On Active Duty

b and I were active parents this weekend and our active duty will continue on until next week. Last fall, on his way back to school at the end of Fall Break, Angel got into a car accident (totally not his fault) and his car got totaled. He has been living without one ever since--which is fairly easy on his campus--but feels he needs one now because he wants to start working again. So he came up for the long weekend to go car shopping.

Angel was one of those teenagers that could not wait to get his license and his own car. He bought his first car with his own money while he still had a learner's permit. b took him car shopping then and showed him some of the basics. We drive old cars and b has been fabulous with finding great deals and keeping them alive. Angel's first car was perfect and when it was totaled he ended up getting $100 more than he paid for it 3 years later.

So Friday we drove down to Angel's school to pick him up and went to look at our first car Friday nite. It was the car Angel had been hoping would be "the one" but alas it was not. b told him it is never the first car. Saturday morning we got a somewhat late start but had lined up about 6 cars to go see. The first was at a dealer's and we could see the car but not drive it until Monday. It was a possibility but not a strong one. Most everyone else was either closed or unavailable until Monday so we had only two left to see that day.

I stay in the car for all the looking, test driving and discussing of car issues, so I was quite surprised when they got back in after the next test drive and Angel told me it was "the one," since this one was an automatic. We drive manual cars in our family and that was a sticking point for Angel. However it was limiting his choices, especially since he had a tight price range, so he had agreed to look at a few automatics. His explanation for picking this car was that it was the best one he could get for his money. He even negotiated the price down a little. Since it was the weekend, the actual business transaction could not be done--our state is picky about how these transactions are handled--but the owner said he would hold the car for us until Monday.

The rest of the weekend was spent with us feeding him, watching movies and hanging out. He went out with Pumpkin on Saturday night. In true Pumpkin fashion she has adopted him as her brother and likes to take him out with her friends when he's in town. On Sunday we went to the dojo and did a family work out. In general I found him to be much more relaxed--perhaps from his Costa Rica vacation, perhaps from feeling more secure about school these days--and much more like his old self, snuggles and all. It was a very nice weekend.

We drove him back to school today with a huge bag of food: guacamole, baked ziti, meatballs, and chocolate & peanut butter chip cookies. When we came back b met the owner of the car to take care of the title transfer. On his next day off he'll handle registration and inspection and then on Saturday we'll drive back down to Angel's school to deliver the car--because that's what parents do when called to duty.