First up…working out…well, sort of. Tuesday was jam packed with errands and holiday stuff, as well as the finish of the truck saga. So no traditional gym time. I started out cleaning up the kitchen, then it was off to the orthodontist, then to Safelite for a windshield replaced on what’s now Ks truck, then I made a batch of shortbread cookie dough, and then it was off to a car dealership. We left the house around 5 and were home by 9pm, so no gym.
Yesterday was another non traditional day. I started out dusting…even all of the hard to reach/stretching/down on your knees (even with Swiffer tools) areas. We’re talking baseboards, ceiling fans, windows, hvac grates, stair finishes, under the couches, behind all the TVs, etc. Then it was outside to start winter cold snap prep. I started with a spigot, wrapping and taping towels and rags around it, followed by wrapping and taping plastic bags, and then wrapping and taping a Mylar emergency blanket. I did the same process next for the irrigation pipes. I ran out of tape and David took his lunch break, so I vacuumed the stairs and did a deep cleaning and vacuuming of the family room rug. Then washed dishes in the sink, got more tape and moved on to winterizing the water filter and main water line to the house. The water line and filter pipes got a similar piping treatment, but I then added weighted down sleeping bags to the tanks and over the wrapped pipes followed by a patchwork of five taped, tucked and weighted down Mylar blankets. After a bit of a break and something to eat, I cleaned the half bath, right down to hand dusting and scrubbing the floor (too small to used the vacuum and mop). Then it was cookie time. I baked two batches of chocolate chip. Then I rolled out the chilled shortbread, dragged out my bag of cutters, and made about six or seven trays of shortbread cookies. I cleaned up that mess and finished my day with mopping the kitchen, main hallway and foyer. Whew! On tap today…hours of mall walking!
TRUCK STORY CONCLUSION-
(Warning- it’s long)
After the nightmare at that awful dealership, David went to the next closest dealer to check out a couple of trucks on their lot while I did research on the 27 dealerships in a 75 mile radius. Before I really dug in to my research, David called to say that this other dealer felt that the truck we wanted was a custom order, which really burst his bubble. I wasn’t satisfied with that answer. So I went to work figuring out why that truck had certain things.
The truck sold out from under us was still online, so I was able to pull the window sticker to review the options. It had a factory package that had these things…so while less common than the cheaper package, it wasn’t a custom order either. So now there was hope that I could find something similar. Funny, but that other dealer called back yesterday and was educated that it wasn’t custom and was part of a factory package.
By the time David got home, I’d gone through every single dealers’ inventory and out of the hundreds of trucks, I found eight trucks in the greater Houston area with the desired options package, engine and drive train. One dealer had six of them and seemed to be offering more incentives than the others, so they became the focus.
They had four black, one gray and one red. He really didn’t want black, so it came down to the red and the gray. This is where things get really bizarre. The red had a blackout package and the gray APPEARED to have a sport package that included a special hood, color match grill and sport logo on the sides of the bed.
David was really torn on which he should ask to see. I mean, he could ask to see both, but usually you go in with a preference. So he asked Sam’s opinion. K was in bed, so he asked me next. At this point he was leaning towards the red because he likes the blackout. I couldn’t decide, so I went to a trick I used when I was car hunting. I used a collage app and screenshots of the dealer photos to compare side by side of the same angles. I almost didn’t bother with a comparison from the very back since there shouldn’t have been anything different, but it’s a good thing I did. The “gray” truck in the picture had Laramie trim badging and a 4x4 badge. This did not match the description write up. (edit-I put "gray" because the truck in the incorrect pics was actually silver) I thought I was looking at a LoneStar trim and 4x2. David didn’t want 4WD and he hates leather, which is standard on the Laramie. Clearly something was off.
This dealership doesn’t put window stickers on their site, but back when I was considering a Durango, I found a site that’s a database of window stickers for most American vehicle manufacturers. I had been looking for a Durango with some really uncommon and typically unpublished features, so these window stickers were my guide. So I took the VIN from this truck listing and pulled the sticker to see exactly what was correct.
After pulling the sticker, I was able to confirm that the pictures were the wrong vehicle. The actual truck was the trim he wanted in the 4x2. It also included the black out package and the running boards he wanted. If he’d gotten that other truck on Monday, he was going to have to pay extra to add the running boards. So, this was starting to feel ridiculously perfect.
He reserved the truck for a test drive Monday night and started communicating with one of the sales managers the next morning. We got there around 6pm and were greeted very warmly by the manager. She paired us with a nice sales guy who said he’d bring the truck around. Considering the pictures online appeared to be wrong, we all held our breaths a bit to see if it matched what I found on that window sticker database.
David was absolutely giddy when he saw it. It was exactly what we were hoping it would be. In fact, after seeing this truck in person and comparing it to pics I’d taken of the other truck, he realized that the first truck we lost out on was silver (I told him but he swore it was gray) and this dark metallic gray in front of him was really what he wanted. They were going to take a retainer to hold it for a cashiers check, but unlike the other dealer, they gave us the option of doing all of the paperwork ahead of that. Next thing you know, David was handed the keys, owners manual and given instructions for the infotainment. I remember him looking at me and whispering, “I think I’m taking it home tonight!”
At this point, we figured it would be handled like my 2021 car purchase…paperwork now, come back with a cashiers check by a certain date. David talked to the finance manager and he was able to pull a few strings so we could avoid the cashier’s check and another drive across the city. Same down payment amount and terms, just all done in one night.
Later on that night, it occurred to me that there must be a listing on their site with that other truck incorrectly pictured in David’s truck listing. Sure enough, there was a Laramie trim 4x4 with pictures of his LoneStar trim 4x2.
He still needs to take it in on Tuesday to get the bedliner added, but that’s a local thing and that’s pretty much it. Oh, and did i mention that this truck was about $2500 cheaper too! Only difference…the other one had an outlet in the back seat while this one had the running boards… the option we wanted. This dealership just had better incentives. So, a very happy ending…and we have two family members happy with their holiday trucks
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I think my much smaller stock pot would have been more than enough.