May 31, 2019
Dear Everyone:
Having bought a new car earlier this month, I now have two cars.
Of course, I’m not the only person living here that has more than one
vehicle. Every unit has a
carport, which is actually
deeded property.
So that’s one parking space specific to each household.
In addition, there are over 100 uncovered spaces that are up for
grabs on a first-come-first-served basis.
My upstairs neighbors used to have two
Mustangs, one for each of them.
One parked in the carport and the other parked in front of, or
near, the building. Then
they decided to get an
SUV, the better to transport their two dogs
whenever they took them along to wherever.
After a while, they sold one of the Mustangs, but kept the other
for (I suspect) largely sentimental reasons.
First car and all that.
Then they had a baby and discovered that wrestling a
car seat into and
out of an SUV was not that much fun; and they got a
sedan.
Which means three cars to keep track of.
There is a rule around here that a Resident should first use their
assigned carport. If the
carport is occupied, they are free to use any of the open spaces.
But there’s a catch:
The vehicle can only stay in the space for up to 96 hours.
That means four days.
After that, it’s move it or lose it.
That almost happened to the Mustang because they didn’t know about the
4-day rule and also hadn’t noticed that the registration had expired.
Even automobiles parked in carports can be towed if their
registration is expired, which denotes the vehicle as “derelict”.
I have another neighbor who used to have two SUVs, a big “old” one and a
newer, smaller one that was usually parked in his carport.
He knew all about the 4-day rule.
So at least once each week, he would drive the larger SUV, which
was parked out front, to work.
At the end of the day, he would drive it home and, as often as
not, park it right back in the same space it had been in up to that
morning. Technically, he had
moved it. So the clock
started over.
After a while, he got tired of that and sold or donated the older
vehicle.
I’ve been parking my new car, dubbed “Agamemnon”, in the carport,
leaving the older car, “Odysseus”, out front.
Every three days, I would move Odysseus to another spot, usually
in the middle of the day when there are fewer cars occupying the
choicest places.
I’ve also been working on cleaning an accumulation of stuff out of
Odysseus. First, the water
bottle and
handicapped parking permit moved to the new car.
Soon, pretty much all of the stuff that fills half the trunk had
migrated over to Agamemnon.
After all, I need those shopping bags when I do the weekly grocery run.
There is also a plethora of
road maps.
For those of you who are too young to know, road maps are printed
on large rectangles of paper, then folded up in the most diabolical
manner possible to reach a relative dimension of about four inches by
eight. The print is usually
smaller than 2-points, which explains the plastic magnifying glass that
goes with maps, the better to try and figure out just
where in the world is this
particular Main Street? The
maps all went into a large envelope and into one of the storage
containers in Aggie’s trunk.
I don’t really need them anymore, since Agamemnon has onboard navigator
and maps, but you never know; some of them may become collectors’ items
soon.
I debated on whether or not to move the trash bag, which hangs on the
back of the front passenger seat; or to just get a new one.
Two things: I didn’t
see any good ones at the auto dealer, or any of the car parts stores
that I stopped at. Also,
“Jeannie” would never notice if she had a trash bag in the car.
To “Jeannie”, the whole car is a rolling waste basket.
Earlier this week, “Jeannie’s” car, which is actually Mom’s 1998
Civic,
began making scarier-than-usual noises.
“Jeannie” decided that it was time to trade up to Odysseus RIGHT
NOW!!!
Yesterday, she drove down to my place.
After lunch, she proceeded to excavate through the car,
transferring the most critical items into Odysseus’s trunk.
After about an hour, punctuated with exclamations such as, “So
that’s where this got to!” she decided that it was enough of a
beginning. Especially as she
had to be at an appointment in less than an hour.
So we parked Mom’s old car in my carport, where it will be legal until
next November. Not that I expect
it to sit there that long.
“Jeannie” is exploring to which charity she plans to donate it.
In the meantime, I’m moving Agamemnon around.
The truth is, I typically take the car out almost every day.
I don’t even have to remember which space I used the last time.
And now that the Spring rains have stopped, leaving the car
outdoors, so to speak, is not a problem.
Especially since Aggie has air-conditioned seats.
Love, as always,
Pete
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