Last night I did something that I said I’d never do in my wildest dreams; I went ahead and agreed to terms on a new vehicle – a 2010 Chevy Equinox Crossover SUV. The thought process began almost a year ago, when I knew I’d have to eventually replace my minivan with something more reliable. For months I was contemplating several options; I wasn’t sure if I wanted a car or SUV. I already had a Camaro so having some cargo capacity of an SUV would be more practical. I also highly considered a roadster convertible, such as a Pontiac Solstice or BMW Z4. The plan was to buy used, paying somewhere between $10-$20k.
Once summer arrived, I heard rumblings of the government “Cash for Clunkers” program which raised my curiosity. The program wasn’t yet official and I didn’t think much of it, until I learned my ’99 Venture minivan qualified (it gets the required 18MPG). At around the same time, I learned about Chevy’s new 2010 Equinox, which received several positive reviews, and got an amazing 32 highway MPG. Suddenly, combined with my GM Employee discount (my dad worked for GM), I could buy a new car under $20k out the door!
I’ve never bought a car from a dealer before, and for the most part, I dislike going places where deception and emotional games are running rampant. Fortunately, I had become much more comfortable with confronting conflict and playing the same game with the dealer. Second, the GM Employee discount is a set price which meant no haggling. Third, I was in no real great rush to buy a new car and there wasn’t any great emotional attachment. So when I drove down for my first test drive, life seemed pretty good. Until I realized dealer #1 had no idea how the “Cash for Clunkers” program actually worked.
This was actually the rule rather than the exception, and I probably should have given said dealer #1 more credit. As it stood, I was in a position that I could easily shop around for a dealer who would make it easy for me to basically dictate my terms. I went to a couple more dealers and didn’t get the answers I wanted. After a few days passed, I learned that the “Cash for Clunkers” funds dried out, but a couple days later the bill passed which would triple the funding. The biggest problem now was that inventories were shrinking and I would have to travel farther to find the right car.
Long story short, I found a dealer about an hour away who would acquire the right car on my behalf and sell it to me. Hopefully this means I’ll be driving around in a new ’10 Equinox in the next few days!
So this summer has worked out very well so far, with several new interests and such. I wanted to make sure I could balance everything out and manage my time efficiently, and it’s actually worked! At this point in time, I really have no large-scale “projects” I’m working on, which means the slate is clean and I can continue to build upon my experiences. I’m not exactly sure what that means yet, but the truth is that my options are nearly as open as they’ve been in the past 5 years.
What am I hoping for? I’m not entirely sure yet. Perhaps I’m finally ready to begin a lifelong chain of quests. I’ve passed all the prerequisites. Now to go ahead on the REAL journey!
Recently I’ve felt the need to “sharpen up” my computer tech skills a little bit. It’s not that I feel that my career is in any jeopardy, but I need to address the reasons why I don’t enjoy the work I do nearly as much as I used to. (This mainly entails the work outside my day job, as I still love my actual job!) So I’m thinking there has to be reasons for this, and ways to address them. For one, I’m not nearly as motivated by money as I once was…I need to become hungry for it once again. Second, I just don’t think I’m as good at it as I probably should be. I’ve never provided myself with the proper resources and always tried to cut corners, which probably led to most of my frustrations. I need to find a way through this – and it’s going to require a small amount of brainpower – brainpower that I haven’t really used much in the past 7-8 years!
This doesn’t mean I’m going to be doing additional side work outside my job. It simply means I need to sharpen my skills and regain my mastery! And the lessons learned will propel me to branch out in other areas. I’ve actually considered learning computer programming one more time, but I’m still not sure exactly where to begin. (For those curious, I want to begin by writing small games which may lead me to bigger and better places). I’ve already decided that a stable career is best, but that doesn’t necessarily preclude me from pursuing other avenues in the meantime. They just have to come above and beyond my 40-hours-a-week as a systems admin.
I often wonder where I could be if I had spent the thousands of hours playing World of Warcraft doing something productive instead? It’s time to stop wondering. I’ve been off the WoW drug for almost a year now. I’ll talk more about WoW in another post. It’s an incredible game – quite possibly the best ever created.
In closing, I will leave you with some realizations I have discovered in the past 1-2 months:
-I enjoy competitive Magic but I have my doubts that I’ll ever be an elite player. My initial ambition was to be the best, until I realized how much time commitment it would take. I don’t have enough time to commit my entire life to Magic as the greats do, and I’m perfectly fine with that.
-My attitude towards having kids has changed a lot in the past year, in the fact I’d no longer feel devastated if I never had any. This will probably change again.
-I’m comfortable with being a “jack of all trades, and a master of none”. If I am ever great at something, it will probably be something unpopular (but still something I would enjoy)
-I need more costumes and pictures in costumes. I would also still like to act. One may think that YouTube would be the perfect springboard for this, but not really.
-I will always feel comfortable around very intelligent people. Social situations which make me anxious and comfortable are probably due to an IQ differential rather than overall social ineptness.
-I am both very introverted and very extraverted depending on the situation. I need to embrace this rather than attempt to fix a perceived “problem”.
-Good people like it when they are challenged, or conflicted. “Going to war” versus a trusted friend can produce positive results, if handled intelligently.
-The louder, the better!
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Ok, so here's the much-anticipated Epilogue to this story:
ReplyDeleteI never got the Equinox. In the end, if I wanted one really badly, I could have made it happen. But in the end, it wasn't meant to be and I respect fate. Instead, I found a very nicely-equipped 2005 Trailblazer for about one-third the cost. Right now, it seems like a win-win for me, and we'll try this again in a few more years!
Later on on the blog, I mentioned that I want to "expand my horizons" and gain some computer mastery! And yes, I've begun to learn some programming (C++ sytle!) Hopefully this will take me where I want to go. As far as side business goes, I've officially re-opened ZA Enterprizes. But this time, it's different. In fact, there's no $$$ exchanging hands, and it will probably be that way for quite some time. What am I doing then? Investing in myself. Gaining skills, marketability, and a network of trusted friends and colleagues. Perhaps one day, this may turn into something great.