After 4 years out of circulation in North America we landed. Maybe not immigrants but certainly needing to establish ourselves again, almost like starting over. Where to start?
First of all we needed wheels. Without a vehicle life is very difficult in North America. But you don't want to buy the first vehicle you see, do you? Fortunately our good friends, Dianne and Fanosie, lent us their minivan until we could find something. This is a profoundly moving offer. You don't find folks who lend without expectations in return. Our friends did and we are grateful. We were able to visit Ohio and my family when my sister and her husband were in town and drive back to Ontario.
And we did find a minivan when we expected not to buy. We went shopping in Stratford one afternoon with Wanda's father. Strickland Motors runs 3 large car lots; new Toyotas, high quality used and heavily used. We looked at several used vehicles and nothing felt right. They suggested we look at a Toyota Sienna in the lower end lot so we drove over as a last resort for the day. The Sienna looked well used, a no go. We were ready to leave when the salesman got a call from our first salesman in the other lot, they just got a 2004 Nissan Quest SE minivan in, very clean. They had just unloaded it off the truck and were washing it, could they drive it over and show us? We were hot and tired but agreed to wait a couple of minutes.
When it came we looked at each other. It was indeed clean, inside and out. The engine was relatively clean and certainly sounded good (to a non-mechanic's untrained ear). It was loaded with everything we would never afford on a new vehicle; power everything including side door and hatch back, sun roofs, built in GPS, multi-disc CD system, heated seating, DVD player (this would be the clincher with our daughters). It had a funky dashboard; a circular console in the center but not weird enough to dismiss it. It had 146,000 kms and they set the price at $9,950. They would clean it up for us, would we want it?
After deliberation (rather short compared to other times we bought vehicles), we said yes. Wanda's father, Wanda and I all thought that it looked very good, in fact it almost sounded too good to be true. We needed a quality used minivan and this seemed like it was landing right in our laps. Yes, let's do it.
We ended up paying over $10,000 after taxes but it was in our 10-12,000 range. We scrambled to buy auto insurance but by Saturday morning we had both the insurance and the Nissan Quest. It was fully cleaned up inside and out. It looked new and even smelled somewhat new (leather seating will do that).
We did also buy a pay-as-you-go Nokia phone and signed up with Rogers. It is an 'unlocked' phone, not connected to any long term contract. I still have to get used to paying when I receive a call. A big rip off but what can one do? Us consumers have to rise up in protest, if they can get away with it the phone giants of the world will.
We also bought a computer; a cherry red Dell. We thought we wouldn't buy a Dell again after some problems with it in Ethiopia. But when we brought home a Toshiba Satellite and it started acting up from the get go, I immediately retreated to the only Dell that Future Shop sold. It's true that I would normally buy online but I decided to buy local so I could get it serviced locally. Like the phone this is a stop gap measure for the summer and short term until we get settled. It will work for now.
We also re-established our residency with the Province of Ontario by renewing our OHIP cards. This was a huge thing we did the first day we were in country. Having health insurance the moment we land and not having to worry about our medical future is a huge load off our minds. We both agreed that unless we had jobs to go to in Ohio we wouldn't land there. It made all the sense in the world to land in Ontario jobs or no jobs. Too bad more Americans push for this in the U.S. If the U.S. had had somehow passed national health care back when the Canadians did I guarantee that Americans would never allow any politician to touch this just like the vast majority of Americans won't let the politicians touch Medicare and Medicaid . . . or maybe they will. Over the next year we shall see.
We still have two big things on the 'to-do' list; finding a house to rent or buy and getting our daughters into a good school. Of course a job for me would also be helpful. So friends and family, hold these in your thoughts and prayers for us over the next month.
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