MONDAY MOTIVATION - Slow Start

 Good morning, everyone.

Last week got so messed up fast. 

I did get some prep work done on the novel using Renee George's workbook. I came home on Sunday to be greeted with my husband's plan to forge ahead with purchasing a 'newer' vehicle. A bit of back story.

While in town on Saturday, my dependable truck decided not to be so dependable. I had to call Bob to drive two hours round trip to trade vehicles with me. He instantly decided it was time to further pursue trading in my truck for a 2012 Toyota 4-Runner he'd had his eye on. Mind you, this trade in is supposed to replace MY vehicle.

Courtesy of Pixabay

The other challenge was I've been saving for three years to pay cash for whatever vehicle I decided on. I was about $5k short for the 4-runner. I spent Sunday and 4th of July crunching numbers to see if we could make it work - for a vehicle I wasn't sure I wanted.

Tuesday was a very long day. We gathered the cash, went to our favorite cafe for breakfast then into the dealership. I was very dubious about the vehicle but I slid into the driver's seat, positioned everything and found myself quite comfortable. I was surprised when we could take it for a test-drive without a sales rep. My biggest concern in any vehicle is being able to see and not having blind spots. I'm 5'4". The seat has to be almost all the way up to reach the pedals and I need to be able to see over the backs of seats, etc. I drove the SUV out of town a ways and back so that I had both in-town and highway traffic to check for those blind spots and get a feel for how she handled. Yes, I said SHE... I name my vehicles. They have to get me through a lot of travel and be dependable. 

One of the things that sold me on the 4-runner is that the 2012 model was the last one they put the 4-runner body on a truck chassis... helping to make me feel as if I'm driving my truck but with a lot of interior space.

After the test drive we went to the bank to see about a personal loan. We've not had a car payment in 15 years and I wasn't starting this close to Bob's potential retirement (though he keeps moving the date farther and farther out.

Courtesy of Pixabay

I can not believe it took the bank FIVE HOURS to approve a very small personal loan for someone who's had the same job for 12 years, has a credit score of 840 and had twice the amount sitting in our checking account (part of which we were applying with my savings) I miss small-town banking. Mind you, we were using a trade in vehicle (NOT my truck) that did not have AC and it was 104* with a heat index of 110*!! We ate lunch, ran a couple of errands than camped out in the bank lobby, hoping to hurry the process along.

After a grueling day, we came home with ANGEL:

Snowball is the truck in the background.

Yes, she looks like a police vehicle LOL but I do love her. I'm ordering personal plates this week and part of my author account paid the sales tax. Though, Bob has announced he gets to take the first road trip with her! That's okay. He'll need the amazing AC as he drives across KS to visit his brother.

Bob even took off an extra day of work so we could take care of this. He wanted to insure I had a dependable vehicle while he's on the boat. Good thing. Two days later, Snowball started to creak and grind so she is parked indefinitely. Without Angel, I would be too. LOL

So where does this long story leave me regarding my writing?

I didn't get any writing done last week. I just needed to decompress. I spent yesterday getting ahead on as many blog posts as possible for the entire month. I'll spend today setting up the rest of this week - with a Writer's Nest Guest.

The whole car thing last week did throw off the Something Blue anthology schedule. I'll be adjusting that this week. Last Wednesday's missing post will run this week then we'll be back on track next week.

1 - Set up rest of blog posts

2 - Finish workbook and start writing on An Ozarks Homecoming

3 - Kanban board set up (I did finally get to finish setting up my HB90 and 6 M4L planners on Saturday. I'm getting there!)

So how crazy is your summer? Are you driving your dream car? If not, what would that dream car be? Share in the comments below and inspire everyone else to Manifest their desires.

All my best

~Angela