On Tuesday, feeling melancholy the day after buying a car that is quite nice, but I didn't adore it. Feels like a sensible but loveless marriage. The heat wave Upstate continues. My unwatered plants on my patio downstate are most definitely dead by now.

Meals for Today:

Breakfast: Protein shake & cacao nib muffin, egg bake with spinach, mushrooms, turkey sausage and sage leaves; yogurt and cantaloupe
Snack: Lopsided peach
Lunch: Baby arugula, roasted vegetables from Wegman's, walnuts, goat cheese and organic salad beans (canned chickpea and kidney bean mix)
Snack: 180-calorie bag of Granny Smith Bare Fruit apple chips
Dinner: Not a good steak, ear of sweet corn, steamed green beans
Dessert: Chocolate chip cookie dough Quest bar

Exercise for Today:

At the gym: 20 minutes on Cybex, much tougher than the Cybex at my downstate gym, resistance at eight on 1/1 interval program, which was at the edge of my ability. Again, I did a version of my physical therapy workout: 4x12 squats with an empty Olympic bar alternating with 4x20 raised-leg crunches; 3x12 quad raise machine; 3x12 leg curls; 3x12 abductor/adductor. Then did that thing like a chair where you do hanging leg raises, for 20x.

What car did you buy, saef? (Not that I will have heard of it as North American models are different but I can look it up.) Would customising it help?? Until you've been through a few adventures together and can bond a bit.

Sometimes you love a car and sometimes you don't. My current one is quite serviceable for my job but I don't like it. My first new car ever was the car I loved. Not quite right for dogwalking but fun to drive and easy to park and just a great tough little car that I loved! I still miss him - particularly whenever the bus I drive now slams its door on me as I'm trying to get out or when I'm trying to manouever into a tight space or when I pulling away from a stoplight from which I would have smoked the big fancy car beside me with my little car.

But we need transport and that's all some cars are.

Dagmar :dizzy:

Amen to Dagmar. I've alternated cars I've loved, and cars I've owned because the price was right. My current car is a gold Prius (I hate gold). I bought it used for an unbeatable price after my oh-so-beloved Subaru Outback Sport blew both head gaskets. That Subaru (with studded tires) got me through years of veterinary practice in the high Sierras: it got me to work after 5 feet of new snow, to housecalls up unplowed and ice-caked roads, you name it.

But the thing is, the Prius has been great for my new urban lifestyle, where all that matters to me is eco-friendliness in transport. I'm now used to its 50+ mpg, to the point that I often forget to get gas at all because I do it so rarely and end up on fumes. The Subaru wouldn't have made nearly as much sense in this phase of my life.

The first car I bought "all by myself" was a white Karmann-Ghia. I paid $600 for it, used. Three weeks later, I was T-boned at an intersection and the car was totalled. I was fortunate that it was a low-speed accident, or I might have been totalled, too: the car had no seat belts. Yes, this was long ago in the '70s.

The first car I bought new was a red Mercury Topaz. I loved that car. But eventually, it just got to be too old to keep repairing.

These days, we buy cars 2 or 3 years old. We pay cash. Life is simpler.

It's hard to imagine a car that I could buy today that I'd love - except, of course, for a Tesla. That I would love.

When the kids were little, the Plymouth mini-van was cherished as a practical vehicle.

For some ten years, I drove a second-hand Volvo wagon that was a brick. I loved that it had the tightest turning radius of any car on the road as well as the most indestructible in an accident. My DD hated it because it was "an old man's car." Why, Yes; Yes it was.

I just googled Karmann-Ghia (never heard of it before) and I'm in love. Why don't they design cars like that now? It is BEAUTIFUL.

I am an odd duck. I LOVED my "soccer mom car," a Toyota Sienna (can't even remember now why we sold it), HATED the Honda Accord we had right after it, and feel rather indifferent to my current Toyota Highlander hybrid. My fave car ever was a sleek Nissan Altima which I bought used when I moved to MI to start my residency.

Why are we all talking about our cars? Oh, yeah, Saef bought one and isn't overly enamored with it. Saef, why did you choose it?

Andrea, I bought a red Karmann-Ghia after the white one was wrecked. Kept that one for roughly ten years. That car would climb up roads into the foothills in Salt Lake City in a blizzard.

The only problem was the usual VW lack of decent heating and defrost. I had to scrape ice on the inside of the windshield as I drove.

if I were insanely wealthy and didn't have to rely on a car this is what I'd get.

http://www.hemmings.com/classifieds/...k/1757775.html

Dagmar :D

I bought a new silver Elantra. I'd really wanted one in a color called Sky Blue Metallic, but that was discontinued two years ago. I also looked at a used Camry in the same desirable blue, but that three-year-old car cost the same as the new Elantra, so for the first time in my life, I bought a new car. Also I paid cash. If I do change jobs, I don't want that debt to support.

It's Wednesday and I'm hoping for a long country ride and some looks through my late father's Swarovski spotting scope at birds at Montezuma Wildlife Refuge and a stop at Ontario Orchards farm stand.

Meals for Today:

Breakfast: Protein shake & cacao nib muffin, egg bake with spinach, mushrooms, turkey sausage and sage leaves; yogurt and cantaloupe
Snack: Bare Fruit cinnamon apple chips, the 180-calorie bag
Lunch: Something called a Harvest Chicken Salad from the Nice n' Easy mini-mart attached to a gas station, this being close the wildlife refuge, which does not abound in fine or healthful eateries
Snack: Trader Joe's freeze-dried strawberries
Dinner: Turkey meatloaf, a bit dry, steamed brussel sprouts and green beans, sweet potato
Dessert: White chocolate raspberry Quest bar

Exercise for Today:

20 minutes on the recumbent bike, a lousy Life Fitness bike with softer resistance than I'm used to, then Workout 7A of Strong Curves program. I got to use a real squat rack, rather than a Smith machine, so I went light, went as low as I could get (not much below parallel) and just tried 65 lbs -- an Olympic bar with 10 lbs on each side.

I had a friend in high school who had a Karmann-Ghia. She couldn't go on the freeway because it didn't go over 45 mph.

My DH is looking for his next mid-life crisis car. (His first was the 1965 Mustang that he raced in vintage car racing. His second was the 1999 Jeep that he used for four-wheeling.) This time he wants a convertible--preferably a Porsche Boxter S. I looked yesterday and found what may be the perfect one--used, about 10 years old with less than 30,000 miles and less than $25,000.

My son has a silver Elantra. He really likes it and it has been quite reliable. We bought each of our kids a car when they turned 16. My DD got a Honda Civic. We bought what we hoped would get them through high school, college and beyond (and hopefully be good for at least 10 years). So far, so good.

I'm also looking for a new car as my lease is up in 6 months. I've decided I want an Acura RDX. It has all the safety features that I want. Runner up was the Huyndai Tucson.

The Elantra is nice! Should be a good car for you, saef. Maybe you can "learn to love..." ;)

My 'Ghia went over 45 just fine, Allison. Maybe your friend's was one of the really old ones.

I have one more day of "catmageddon" and dinner walk tomorrow and then it's back to a more normal schedule. I had someone stop me on the last dogwalk today and ask if I was OK. Apparently I was weaving as I walked.

Long hot humid day and I'm so glad it's over and DH is making dinner and doing the laundry.

Stayed away from the sugary snacks today but not the caffeine. Do over starts Friday.

Dagmar :flame: :tired:

My last full day Upstate. Though I brought my new car back to my mother's on Tuesday, I didn't drive it yesterday. I'm going to make myself drive it today. Right now I feel like it's made out of glass, or I'm made out of glass. And I still need to get to the farm stand and up to Lake Ontario.

Meals for Today:

Breakfast: Protein shake & cacao nib muffin, egg bake with spinach, mushrooms, turkey sausage and sage leaves; yogurt and cantaloupe
Snack: 180-calorie bag of Bare Fruit cinnamon apple chips
Lunch: Baby arugula salad with roasted vegetables, some cubes of leftover steak and walnuts
Snack: A large Pennsylvania peach, a bit hairy, from the farm stand. Later, a large Paula Red apple, first of the season.
Dinner: Cornish game hen, half of a sweet potato, steamed cauliflower and squash with onions & peppers
Dessert: Cookies and cream Quest bar

Exercise for Today:

20 minutes on Cybex arc trainer, dropped resistance to six, one minute on, one minute off, a lot of work. Then Strong Curves 7B workout, feeling more confident in my walking dumbbell lunges. This with its generous Upstate square footage has a great free-weight section that includes a real landmine setup. It also has some of the most bizarre-looking single-muscle-working circuit machines that I've ever seen, a veritable forest of them. I really need a field guide as I wander around looking at them, wondering if I should be using any of them and if there is an advantage over free weights.

Odd that - I go "down to the lake" every day so hearing you say "up to Lake Ontario" sounds wrong somehow. Of course it is all relative to where you are. :dizzy:

Dagmar :p