Thursday, October 23, 2008

No Myrtle No More.

So the 1981 BMW 320i that I've been so very proud of is gone. We called her Myrtle. She was purchased brand new from a dealership in Myrtle Beach. We have the original paper work. I had to take her off the road a few months back. The gas tank was leaking up at the top. Other problems with her too. The registration expired in September. I kept her insured because we don't have a garage. The minimum liability was not that expensive.

I had her parked out back. In our driveway, just off the alley. I got a notice from the Code Enforcement people. It came in the mail last Saturday. It was a warning. The notice said they would give me ten days to get her registered, inspected and running. Or rid of her.

My wife and I were planning on restoring her one day. That's not why we bought her. We bought her 'cause she was affordable. Good cheap transportation. I got about four years out her. I had very little money in her. The gas tank issue was something that needed to be addressed in order to operate her safely. We just don't have the money for that sort of thing right now. With a daughter in college and my wife having cancer. Restoring old cars is not a priority.

I work with this guy who runs a used car business with his father on the side. They swung by here with the flatbed on Sunday afternoon and pulled her over to their shop. They will do what they can. They might know a guy who can part her out. They might get her running and sell her. They might just scrap her for three bucks a pound. The price of scrap is way down lately. It was as high as nine bucks a pound a few months back. No matter what they decide to do, I'll see a couple bucks out of the deal.

So next week is our fifteenth wedding anniversary. We are going out for a nice dinner one night during the week. We were going to wait 'til the weekend but my wife has chemo on Friday. She won't be in the mood for our favorite Italian place after chemo. We realized that it's been well over a year since we've really gone out anywhere. Like on a date gone out. It's been longer than that since we've been to our favorite Italian restaurant. The younger baby girl will be joining us for our anniversary dinner. Her big sister is away and we are not going to leave her home or drop her at a friend's house. She's part of this fifteen years. She's almost thirteen of them.

It's sad. The younger baby girl really likes that old BMW. She loved the sunroof.
She had a stuffed duck that she named Jake sitting in the back window. I made sure she got her duck back.

Heard Jackson Brown last night on the radio. WDVE at about 0200 on my overnight Pittsburgh run. The Pretender. What a good song.

I know it's not the car that's making me cry right now. It's everything. I'm very tired.

Coffee time for this Happy Idiot. Pick up the Struggle again tomorrow.

4 Comments:

Blogger whatnext said...

you do have a gift for grabbing a person by the guts. be well.

7:21 AM  
Blogger Squarehead said...

Thanks Okay. You be well too.

11:01 AM  
Blogger Just Me said...

Ah, I'm sorry about Myrtle. I always believed that if the vehicle was parked on your property, they couldn't force you to do anything with it.

Every car we've purchased was driven until it couldn't go any more, and it's always a little sad letting them go after years of service. It doesn't matter if they spent their last years costing hundreds of dollars and causing lots of inconvenience.

Congratulations on fifteen years, and I'm praying for many more to come.

9:32 PM  
Blogger Squarehead said...

Yeah, that's what I thought too. Oh well. Guess it's better than cars up on blocks on the frontlawn and that sort of thing. Thanks for the prayers JM.

7:43 AM  

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