about won't even go in there to check it out anymore, though I force him to. Really, though, Dexter could have the decency to at least walk up to the window like he does in daylight hours instead of remaining on his tush on MY couch.

That aside, I did end up driving to Tampa and buying a new(er) vehicle last week. I could not talk them down at all because they knew as much as I did (why else would I drive to Tampa?) that they had the best deal around. Whatever. It was still less than we'd anticipated spending, and the blue book and edmunds values were still much higher than they were selling for. The Pilot is immaculate, and I almost don't want to drive it. Too nice for us or something. Of course that's not how our relationship started. I spent six hours at the dealership getting Florida-Missouri paperwork straight since our home of record is Missouri...taxes, licensing crap, etc. When I finally left, I noticed a strange light lit up on the dash and a weird vibration when I drove that hadn't been there during the test drive. In a hurry with beginning my 6.5 hour return trip much later than intended due to my all-day stay at the dealership I didn't turn back and instead pulled over and eyed the vehicle myself. Looked good. Back on road. It wasn't long before I had my first solo flat tire on the interstate. Woohoo. Yeah, that light on my dash was a low tire pressure light. Dumb, huh? No. Our other cars are from 1997; there are no fancy dash lights. The 2006 Pilot has about 87 of them, though, all of which I can now identify.

But wait. What happened with the flat? Well, I slowed way the hell down, and the next mile marker happened to be a rest stop, so I pulled off the interstate completely. I then called USAA because I insured the damn thing before I left the dealership. The lady I talked to was bat shit crazy, which doesn't happen often with USAA. However, policy is still policy, and theirs is that roadside assistance doesn't kick in until a vehicle has been on a policy for 24 hours. WTH. I cried and yelled a little at crazy lady as I told her I would pay out of pocket and to just get someone to help me. So she did. Sort of. A guy came and changed my flat. It would have been way hard for me to do alone - large vehicle, and even big Sam with missing fingers had to reference the owner's manual. This was all at 5PM, closing time. I then called USAA back and talked to a lady who'd taken her meds for the day. She helped me find the nearest Walmart since by that time my cool smart phone internet had gone berserk. Long story short: I'd ran over some screws, or rather "they" did at the dealership when they "detailed" it for me. The tire couldn't be saved, so I bought a new one. I then drove home through a bunch of rain and welling anxiety. My whole body ached by the time I arrived here at 12:45AM. Thankfully, I do love the car despite all the BS, which was really questionable last week.

And that's my epic Tampa trip. It's been a good week since, and the weather has been amazing. We spent all of Saturday working in the yard, and then went out for sushi. Yeah!! We're also trying to use the good weather for our health. Joe's starting to run in the neighborhood again (just whips out 6-7 miles...gah), and I started the Couch 2 5K program today. It was great, and I don't feel like I hate running like I usually do when I start something like that. I'm looking to start P90X again too, as I think my back is as good as it's going to get. However, I think I may do the "lean" version first - more cardio. Something's gotta give, man. I can hardly fit into my clothes. Joe and I are both in the same boat, except that his body is still messed up from Ranger School starvation. Anything he eats is stored as fat. And me, well...this is a result of the ass to couch program I started nearly two months ago. Never go ass to couch. :-)