For her post today Cathy Tenzo’s blog revealed her hand to the world. For a poker player that might not be so good, but for an artist… Not so good either, according to Cathy. She said that hands are among the hardest things to draw. I had time to waste while my husband debated about getting ready to go look at cars, so I decided to try sketching my hand.
No I wasn’t thinking of punching him. I was actually pleased at the results for a first try. I don’t think I’ll quit my day job, but it was a relaxing thing to do instead of tapping my toes or playing Spidersol. When we got home tonight, I scanned it, cropped it and cleaned it up a little in Photoshop.
After I finished my morning sketch, we sped off to trade in my 2006 Prius with 227,518 miles on it. He backed it out of the driveway, put the Prius into drive, and the nasty red triangle light with a huge flashing exclamation point appeared on the dash. That’s not a symbol for excitement when you see it on the dash – trust me. It appeared three months ago and we had to buy a new hybrid battery. That ! cost us $4,000, but we figured we had just bought us a reliable used car. Moral: don’t have a heart transplant if you’re 126 years old, or if you’re a Prius with 225,000 miles.
We had waited one day too long. So now you know how long a Prius can last.
He was able to get the car back in the driveway. Then off we went to driving Vince’s Prius to look at a Camry in Hanford that advertised all the gizmos we I wanted. When we arrived, the salesperson needed to run a quick errand for another customer. He pointed us to the bagel bar – big mistake. I enjoyed a Panera Cinnamon Crunch bagel, but didn’t buy the car. We had another appointment so we scurried off without hurting anyone’s feelings – since the next appointment was set in stone. We started off to an appointment with the Audi dealer in Fresno. Before we left Hanford I sidetracked us to visit the Chevrolet dealer, since it was right on the way.
What I really wanted was a fully appointed Volt that gets an advertized 106 miles to the gallon. I just feel so righteous when I’m driving a car that squeezes more miles out of every ounce of gas.
Vince does not/did not support my Volt fetish, and wanted me to try a Cruze. I snubbed my nose at its 30 miles to the gallon fuel rating, but I determined to keep an open mind. (hahaa) Jean and I had tried to test drive one in Scottsdale, but not one salesperson came out to help us. That is Jean’s pet peeve, and I wasn’t too pleased either, so we ended our car shopping and stuck to clothing. Back home again, Hanford, CA was the Cruze’s last chance to impress me.
The salesperson, a trained psychiatric nurse, drove out to the extra sales lot and we followed. I’m not saying that he psyched us out, but he didn’t get psyched when we told him that we were on our way to drive an Audi. We went to the other Chevy car lot, but we refused to drive him back so we could head up to our appointment. Psychic Nurse, Michael took a new truck, and we followed him. I popped into the Cruze LTZ RS, and he turned on my heated seat. (The more initials it has, the better Vince likes the car.) As the car sloshed through the mud in the parking lot dirtying up it’s lily white bumpers, I warmed up, and my personality mellowed. We dashed around the block. I decided that for the difference in price, between a fully appointed Cruze and an Audi, I could live with the Cruze. We I bought it. Since I really didn’t care it I got the car or didn’t, I was an amazingly ferocious negotiator. I told them it was either a Cruze, Audi or Porshce. I didn’t care which. I was fairly pleased with the results considering that my Prius, RIP, was no longer a back-up. By the time we finished, it was 3:30, and Vince had not eaten anything since his last power bar following his exercise workout. I didn’t have a Snickers handy.
We left for lunch, and got back to the car deal to pick up Vince’s car at rush hour. Vince jumped out of our new Cruze to head home in his car, but …he lost his car key. Good thing he had eaten!
We drove back and forth between the dealer and Panera during rush hour – yes Hanford, CA has a rush hour that rivals Los Angeles because of the freeway construction. An hour later when we changed seats once again, we found the key. I had been sitting on it after it fell out when he was driving, I’m obviously not the Princess and the Pea.
We are now sitting safely at home with a hot cup of tea and a neck ache.
So, I’ve revealed my hand today. How was your day today?
Marsha Ingrao - Always Write 
27 responses to “Drawing Your Hand – Would You Choose a Chevy Cruze or an Audi?”
So MANY great lines buried in this post! I had an old Mercedes coupe one time, that got to 231,744 miles. Almost exactly your story, except intstead of $4000 on batteries, it was $2500 for new sport tires a week before it died. An old used car value? I recall our 1948 DeSoto that my first wife drove without oil because it smoked too badly if you put oil in it. Cost us an extra $700 to get it hauled to the junkyard.
I was HP’s representative to General Motors in 1984 when they went on a big QUALITY kick; I went down and bought a Pontiac Sunbird since I was ‘back in sunny California” (alright, it was the Bay area). Driving out of the lot in a brand-new car, the dashboard fell off onto our feet. Shoulda been a sign…
Jenny’s bro-in-law owns the Toyota dealership n Yuba City, so most of our cars since have been Toyotas (duh). Jenny’s current ‘pride’ is a fire-engine red RAV4.
But I must confess–I kept going past that deealership and got an Audi Q5 diesel (not quite a Porsche, but lots more fun to drive) and I’ve gotten as high as 42 mpg on trips over 100 miles. Routine is 36-38 mpg on trips between Woodlake and the Bay area, when I’m not late for a meeting. Its my 8th Audi in 45 years, and they’ve been ultra reliable (sure as the world if I write this, the jinx begins….)
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So funny! I had a Sunbird when I married Vince – red! Lots of stories, but same thing – it fell apart!!! Great mileage on the Audi. Good to know for future reference. 😀😀
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Your hand sketch is really good, Marsha. I’m so impressed. I laughed about you sitting on the car key and not even noticing. 😀
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I have a lot of natural padding, none of it with nerve sensors running through it. 🙂
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I’m sure you exaggerate, Marsha. 🙂
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You know me better than that! 🙂 I always tell the truth, the whole truth, and almost nothing but the truth. So help me God. 🙂
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😃
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Your drawing is quite good!
As for car shopping….never fun….until you finally drive off the lot with the new car. Then the fun disappears if you “lose” keys in the process!
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I think I’m finally able to relax and enjoy the car. It was an ordeal that took weeks, but culminated quickly when the car died! 🙂 Thanks for visiting, and even more so to leave a comment! 🙂
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Hey, your drawing is great MVBFM ! You’ve even got the correct number of fingers. I’m impressed ! 😀 ❤ xox
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That’s the first drawing I’ve done since I drew MFR! It was fun and fast. Have a great weekend. Are you coming here for the holidays? 🙂
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You are very good at drawing. You should do it more often.
No, I’m afraid not. I am finding it more difficult to do much on my own, so travelling is out for a while. xox ❤
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Thanks, MFR. I’m sorry you are not able to travel. How fortunate that you have such great neighbors and care takers. Have a Merry Christmas, Ralph. xox
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That’s so true. I am very lucky to have such nice neighbours. Merry Christmas to you too MVBFM xox
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Xox 😀😀😀
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You made that all up, right??
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No, it’s all true – even the lines in the hand. 🙂
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Wonderful hand… Wonderful funny story… Barbara x
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Thanks, Barbara! 🙂
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It’s so funny that you were sitting on the keys. Although it probably wasn’t so funny for you.
When we went looking to replace my Ford Laser we found some sales people totally disinterested. I was dissuaded from buying a European car because they cost a fortune when repairs are necessary (or so I was told by Mr ET). I bought a sporty Hyundai Accent, crystal white in colour. It is so nice to drive. I’m in love.
Oh, and you did a far better job of drawing your hand than I would. Your talents are limitless.
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hahaha! I saw your picture of your new car. Mine is white also. I’m not in love with it, but it is easy to drive and perfect for what I need. I’m still a little sad that my Prius died. I was in love with it. After the battery died, the computer/navigation/climate control got cancer. In order to turn on the air conditioning the fan came on full blast. The lower the temp, the higher the fan, and it didn’t fan quietly. Then the rear view mirror came off its stand. Vince was able to fix it, but it was wobbly. But still Vince insisted that he didn’t mind driving it. So I left him with it when I went to Scottsdale for a week. He called me during the week and said “The rubber is coming off around the window. You need a new car.” (duh!) We got back, and he said, “I can drive it. I don’t mind.” So I let him, but I cleaned it out so I could trade it in when he was finally ready. We went to Fresno to look at cars on Thursday. The tire pressure light came on and it was pouring rain. We stopped at the tire shop, and the tires were fine. The sensor was bad. I offered to even go in with him to get a Porsche, if he could get the lease down to what I was willing to pay. He told the salesman, “I need to talk to my wife.” I was standing right there! On the way home, I was so frustrated. I just had a feeling….oh yes – it was frustration. My car had a different feeling. (tired) Today we will tow it to the car dealer. Thursday it was worth $2,500. Friday it was worth $700. It still had a $4,000 brand new battery inside it. CARS…. 😐
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Cars really lose their value fast but that’s pretty drastic. How disappointing. In the end we only got $800 trade in for my old car but it was easier than trying to sell it privately. I do love my new little car. It’s so comfortable and light to drive but it has so many safety features. It’s also very economical on fuel.
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There you go. That’s what I thought, too. In retrospect I would have to have spend $1800 to fix the computer problem that would have allowed me to get $2500 for the car, which is what it was valued even with a brand new $4000 hybrid battery. So now I’m relaxed and good. We are identical once again! 🙂 Well, nearly! 🙂
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Well we both have lovely new white cars so that’s quite twin-ish!
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I think your sketch looks pretty darned good! Nice job. I will try drawing my own hand again one of these days. You can tell the hand I drew was not mine since I never use polish 🙂
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I seldom use polish either, but I’m not sure I could get more detail in my drawings. I was amazed it came out as well as it did. 🙂
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🙂
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