On Saturday, Devon had to go out to his Mom’s so he took my SUV instead of his car.  In the entirety of our relationship/friendship, he’s only ever driven a car of mine once because he hates driving other people’s cars and that was when I had my old Jeep Liberty. So he’s never actually driven my car in the almost three years I’ve had it.  He’s been in it, obviously, but always as a passenger.

He discovered that I have power everything, mostly power brakes and was not a happy camper when he realized that.  I probably should have told him, but I’ve gotten so used to them that I didn’t think about it.  10 minutes after he leaves the house I get a text:

“Let me count how many times I’ve already almost gone through the windshield.”

“Oh yeah…you wouldn’t be used to power brakes would you? You pretty much only need to graze them to get it to stop. Please don’t kill my car.”

“Yeah……I’m getting that.  If it dies it’s not my fault.”

He did greatly enjoy my backup camera, though.  I do admit, I love those, I don’t know if I can backup without them anymore.

His beloved 2002 Toyota Avalon is finally, I think, hitting death’s door.  It was his Mom’s car originally, and when he graduated college she decided to get a new car and asked him if he wanted to take hers since he always liked it.  Of course, he said yes and has been driving it since….2009-ish? So he’s had it a good almost 8 years and the car it’self is almost 15 years old.  It’s lived a good life, but it’s at the point (well..no…it’s BEEN at the point) where it’s costing more to repair than a new car payment would be.  There’s a constant rattling in it, and he’s replaced the same belts like 4 times in the past three years and it has bumps and scratches everywhere.  At this point, it’s lived it’s life and should be allowed to die peacefully.  So he’s declared that he’s buying a new car this summer (provided the Avalon lasts until the summer).

At first he’s like “well I want something smaller, maybe like a Toyota Camry or something” because in his defense, Avalon’s are oddly wide for a sedan.

I drove the Avalon once and thought I was driving a tank.  But now he’s been thinking about getting something bigger like a Jeep Grand Cherokee (his Dad had one back in the day and Devon loved that thing, too) so he took mine out for a spin to gauge size.

Granted, I drive a 2013 Nissan Rogue, which is in the more compact SUV category, it’s not huge, definitely not the size of the Jeep he’s considering, but still up higher and bigger than he’s used to.

Though, I still think my car is too small and I’m planning on upgrading, myself, this spring.

I used to have a Jeep Liberty, like I said and I was spoiled in that car.  It didn’t look huge on the outside, but it was so big on the inside, there was so much space for everything.  And while most see the Rogue as spacious; from what I’m used to, it’s not that big, in my opinion.  I feel kind of cramped in there.

And I loved my Jeep.  When it was totaled it broke my heart.  No joke.  That car saved my life once and then a very large deliver-like truck rear-ended me and killed it.  It had an oil leak that no one could find (without pulling the whole engine apart) so it was dying slowly when I finally got it totaled in 2013, but I refused to get rid of it until it died.  Kind of like what Devon is doing with his Avalon.  So I get it.  Hell if Jeep still made Liberty’s I would have gotten a new one as soon as this one was gone.  But they don’t make them anymore…..but they should reconsider (I’m looking at you Jeep executives…bring my baby back!).

So I’m looking into getting a new Nissan Pathfinder this spring when my Rogue lease is up.  I really should have just gotten the Pathfinder to begin with, but I felt like it was a little too big when I first drove it.  I could have easily gotten used to it though.

It’s bigger than my Jeep was, though considering how spacious the inside of my Jeep was, I don’t think it was that much different on the inside.

The new Grand Cherokee’s are nice, too.  I feel like that’s a little too much for me? I dunno.  I think they’re even a little bigger than the Pathfinder?

Maybe it’s just because the body styles are different.  I don’t know.

Devon actually liked driving something bigger, though.  Surprisingly.  I mean, once he got used to the brakes…which probably still hasn’t happened yet.

Of course I got in my car this morning and it was like a different world because the seat was off-position, the mirrors were all different.  He put gas in my car, though, which was sweet since it was only like 1/4 of the way empty when I lent it to him.  So it didn’t really need gas, but it was sweet of him to do it anyway.

He did, however, also come home with a bit of a cold from his mother.  So now I’m feverishly Lysoling everything in hopes that I don’t get it.  Every time he gets sick, he usually spreads it to me and I’d like for once for that to not happen.  Now normally, though, when he gets sick he manages to do it as a long weekend or a holiday is starting. Almost every long weekend or holiday last school year, he got sick almost every time right before or the day the vacation started.  So we can’t enjoy being off as much if one of us is sick.  So I am rather happy he has it now instead of next week.  But still….germs.  I did leave the Lysol in his reach, so hopefully he uses it a bit today so that I’m not fully coming home to all things germs.  He did say that he feels better this morning that he did yesterday, so that’s hopeful that this won’t last long.

Keep your fingers crossed that I don’t get his plague.  Ain’t nobody got time for that.

And yes, I even Lysol’d my car when I got into this morning.  His germs were in it last!

Don’t judge me.