Tuesday, November 30, 2010

v2, d217: Farewell, Little Red and Unnamed Gold Car

We've been a "One-Car Family" for almost a year now.  We proverbially drove our last two cars into the ground to the point where they were no longer worth the cost of fixing to pass state inspection standards. And so they both sat in guest parking at our apartment complex, waiting for us to find an appropriate junking service.  Well, our complex is instituting new parking rules that involve towing ANY vehicle with an expired registration or expired state inspection sticker, so we now had a deadline to get those cars outta here.  (Part of our hangup had been the fact that Kim had lost the title to her car and we were afraid we wouldn't be able to sell it legally without the title.  Fun fact: Not so!)  (Other parking policies: any vehicle without a pretty new blue parking sticker--GONE!  We may even need to get guest parking tags for visitors, but I'm not clear on that one.  All I know is that tow-a-palooza starts at MIDNIGHT!  Because they really MEAN IT!!)

Anyway. 

Contacted the good people at Rusty's Auto Salvage, and they set up an appointment to have a tow truck come by yesterday afternoon to cart away Kim's first ever car and our honeymoon getaway vehicle in one fell swoop.  I got a little sentimental as I helped him shove their lifeless car-casses toward the big impersonal tow truck, but only a little.  Lots of memories with those two vehicles.  I remember brushing back tears watching Kim drive away for a full Christmas-through-January break one year at OBU. And one of the balloons shoved into the back of my car for our wedding actually melted to the rear window, so there was always a small white plastic reminder of my groomsmen's handiwork. 

I (obviously) cleaned out our two cars before they took them away.  Seemed like the polite thing to do. Keep in mind we haven't been in these cars in almost a year.  (Over a year, in Little Red's case!)  A lot of things that at one point we intended to clear out and then never actually did.  

Between the two cars, I found:
An umbrella
A flowerpot
Robbie's favorite baby rattle (now rendered inoperable by the effects of time in a small metal car in Houston)
Jumper cables (I knew these were there)
One clean sock (mine)
One old pair of dress shoes (mine, and not so good for wearing anymore, but I had been wondering where they'd been)
One CD I'd lost over two years ago
Multiple "burned" CDs
Three books owned by Dave
One book owned by Travis
One book owned by me
A slew of pennies that will likely push Cubbies over the top for the Awana penny drive
A play script I never submitted for a competition that it wouldn't have won anyway
Some clothes (Christmas presents from 2008, I believe)
Two pairs of drumsticks
Understudy scripts for Cold, Frankin Sense, and Brr! and The Importance of Being Earnest (Fun fact: I don't think I was an understudy for The Importance of Being Earnest!)
Scripts for several touring shows
And here's the kicker: One street hockey stick.