Before and After

On a recent ski trip to Mt. Bachelor in Bend, OR I bagged my first ever deer, car hunting.  I don't know how fast I was going when I hit her, but before I hit the brakes I was going 65mph.  And I didn't have much time to slow down.  Fortunately, good old "car car" got off quite well considering.  

The deer was not so well off.  All the better for the cop who we called to come put the poor deer out of its misery.  Here's the before and after: 

But the slight damage to "car car" made me start thinking more heavily about updating my automobile arsenal.  I've been considering doing this ever since getting out of school and getting a real job.  My thought process followed a series of considerations.  First was what I would love to drive.  I did some searching for a slightly used BMW 335xi.  Then after considering the price tag I revised to a more reasonable option.  And finally after realizing I'm a cheap bastard I made another modification to the plan.  It looks like this:

My cheapness stems from knowing what a before and after of my bank account would look like:

And here's the before and after of my decision to fix "car car:"

I'm sort of happy to have it fixed.  It's nice to watch the bank account number tick up each month rather than try to swim up out of the abyss.  But she's getting old.  84 in dog years in fact.  She has a number of minor inconveniences like the gas cap open button doesn't work anymore, the stereo has always been a little flaky, and it sure would be nice to be riding in style again.  Some day soon...


If anyone gets my reference "car car" I give you mad mad props!