Tag Archives: Daisy

Stormy Weather

I love the Progressive Insurance commercials about turning into your parents. I absolutely LOL’ed when they released the weather commercial; it perfectly describes both Kenn and our oldest son. Every morning, Kenn gives me a weather report including the high temperature expected and any chance of rain. Yesterday’s weather report was basically, “Things have changed. The rain now isn’t expected in this area until around 5pm. Radar shows a big blob of rain over Birmingham, AL.” With that, we went about our morning.

It was a muggy day, so we elected to sit inside at church. Inside was a good call; when the service ended, it was obvious that a pretty good rain shower had moved through and it was still sprinkling. Kenn and I said our goodbyes and headed home. (He volunteers with the parking team, so we usually drive separately.) As I drove, the rain picked up enough that the intermittent wiper setting wasn’t enough and I switched to the lower “continuous” setting. Then, about halfway home the rain changed from a steady, semi-hard rain to what my youngest would call a “wrath of God” rainstorm.

Y’all it was horrible. I switched the wipers to the fastest setting, turned on the defroster just in case, and turned on the hazard lights. Fortunately, there wasn’t a lot of traffic on the two-lane road I was on. It was one of those storms where it would probably have been best best to pull over, but doing so was impossible. That stretch of road has no shoulder to speak of; pulling over would mean going down an embankment and into a field. There’s also a section of road work where a traffic circle is being installed. So, I hugged the center line and kept my eye on the white line at the outside of the lane. However, even with the wipers at the highest setting, I could only get a glimpse of the white line every few seconds. The rain was blowing across the road in sheets – which occasionally included small limbs. Since there are a lot of pecan trees in the area, I prayed that, in addition to staying on the road, no limbs would come in through the window. I have never been so glad to get home. I made a dash inside, then stood at the window watching for Kenn. He and I take different routes home from church so I had no idea what he might have encountered. He did arrive home safely. It turned out that his route had several trees and limbs blocking the road.

I have to say that yesterday’s storm is in the Top Three worst storms I’ve ever driven in. One of the other worst storms was also in the local area. I had headed out to pick up my oldest grandson for a visit when a horrible rain storm moved in – equally as bad as yesterday’s storm with hail thrown in for good measure. I did find a place to turn around so I could head back home, but that time, I actually wasn’t on the road and didn’t realize it until a sign suddenly appeared ahead of me. I veered to miss the sign and wound up in a field. Fortunately, I was driving the Tundra and I managed to get out of the field, back on the road, and crawl home. The other Top Three storm occurred in Fort Smith, Arkansas when I was driving to Estes Park, Colorado. There I was, on the interstate in an unfamiliar town, and I couldn’t see a bloody thing. As soon as the rain let up and I could find somewhere to pull over, I did so and just sat in the car and shook for a few minutes.

Image from depositphotos.com

Fortunately, Daisy waited until yesterday evening to act up. Kenn and I met friends for dinner and on the way home, Daisy lost her mind. She started beeping and displaying error messages. “Eyesight disabled.” “RAB disabled.” “Check engine.” Simultaneously, the engine lost power and began running erratically; we managed to pull into a parking lot and began doing research. I thought I was going to have to call our friends and ask them to circle back and take one of us home to get the truck. We were able to eventually get the engine running smoothly enough to be able to make it home. Once at home, we disconnected the battery for about fifteen minutes and removed and replaced the gas cap making sure that it was sealed correctly. One or the other of those things fixed the problem. I’m convinced that some sensor got wet and temporarily malfunctioned. As of today, Daisy is still running fine. I’m just so, so thankful that whatever happened didn’t happen during my drive home earlier in the day.

Now that I have the song stuck in my head, I’ll leave you with a link to Lena Horne’s version of Stormy Weather.

Meet Daisy

In January 2021 we became a two truck family with the purchase of Ruby, The Big Red Truck. While Ruby is awesome (and red!), I told Kenn sometime last year that I wasn’t going to want to drive a huge truck as my primary vehicle forever. While Ruby is comfortable and drives well, she has some big blind spots. I’ve had a couple of close calls because of not being able to see through the truck itself. Parking can also be problematic. When I go to the optometrist I try to remember to drive Kenn’s smaller truck; the parking lot at the optometrist’s office just isn’t designed for larger vehicles.

My off-hand comment about wanting a change at some nebulous point in the future resulted in many conversations about what sort of vehicle I would like. I wanted a smaller SUV-type vehicle. Kenn and I are both tall and prefer vehicles with higher seats, especially as we age. A vehicle such as a Mini Cooper that I would have to crawl in and out of wasn’t even on my radar. Kenn kept encouraging me to test drive various vehicles, but I had no interest in doing so until we were ready to actually make a purchase. Well, that time arrived a couple of weeks ago.

Knowing that this day was coming, I had already narrowed my top contenders to a Toyota RAV4 or a Subaru, probably a Forester since the Outbacks I had previously driven had been uncomfortable. We have owned Toyotas for almost twenty years and know how reliable they are. Subaru also has a reputation for reliability. I have always wanted a Subaru; I’m a fan of what the company stands for and their commitment to making the world a better place. Knowing that this is probably one of the last “new” cars we will buy, we both had a few things we were looking for: Kenn wanted all-wheel drive, and I wanted bells and whistles. I don’t need all the bells and whistles, but I don’t want bare-bones either. So, the test-driving began.

We test drove a hybrid RAV4 and I liked it fine. It drove well and I would expect it to provide us many years of problem-free use. We then went to the only Subaru dealership in the area and test drove a Forester. The Forester was just okay. I preferred the RAV4 over the Forester. I had been reluctant to test drive another Outback but, I finally decided to give one a try since the last one I drove was a 2018 and there may have been improvements since then. Before we left the dealership, we test drove an Outback Wilderness and I had to admit that it was nice. After we left the dealership, I decided that we needed to look into Outbacks a little more so I went to the dealership’s website and found another one to look at. We made another trip to the dealership for yet another test drive… and bought a car. Everyone, meet Daisy.

Daisy and her Cinnamon Brown Pearl exterior
Not the best picture, but I love the Java interior

Daisy is a 2022 Outback Touring. I love everything about her. All Subarus are all-wheel drive, so that checked off Kenn’s one requirement. As a Touring edition, Daisy has all the bells and whistles. I always thought heated seats were a stupid idea until we purchased Ruby, at which point I discovered that they are AWESOME. Daisy has heated and cooled seats. I’m still not sold on the whole cooled seat idea, but leather seats in a Georgia summer may well change my mind, LOL. Also, after test driving Daisy, I uttered words that I have never before said about a car – Daisy is fun to drive. Kenn enjoys driving, but for me it has always just been a way to get from Point A to Point B. And yes, some vehicles drive better than others, but I have never before considered driving fun. Daisy has changed my mind.

I’m already excited about the dual heating and cooling zones in the front of the vehicle. Finally, one of us doesn’t have to freeze just because the other is running hot. I also like the fact that I can set the temperature for my side and Daisy will automatically choose heat or air conditioning based on the temperature outside. And, for the directionally challenged such as myself, having a compass in the corner of the rear-view mirror is a big bonus. Now, I just hope that Daisy will be as reliable as the Toyotas (Bonnie the Highlander, Paco the Tacoma, and Ruby the Tundra) that have come before her. She has big shoes, I meany tires, to fill.

So, is driving fun for you?