Herein lies the question:
My son, the redoubtable M’hijito, got mad the other day and stole my car. Just now it resides at his house, all the keys stashed inside his shack. In 110-degree heat, it’s too far and too hot for me to walk down there and steal it back. And so…just now I have an empty garage.
Heh! To tell you the truth, a lovely empty garage.
😀 😀 😀
Seriously: It’s clean, tidy, uncluttered, and un-stinky. It extends the house’s usable square footage under roof by about 560 square feet.
No kidding!! That space is 20 feet x 28 feet…yes, that’s 560 square feet!!
Yeah: FIVE HUNDRED AND SIXTY square feet whose sole purpose is to keep a tin can out of the elements and out of reach of the local thieves.
And…and…we’re doing this…WHY?????
So, here’s the question of the moment:
What if I never took the car back? What if I just left it at his house? Neglected to re-up its registration and insurance. In a word or four: LET HIM HAVE IT.
Well. The what-ifs would be as follows:
- I would never again have to cough up the insurance to cover a rolling hole in the ground into which to pour money.
- Nor would I have to refill the gas tank anywhere from two to four times a month.
- Or have it serviced every three or four months.
- Or pay to fix whatever craps out on it next.
- My son would get a nice Toyota van that he could choose to keep or choose to sell.
Truth to tell, I don’t travel around the Valley much any more. Most of my automotive destinations are actually within walking distance…
- The Albertson’s supermarket
- The Sprouts hippy-dippy organic grocery store
- The Fry’s supermarket
- Those that aren’t…well, they ARE within easy train or bus-ride distance. Or Ubering distance…
Except for the 110-degree heat, one does have to wonder…WHY AM I DOING THIS?
And THAT question is given some heavy-duty salience by the new presence of Uber cabs run by, of all people, the neighbors. Yeah: for a fraction of what it costs to buy, insure, and run a car, I can get someone else to schlep me to stores and doctors’ offices. When I can’t, I can walk a block and a half up the road and rent a damn car.
So…hmmmmm….. It strikes me more and more that it’s stump-dumb stupid to keep that car. If Dear Son wants to keep it and pay the taxes on it and cover the ever-more-stupefying costs of maintenance, let him have it.