This is what happens when you hold it in a little too long.

What do you do when you want something that won’t stall at the stop-light, won’t poke you in the rear-end with a spring, and has seats that are actually held onto the ground? Heck, what do you do when you just want something that you aren’t ashamed to drive?

YOU BUY A CAR! THAT’S WHAT!

That’s exactly what I plan on doing sometime in the near future, but before that happens, I need to choose what I want to drive. Then again, I guess that’s the best option to have before making any purchase, isn’t it? So what options are out there? Well for me, nothing overly expensive… must be good on gas… must be free of bells & whistles (I’m the one who’s supposed to add these later).

So today I decided would be the day to actually go out and start looking.

My first stop was at the local Kia dealership. The cars there are relativly in-expensive and seem to have a good warranty as well however they’re just too damn small! I personally don’t mind the brand, however it’s much too small for me and my needs especially if I’m hauling things back and forth all over the place, bringing friends as well as hauling the airsoft gear to the field. The guy I talked to was a Mr. Brian but unfortunatly they just didn’t have anything for me. In a perfect world, I would love to find another Hyundai Tiburon but unfortunatly, the 2000 & 2001′s are fairly difficult to find these days.

Next stop after Kia was to check out the Mazda dealership. Fat Paulie & I had been there once before to look for his vechile when he moved back to Canada so I figured I would do the same. After chatting with a nice guy by the name of Murray, he took me inside & showed me a few different options. There was a nice looking 2002 Pontiac Grand Am which looked appealing… depending on what the bank says, I might have to check back with him & see if it’s still hanging around.

From the Mazda dealership, I took a trip South to the Saskatoon Auto Mall. My first stop in the large auto-mall was at Jubilee Ford. I saw a couple nice looking cars, such as the 2003 Hyundai Tiburon..


I think they look pretty nice, however I just can’t afford one. There’s simply no reason for me to pick up such a nice car and such an expensive car. Evan then tried to convince me that the car that MIGHT be “the one” for me would be a Ford Taurus…

No thanks.

And then he suggested the Hyundai Accent…. thanks Evan, but I think I’ll be hitting the ‘ol dusty trail for now. I’ll call you.

Not too far down the road was Sherwood Chevrolet & Truck Center. Here I ran into a true salesman by the name of Glen. Not only did he have the TRUE used-car salesman attitude, but he knew how to make a customer feel good. We chatted for a while, he showed me a few of the options I had at his car-lot. One of the items I saw was pretty nice but a little out of my price range…

It looks pretty nice, however I just don’t have the $19,000 that they were asking for it, let alone the $18,000 we could probably talk them down to. One of my students in Yokohama drove one and absolutely loved it – Jun Ichikawa. He always talked about it and didn’t have a single negative thing to mention about it, so that’s gotta count for something!

Nearing the end of my trip, I stopped by the Saskatoon Mitsubishi car lot. Here’s a place where I KNEW I couldn’t afford anything on the lot (oh, except for a Sunfire for $7500… no chance in hell). I talked to a nice young woman by the name of Leah and she was very helpful in at least searching online for something. After a brief chat we went inside, went through a couple things, but unfortunately, there just wasn’t anything they had that was within my price range. That being said, I certainly saw some nice cars like this one…

The Mitsubishi EVO Lancer and….

The Mini Cooper. It’s a great little car but I do NOT have the $30,000 they were asking for it. Sorry Mitsubishi, I’ll be on my way now.

My last stop was at the Saskatoon Saturn dealership. Their slogan is “We aren’t asking you to fly to the moon… just drive to Saturn!” Cute…

I talked to a mammoth of a man by the name of Ed… I don’t recall the last name but I don’t think that makes a lick of difference to be honest. Ed was probably the kindest out of all of the people I had talked to that day, he didn’t seem to be in the market of BS’ing people and pulled off the casual salesman persona quite well. I was impressed.

We also chatted for a while and he ended up showing me a couple Saturn Ion’s which look nice but have very little power… while Murray at the Mazda dealership told me they have about 130 horsepower for the basic model, Ed told me they actually only have about 117… not a heck of a lot especially if I wanted any hope of passing someone on the highway.

Ed took me around the lot and showed me a few other possible options such as the Toyota Matrix. It looks nice, seems to have a little bit of power but also has lots of storage room which is certainly very nice.

The last car to look at was the Honda Accord. It was a newer model but that also made it quite expensive…

So that was my day out. What do you think I should get? Which of these WOULDN’T you get & why?

I roll out of my cozy bed onto the hard floor… I get up, see my cat hacking and coughing. Isn’t that just cute.

I hop into the shower, turn on the water and BLAMMO, it’s frickin’ cold! Stupid me forgot to let the water warm up. Wonderful.

I get out of the shower & reach for my hair gel… which, as it turns out, is empty. Lovely.

I get dressed and realize I’m missing my tie clip. Grand.

I get outside and realize it’s -44. Pefect.

I get to work & realize I’m not supposed to be here for another hour. Ducky.

I firmly beleive that today will be “One of those days”. Good morning to YOU.

So there I was, ready for anything… ready to take on the world but would you look at that.. MARK! He just happened to get in my way of taking over the world, and sadly there’s not a damned thing I could do about it. Alas, what can ya do. Incase you didn’t see, the date on this is somewhat of a long time after my last ‘Calgary’ update, but who gives a gosh-darn, right?

The man, Mark, himself with Senorita Squirt in hand.

A view from my old residence in Calgary – basically from Mark’s place, where I just happened to live for a good two months before moving out onto my own. I still feel that I owe them alot for allowing me to live in their basement rent-free. Possibly one of the nicest things someone has done for me, other than my second mother from North Carolina and my Japanese ‘family’ back in Yokohama.

The Alberta Treasury Branch – by far the best bank I’ve ever used, period. Better than Saskatoon Credit Union, FAR bette than Toronto Dominion, even (gasp!) better than Tokyo-Mitsubishi in Kanagawa-ken! Amazing, desyo?

Lunchtime at Applebee’s! Honest to god, but nothing beats their ribs!

No….. most certainly not…..

The gruesome twosome… back together again! Well… sorta… for the course of about 48 hours, heh heh. I’ve known this guy for a good seven years now – and we have quite the history (take that as a positive or negative…)

Hmmm, sounds like a personal problem to me.

Another pic post today, this one found on the subway.