Friday: Another Surprise...

My husband and I were looking at cars today... he surprised me by driving to a car dealership to have a look-see at the Ford Thunderbirds. Our tenth anniversary is coming up and he thought this would be a nice gift for me. What a guy! (Pardon me while I jump up and down with glee.)

I've had Thunderbirds before and loved them, and the last one I had didn't get traded in till it was over ten years old and had over 130,000 miles on it. The car I'm driving now is a 1998 Corolla, a light purple in color. It's a practical car, four doors and more room in the trunk than you would expect. I expected to keep this car for at least as long as I had my old Thunderbird. It was the first Toyota I'd ever bought, but before that, all the cars I had were all Fords.

Since Ford decided to bring back the Thunderbirds and make them sporty little two-seaters, we've seen quite a few of them in this area. All very cute, each one catching my eye and making me wish my own car was older and had more mileage so I could trade it in. The practical side of me won over, and I just drove on with my little purple car.

So... imagine my surprise when my ever-practical husband drove into a Ford dealership on the way back from going out for lunch. "Let's see what they have," said he. I took one out for a test drive... handled beautifully, fit me perfectly, the color was glorious with that metallic paint... two-seater, two-doors, and less room in the truck than I expected. My husband commented that I wouldn't be able to fit as many groceries in the Thunderbird trunk as I did in the Toyota trunk. I told him I'd suffer through that. After all, I go grocery shopping alone, and what can't fit into the trunk can fit into the passenger side of the car, plus there's a cute little space behind the bucket seats. What a great car! (Pardon me while I jump up and down with glee.)

So we shopped for Thunderbirds today... at one, two, three dealerships. We came home and my husband checked the Internet... comparing prices... comparing years... Should we buy the 2005? Or buy a 2002 or 2004 with very low mileage? And do I want the aqua blue one? Or the darker blue one with the metallic paint? This is the last year they'll be making the Thunderbirds, so the 2005 models are the 50th Anniversary cars.

We're still thinking.... I'm still jumping up and down with glee. But I'm also trying to keep my wits about me until we truly make a decision to do this and I have the keys to a Thunderbird in my hand.

(Pardon me while I jump up and down with glee.)