Chapter 261: The Car that Best Projects the Right Image for Me is Chosen

Tuesday, June 21, 2005

I woke after the usual 2.5 hours, had a snack bar, shut my eyes again, created a sight blob, sent it through to the study, where seven of my minds created a fingertip each for the scrolling keyboard, and we started studying.

Other than a couple of snack breaks, that's how we spent the morning. It was a very successful test, especially because we didn't hit a gap in our knowledge that we had to google, so we didn't need to do any extensive mouse work. One of my minds had to look in one of the textbooks for a couple of minutes, which was a little disruptive, but the rest of us concentrated on eating a couple of snacks with our eyes shut and chatting among ourselves about how it was going.

I was hoping for Julia, but it was Ava who woke first. She whispered, "Oh, hi Mark. I thought you'd be studying?"

"I decided to stay in bed this morning. There are more beautiful, naked girls in this room."

"More beautiful, naked guys too."

"Exactly the right number of them. I haven't asked you what your plans for summer are?"

"Mostly spend time with Mom and Dad. Mom's got a course of chemo in a couple of weeks, so I want to help her as much as possible during that and until she gets her strength back."

"That's about the time my family and Julia are going to England to visit Mom's family..." We quietly talked about that, her parents, and that Leanna hated me.

Julia woke during Ava's chuckling. Julia stretched, saying, "Mmm. This is nice. I never get to wake up next to you." Julia scooted over to hug my back, asking, "Did you come back or be lazy?"

I looked over my shoulder, saying, "Neither." I used NP to hold Julia's lips together briefly. That was politer to Ava than saying "I'll tell you later," to Julia. I'd get a chance to explain to Julia sooner or later.

It turned out to be sooner. Julia frowned briefly, then her eyes widened, looking at me in amazement. Then she said, "Ava, would you go to the kitchen to get us some juice please?"

"Okay." Ava got out of bed, then asked, "Are we playing a game, or can I wear a robe?"

"A robe's fine. Grab Mark's."

"Okay, thanks."

As soon as Ava was out of the room, I started snoring. If half a snore can be called "snoring" because Julia jabbed me in the ribs, chucking and demanding, "Spill it!"

I pointed out, "Don't you think you're misusing Ava's obedience just because you're nosey?"

"I do not. There is no higher purpose than satisfying my curiosity. You can start doing that right now."

"It's simple; I studied from here."

After an impressively short think, Julia asked, "You mean on the computers, with a sight blob, right?"

"Yep. I'm embarrassed at how long it took me to think of it, but it works pretty well from here. It's slightly inconvenient, but not too much."

"That's awesome, and SO LAZY! Haha. Are you going to do that from now on?"

"Yeah. That's why I bought so many snack bars."

"Ahh! Of course. It's going to be nice to wake up next to you from now on."

"When I come from home, I think I'll go to the study as normal. I'll be up and dressed already, and it's slightly easier for me to study that way. Once we're living in the mansion you'll wake up next to me every morning, provided I can do it from there. That'll be something we need to check. Our bed might have to go at the end of the bedroom closest to the study rather than the other end..."

"I thought your range was five hundred feet?"

"The MAXIMUM distance a sight blob can work at is five hundred feet, but that's under ideal circumstances such as having no walls in the way and my knowing exactly where the sight blob is by seeing the location with my own eyes first. Walls dramatically reduce my maximum range. Whatever my range is under the circumstances, say one hundred feet, then the last 20% or so - from over eighty feet away in that case - has degraded vision, like a TV picture with lots of static. It'd be impossible to study that way.

^-- "There'll be two walls and a change in elevation between our mansion's bedroom and the study, so we should make them thin walls, and before you get heavily into decorating our bedroom it'd be wise to do some testing as soon as the walls are built."

"Okay." [We subsequently did that, and I had no problem.]

I cautioned, "By the way, I've deliberately let the parents think that my 'seeing with my eyes shut' works from my eyeballs. They've got no idea it can move around or that there's such a thing as 'sight blobs'. I think they'd be uncomfortable at the possible loss of privacy if they knew I could spy on them, so let's keep my studying from bed secret. Only you and Carol know, okay?"

"Sure. What about Ava when she starts sleeping with us often?"

"I'll cross that bridge when that cute chicken hatches. Until then she can think I'm being lazy, which is half-true."

"You did more studying last night than I do in a month! That's NOT lazy, that's incredible..." followed by more praise.

Ava arrived back shortly after that, interrupting Julia's further embarrassing me.

We found an enjoyable way to celebrate my being in bed. During which there was a knock on our door. After some scrambling to get under the covers, Julia called, "ENTER."

Prof and Vanessa came in to tell us they were heading into work, Vanessa adding, "We're booked to have dinner with your parents at your house tomorrow, Mark. To have the important discussion."

"Oh boy. I couldn't wait before, but now I'm nervous. I hope it goes well."

"We'll do our best. We'll talk with you later. Have a good day, bye."

We got up not long after that, as Julia and I had to go spend a lot of my money on four wheels and an engine.

Mid-morning we went to the Toyota dealership as they'd had some Lexus "demonstrators" (I've even learned some of the lingo) delivered that morning, for us and two other potential customers.

There were two models that Julia had decided we were interested in: the SC430, a hard-top convertible sports car; and the GS430, a very nice sedan. When we got to the lot, and tried them, we thought they were EXTREMELY nice cars. The following makes no sense, but they both felt perfect to drive, even though they both felt quite different: the SC430 being much firmer, the GS430 more luxurious. I'd test driven some Mercedes and thought their sedans felt like wallowing whales, while their sports cars felt hard and uncomfortable, although amazingly powerful. The Lexuses were both luxury cars, the SC430 having sporty appeal too, but despite their being different, both models seemed to hit the bulls-eye as far as I was concerned.

I liked them both VERY much. So much so that they both jumped to the top of our shortlist. I couldn't decide which of the two I liked the most, but the GS430 was $10,000 cheaper and also more practical, as the SC430's two back seats weren't full seats, so were somewhat uncomfortable for their occupants, and weren't suitable for long trips.

So I bought the SC430. Julia liked it more, as it had lots of style. Apparently style is important.

The purchase didn't happen nearly as fast as the previous paragraph implies. As soon as Julia knew that I liked the Lexuses very much, she got me to pretend to be uninterested while she acted bored to ask questions about color choices and other seemingly tedious details. Then she told the salesman, "Thanks. We've got to go to another lot now."

He, of course, much preferred that we didn't go to any more lots. He and another junior helper did their best to get us to stay, or at least indicate how interested we were.

Julia answered, "They're okay, but they don't stand out, especially not at the prices you're asking."

Whereupon the salesman started extolling the cars' virtues as justification for their prices, while hinting that he might be able to drop the prices just a little, "although they're already exceptionally good value for money, blah, blah..."

"You sound exactly the same as every other salesman describing every other make of car. We'll look at the others and get back to you if either of your cars makes the shortlist."

We left. Julia told me to head back to her place.

"Why?"

"So we can research colors online."

"I thought the color of the one we tried was very good."

"Bright red isn't right for you; it's too loud and insecure. Bright red sports cars are for wannabes: young guys who want to be cool, or middle-aged men who're trying to recapture their youth. We'll find something better for you." I was sure "we" would. My second pair of Speedos is bright red, and I briefly wondered whether Julia was being inconsistent. I was even so silly as to think about asking her to explain the Speedos, but decided that I REALLY didn't want to know.

We found quite a few pictures online, enabling Julia to choose a shortlist of interior and exterior colors (both were selectable). Then she called the Portland lot to ask what color combinations they had in stock.

They didn't have many, but they had enough for Julia to decide that we were going to Portland next. So we got in our trusty Honda Civic and drove north for 1.5 hours.

On the way, Julia called Vanessa for negotiation advice. I could only hear Julia's side, which wasn't very informative, but Julia seemed happy.

At the Lexus dealership in Portland, we spent fifteen minutes refusing their help while we casually examined the color choices.

We agreed - by which I mean that Julia stated and I agreed - that a silver exterior and light tan interior "projected the most appropriate image for me." That was good, because I was very worried about projecting an inappropriate image. Can you imagine how bad that'd be?

We stood at the edge of the Portland lot while Julia called the Corvallis dealership, getting the appropriate salesman, telling him "We're at another lot now. What's your best cash price for a new SC430?"

Strangely enough he didn't want to answer Julia's question. He much preferred to find out from her how "best" his best price needed to be. It was quite amusing listening to Julia put the worst possible light on it, and to put the pressure on too, "You're taking too long to answer a simple question. The lot we're at now didn't take as long as you to discount their list price usefully. Obviously you don't really want the sale. Talk with your boss and call me back within five minutes. If you can't be competitive, we might as well buy from where we are."

When Julia had hung up, I asked, "Why don't we buy from here, or at least negotiate with them?"

"Dad said it'd be best to buy from the lot that's going to be servicing it. We'll get their best price then see if this place can beat it."

After some more back and forth, Julia got a reduced price out of them. It wasn't much of a reduction, only $1100, and Julia let them know that it was pathetic.

They wanted her to come back to their lot to discuss it face to face, although why that affected their "best price" wasn't obvious to me.

Julia answered, "Give me a couple of hours, and I'll drive there in Mark's brand new car, because your unwillingness to negotiate means you're going to miss out."

"Well MAYBE we could drop another $500, but you have to remember that Lexus cars come with the best service and warranty..."

"I've heard that ten times already. So your price is still well over $60,000. That's all we needed to know..."

"It's only a few hundred over. Are you saying that getting it under $60,000 is what it'll take for you to buy the SC430?"

"No. I'm saying that if you don't get it under $60,000, then we won't buy from you. Fortunately, as you said, it's only a few hundred over, so that'll be easy for you. I've got a call coming in from the other lot we visited. I'll hang up. Call me back if you've got a better price in the next few minutes."

Julia hung up, filled me in on what the salesman had said (I've included it above), then told me, "This is fun! I can see why Mom likes this game. Let's head home."

"We're not going to talk with the salesmen here?"

"Not today."

"So we're not going to be buying a car today?"

"We'll tell them we'll sleep on it overnight. That's what Mom recommended. They want to push us forward as fast as possible, so taking it slowly disrupts their game plan."

In the car, Julia's phone rang. She checked the call was from the only salesman we were dealing with, then let it ring until voicemail picked it up.

Ten minutes later she checked her messages. "He wants me to call him back."

She did so, then told him, "We're driving to the third lot. There are three cars on our shortlist, and number three just surprised us with a good offer. We're going to their lot to talk about it now."

"No, that wouldn't be safe. I just told you that we're driving. Neither of the other lots are being sexist, so just tell me what you called for ten minutes ago?"

He told her.

"$59,950. It's a good thing we're not in a hurry, because two hours to drop $2,000 is hardly impressive. For a firm that says they give excellent service, you're very slow.

^-- "If the lot we're on the way to now retain their lead, then we'll probably buy from them shortly. If you want to stay in the game, you're going to have to drop to at least $58,000."

I could hear his pain even over the tiny speaker.

"Yes, I did tell you that under $60,000 would be competitive, but they've dropped their price since then."

"No, I won't tell you who they are."

"$59,500? I said you'd have to go to fifty EIGHT to keep us interested."

"$59,250. That's a BIG improvement, haha."

"It's not my problem if your manager won't let you go any lower. If he's such an unreasonable person we'd be better off buying our car from another lot. Thanks for the half-hearted reduction, but I have to go now because we've arrived and their salesman has spotted us. Bye."

We carried on driving.

Five minutes later Julia's phone rang again, but she ignored it.

Shortly after that she got a text message. She told me, "They're down to $58,950. Three grand off their starting price. It's like getting blood out of a stone, except more fun. I get the feeling they're not going to come down much more."

"What do we do for the rest of the day?"

"Call Mom first, to see what she says."

Julia did that. After which she told me, "Mom's advice is a more detailed version of what she told me before. We ignore them for forty five minutes then I'll call them to say, 'We're going home, we'll sleep on it overnight then visit the three lots in alphabetic order for fifteen minutes each tomorrow morning to get everyone's final offer, then we'll drive to the best lot and buy their car.' After we get Toyota's best offer we'll leave their lot, call Lexus in Portland to ask if they can do a deal for whatever Toyota's price less $1,000 is.

^-- "If they won't, then we'll buy from Toyota. But if Portland can, then there must be some fat left in it, so we'll try to negotiate Toyota down some more, playing Portland and Toyota off against each other as much as we can."

"Good. And much as I don't like the idea of spending sixty grand on a car, it'll be good to get it over with. It drags on."

"Yeah, but it's worth spending a day to save three or four grand. Besides, we can spend the day together and you can learn some things. Next time we have something we need to negotiate, you can do it."

"If that includes phoning Vanessa for detailed instructions, then I might be able to. Changing the subject, I've spent the last few evenings at your place, so I should spend the next couple at home. I don't want to risk Mom getting in a bad mood with me at this critical time."

"Okay. I've got heaps of things to talk with Carol about, so do you think it'd be okay for her to sleepover at my place tonight?"

"I guess so, but we'll have to ask Mom. What have you got to talk with Carol about?"

"HEAPS of stuff! We could spend hours talking about what happened at the pools yesterday, and there's plenty of wife stuff too."

[I haven't mentioned it, but Julia got quite a few calls during the day, from Leanna to apologize, and from other girls who'd been at the Aquatic Center yesterday. As far as I could tell they gushed back and forth for long periods but didn't transfer any actual information, i.e., it was typical girl-talk. I could easily imagine Julia and Carol spending hours talking about it in the same manner.]

I said, "That's good. How about you have dinner at our place, then I take you and maybe Carol to your place afterward. It'll have to be soon after dinner, because you've got so much to talk about."

I must've overdone the facetiousness, because Julia gave me a suspicious look. I concentrated on the road and looking innocent. I think she half-believed me (the "concentrating on the road" half).

Fortunately she just said, "Okay, that'll be good. I'll let Mom know."

The Toyota salesman called back about 4:30. He tried to do some fishing by telling Julia that the SC430 was about to be sent back to where it'd come from, "But we can hold it for a day if Mark is interested?"

Julia told him, "Even if you drop your price far enough for Mark to buy one of your cars, he wouldn't dream of buying one that color. It'd be completely inappropriate. You didn't do yourself any favors showing us such a garish color."

#6: <Hardly surprising they showed us that color considering we were dressed like a flaming queer when we showed him our account balance and told him we wanted a test drive. "Garish" seems the obvious choice.>

It was nearly 5pm by the time we got home. Donna wasn't there. Nothing unusual about that. During any vacation, Donna is usually off playing with one or more of her friends. She's in so many sports teams that she's got a multitude of friends to tear around with.

Carol was at home though. The darling was printing off recipes from the internet. The internet is a WONDERFUL thing! There's stuff on it about the best three things in the world: Cooking, Mathematics and Sex. I wondered briefly which order those three should go in, and I decided it's impossible to prioritize them because they're actually all number 1's for three different categories: Physical, Intellectual and Emotional. Which I guess that means my Spiritual needs are going unfilled. Oh well, I'll just have to make do with more of the other three.

After I'd finished effusively praising Carol, Julia got a chance to say, "If it's okay with your mom, do you want to sleepover at my place tonight?"

"With Mark too?" asked Carol hopefully.

#8: <We really don't praise her nearly enough.>

Julia answered, "Mark thinks he has to stay at home for a couple of nights, because he's spent the last couple at my place, so it'll just be a girls night."

"That's good too," said Carol happily. "I've got heaps of things I want to talk with you about. I heard Linda tell Pat that she thought Katelin was..." And off they went. I wouldn't have minded so much, except that Carol stopped her cooking research. Talk about a mixed up sense of priorities!

I told the girls I'd have a shower and do some cleaning up, but I don't think they heard the Center Of Their Universe.

Mom and Donna were home by the time I returned to the kitchen. Mom told me, "It's fine to take Carol to Julia's after dinner. Your father and I want to talk with you about a few things, so that'd work out nicely."

Dinner was full of conversation. Mom told us about her plans for our trip to England and France [Switzerland wasn't planned yet. Mom and Dad weren't really up to speed with the Emergency Fund concept. They'd get that message in a few more days].

Julia managed to get in a quick summary of our car shopping. Dad didn't recognize what a Lexus SC430 was (nor did Mom, but she didn't care), so Julia quickly got some of the brochures she had to show Dad.

He whistled in appreciation, saying, "That's a sexy car."

Everyone else thought so too, especially when they were looking at the pictures of it when it had the roof retracted.

Julia was pleased, so that must've been the image she wanted me to project. I was amused that she never asked anyone for their opinion of 'our' color choices. She simply told them, "We're getting it in silver with light tan leatherwork." If it'd been me in charge (silly idea, I know), I would've been worriedly checking and double-checking with everyone that they approved of my choices.

I asked Dad, "When are you and Mom going to upgrade your cars?"