The Suburban

This is a picture of my ’99 Suburban.  It is one of approximately 43 taken by Hayden yesterday.  We have always called the Suburban “the truck” because it is built on a truck chassis.  (Do you like how I just said “chassis” as if I know what one is?)

I love this Suburban.  I’m a truck girl.  I like to ride up high and bounce when I drive over bumps.  I love the feeling of indestructibility that a truck brings.  While driving the Suburban, I mentally dare anyone to hit me.  Go ahead and try it.  We’ll just see who drives away from the accident and who has to call a tow truck to go home to their mamma!

I also love the unrefined feeling of driving a truck.  Sure, I normally use it to haul kids to school and sports practice, but I look like I could be going to the ranch.  Or camping.  Or off road driving.  I don’t do any of those things of course, but I like looking like the type of person who would.  What we do do with the Suburban of course is haul the horse trailer.  The Suburban looks super cowboy-cool with the horse trailer behind it.

At least it used to.

The Suburban died yesterday.  Well actually, we had to put it down.  It has been having performance issues (why do husbands never believe you when you tell them there’s something wrong with the car?) and when we took it in for an estimate yesterday, the total was higher than the value of the vehicle.  Given that it’s 10 years old and has 130,000 miles on it, it seemed best to just put it out of its misery. 

Let us have a moment of silence for the passing of a great automobile.

Thanks.

Rich spent the afternoon looking for a replacement.  We had researched a year ago and had choices narrowed down to a Toyota Highlander or GMC Acadia.  Rich found the few, used options available and I met him after school to look at them.  Long story short, the Highlander was much too small and there was ONE Acadia in town.  One.  A 2008 with 24,000 miles.  So we bought it.

The Acadia is what is called a “crossover” vehicle which sound much cooler than “mini-van made to look like an SUV” which is what it is.  It sits lower than a traditional SUV but the mileage is MUCH better and it has all-wheel drive (very important for snow and when we visit the lake).  It can tow 5,000 pounds which will take care of the horse.  It is very nice, I look cute in it and I am very grateful to have a reliable car.

But it is not a truck.



Hayden is not adjusting so well.  I have mentioned before his gigantic opposition to change.  Well it came out in a BIG way yesterday. 

I didn’t even tell him we were car shopping.  I told Faith and let her tell the other kids after I left the house to meet Rich.  When I got home, there was heck to pay.  Hayden hollered and cried and accused of us treachery and begged us to keep the Suburban even if it meant it just sat in front of the house.  Of course he had this same fit eight years ago when we ditched the mini-van for the Suburban.  And three years ago when we traded Rich’s old car.  And last year when we bought a new stove.  And . . .

I know - it sounds weird.  If you don’t have a kid with “issues” it probably sounds even worse than that. But it’s just Hayden.  It’s what he does.  When something changes he has a fit and then, eventually, adjusts.  We’re learning to ride out the fit stage but I’ll be honest:   it’s exhausting.  By the time he got done yelling at me yesterday we had 15 minutes until we had to leave for the all-city 6th grade band concert.

(Rabbit trail:  Who on earth thinks it’s a good idea to put every 6th grade band student in the district in one gym to play simultaneously?  Who?  Crazy people is my guess.  Or deaf people.)

So I took Hayden by the car dealership where Rich was in negotiations and let him look over the new car.  This settled him a bit and we drove across town to the concert.  As we pulled into the parking lot though, he told me he didn’t want to go.  The rehearsal earlier in the day had completely annoyed him.  It was loud and tuneless and everyone was off tempo and he wanted no part of it.  Normally Hayden LOVES performing, so this was an out of character inclination.

Guess what we did?  Well, I guess I told you yesterday so it’s not too hard to guess.  We ditched the concert.  Instead, I drove to Dairy Queen, ordered two Blizzards and sat in the parking lot with him and just mellowed out and talked.  It was nice.

It was time well spent.

Then we went back to the dealership to get all of our crud out of the Suburban and say goodbye and let Hayden take 43 pictures of it.  And to deeply, sincerely apologize to whomever has to detail it.  It is dirty.

And it smells like horse butt.