Rob #8 - Never Losin' Sight

[Rob1231]

Hi everybody! Doing well, just a little update...

Things are good with W and I ATM. D15 is at a football game halfway across the state tonight - won't be home until veeeery late. So... good plans for the kidless evening!

Wish me luck - I'm off in a few minutes to do battle with the Car Salesman Monsters. I plan to use my eerie DB Master Mind Tricks to avoid getting sucked in or manipulated - mere mortals don't stand a chance against me! I have my eye on a gorgeous new Toyota Camry - it's a hybrid, which "fits my liberal agenda" according to W, and loaded with neat gizmos, which fits my geek agenda.

This weekend will be spent cleaning up my old car - it will be handed down to D15 if I ever can bring myself to allow her to drive! We also are invited to a cookout at friends', and a couple of bike rides planned. Plus the ongoing career planning stuff. Whew!

Very excited about the car - major PMA going right now. Fingers are crossed!

[DaveJ]

I highly recommend the AAA car buying service. We got an Honda Odyssey absolutely painless. Talk to agent about exactly what you want. They locate one from one of the dealers and give you a price. It may not be the best price you can haggle but it's painless and you don't have to sit at the dealer while they try to "work" you. The agent called back 20mins later said they found the one we want, $500 under invoice. We go there, sign the paperworks, drive home. They also do trade-ins.

You know, I wonder if you do DBing on the car salesperson. If you are suppose to validate their feelings and agree with them......

[swashy]

Good luck with the car Rob! A hybrid....sweet. With a bit of work maybe you can get them to pay you every month...hmmmm. Pull some yoda like jedi mind tricks man.

Hope you are enjoying your kidless night. You sound good man. Keep at it.

[Rob1231]

Well, I got the car! Not the absolute best deal out there, I suspect, but pretty good with only a minimal amount of haggling and car dealer spew to wade through. I had W sit in parking lot reading a book and leaving all of the wheeling and dealing to me, so that was some good DBing there.

The car is VERY cool, loaded with lots of techie bells and whistles that have me, W and D15 playing endlessly every time we get in it. Remote engine starter, navigation system, awesome stereo with ipod input, bluetooth / hands-free phone, voice-activated commands - not to mention all the nifty hybrid displays. The Geek In Me is very, very happy.

Our kidless night didn't go quite as planned - let's just say, Rob needs to pay more attention to the monthly calendar.... S'aright - the old me would have got upset over this, the new me is more understanding and patient. No biggie.

Long, enjoyable bike ride yesterday morning with W and a friend. The weather was gorgeous - always good for a PMA boost.

Went to a party at some friends' house last night - we helped them move a couple weekends ago, and this was a "thank you". We all pitched in on a huge, elaborate cake to take - 3 layers, done up with frosting to look like a crushed U-HAUL box with broken dishes spilling out of it. (I think we may watch too much FoodTV!) It was a hit!

Today W and I both need to catch up on our resume-writing / future career planning stuff. Even though we both want to do this, it sure is hard to motivate yourself to sit down and work on it. (Hmmm, could that be why I'm stalling by catching up on the boards here?!)

[Jeff223]

Still reading along. You sound good.

Congrats on the car. I cannot wait until the Internet puts the car dealers out of business.

Take care.

[Jen_Jam]

And in the interets of expressing the nice things in life - well done Rob, your life sounds good. You've worked really hard for this and deserve to reap those rewards.

[D11912]

Rob,

Just saying hello... Good to see you doing so well friend.

rainbow

[SDFoundGirl]

I'm jealous 'bout your super cool new hybrid! I'd be geeked out on all the bells and whistles too!

I hear you on the stalling about career stuff...I've been putting off grad school for a decade! What made you decide to go back?

Glad life is good, and sorry "nature" got in the way of your kidless night.

SD

[Trip]

Rob, just stopping in to say hi. You always had some great advice for me and I never forget it. I am glad you are doing so well.

Cool about the new car. Getting a hybrid as my next vehicle is on my list of choices. Let us know how it goes with this one.

[Rob1231]

Thanks, gang!

SD, you asked what made me decide to go back to school. In retrospect, it was a decision that took years to make. I had been straddling the line between "techie" and "manager" for several years, and felt really stuck.

First, I went and tried the techie route - taught myself all kinds of things about web development, etc. It was fun, but there is SOOOO much to learn, and many, many hours of work got me to about the same level of skill as a very talented kid coming out of high school, I think. Nice, but not where I wanted my career to start in my 40's.

After that realization, I decided that the next thing to try was to beef up my "manager side" and see if I could get off the fence in that direction. It still took some talking myself into it to bite off the time and effort for grad school, but I finally did. I'm really glad, too! (But also very glad to be DONE!!!)

BTW, I think it's worth pointing out that I started on my MBA a full six months before the bomb. Unfortunately, by that time W had pretty much made up her mind that I was never going to change anything in my life, and this glaring bit of evidence to the contrary didn't help for whatever reason. Well, that's water under the bridge at this point - not bitter, just sharing it for the benefit of others who may not realize just how hard it is for our changes to have any impact on a scr3wed up MLCer!