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We were driving Mrs. Tex’s daily driver yesterday, a 2015 Escape with about 120K miles. It’s got a lot of life yet, but at ages 68 and 65 we figure it will get replaced at some point. Not so my truck, a 2023 F150 that replaced a '99 truck that we purchased new. In retrospect I wish I had kept it as a ranch truck rather than trading it in for a pittance.
We got to talking about how we keep making purchases that will be THE LAST ONE. It’s sort of humbling to realize we are definitely approaching the twilight years. Now, some large projects we have done were purposely so we would never have to do them again - a metal roof, concrete driveway, new windows, etc. But I always enjoyed shopping for new cars (as distinct from purchasing them, never a truly enjoyable experience). But the seemingly endless acquisitions of the past will be just that: in the past.
The photo is of Scotch and Ginger in the '99 truck. I pulled it out and had to go back in the house and left the passenger door open, and they decided that they wanted to go along. It took some persuasion to get them out,
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Discussion (20)
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I'm not sure that is all they wanted to do. From where one of them is sitting, I think they wanted to drive.
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I think you should sell your skills as a car shopper to young people that don't know nothing. You could be like a sommelier. Or maybe you would be like a matchmaker to help people find the just right car at the right price.
I find car shopping to be a little interesting, but quickly overwhelming. Pouring over conflicting reliability reports, a vast spectrum of features, and optimizing for my needs I get stuck optimizing 100s of vehicles across dozens of vaguely weighted criteria. I usually end up choosing based on color. My wife prefers a used car from the last year or two. I like em new, but near the end of the model year.
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Accepting that these are our last vizslas is hard. The male is almost 6 and the girl almost 4. 2 of these smart high drive dogs is our max but I’d bring home another puppy tomorrow.

As to cars - these 2 know exactly what time they get into the truck to go to the big park to run. They don’t care which truck. The snow is gone now so we are back to running and all are happier for it.
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Even in our 70s, we haven't described anything I can think of as "the last one." My Sonata is 15 years old and I have no interest in getting another car. In fact, my husband has a new Elantra, which he loves, and I would be happy going down to one car (but so far he has resisted).
We lost our last mutt over 25 years ago--that doesn't seem possible. Even so, I'm not prepared to say she is the last one. I leave that door open. I miss having a dog, although my husband is mildly allergic to them. His excuse is that a dog is an inconvenience when we travel...but we are doing much less of that.
So....
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Looks like one dog for the driving, one for the shifting. The driver looks like you just called "shotgun!" and he's questioning the wisdom of the whole thing.
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