Clunker Deal is Done

It begged; it pleaded; it flung itself down in the driveway and clung to the concrete.
It wrote letters to the governor arguing for a stay of execution.
And then things turned nasty--it implied that it knew birds in high places and I might never want to sleep with both eyes shut again.
In its final days, it tried what it thought was its ace-in-the-hole. . . the speedometer mysteriously started working again (I'm not making this up!); I turned a hard heart and drove the poor thing off to its fatal injections at the Toyota lot.

I turned the poor old gal in for a flashy floozy of a bright red trophy model. The Venza is now sitting like a high-priced diva in the middle of my garage, not too close to the snowblower on one side or the lawnmower on the other, taking up two spaces, eager for Doug to come home and fawn all over her.

And believe you me, I don't intend to drive it, thank you very much. I'll be driving my nice, reliable, unassuming 1998 green subaru. And Hoighty-Toighty Ms. Venza just better move over to one side of the garage, once Doug moves it, because I was too freaked out about parking it just right). And the subaru is outside in the driveway. Alone. In the dark. And cold. .. . Eating the leftovers. . . . (and it's all Doug's fault.)

Oh. Yeah. Doug doesn't know about the Venza in the garage (won't HE be surprised when he gets back rom the mission trip????)

And holy, moly, you guys are goooooood! I thought I'd get away with that last line in the post yesterday. Every once in a while, I sneak a line or two past you, buried in the narrative, but apparently not this time!

There's really not much to the story. The 21 year old "adult" leader had a DUI in March and didn't mention it; nor did it turn up in the background check. But, given the new Homeland Security scrutiny, it turned up at the border. All the kids were kept in the van for an hour and a half, and questioned by border patrol, while Doug and the very nervous young-un were brought inside and questioned. The girl fell into the category of "Inadmissable felons" because of the DUI. This was a good 8 hours away from our home town. Either the whole group would have to return, or her mother would have to drive out and get her (and she couldn't reach her mother). Eventually, Border Patrol said she could pay $200 for a one time permit (charged to our credit card because she didn't have one), but would not be admitted again without filing more petitions to the Canadian courts, and paying more fines. Doug is actually having a rough time on this trip, with kids getting sick and now he doesn't feel well either. He'll be very glad to get back, I'm sure! I would have a hard time arranging the time off from work, so don't go on these trips.