:: fist-pump of triumph! TRIUMPH! ::

[katallison]

Ahem. As of 11:15 this morning, the eleventh of August, 2003, there is no longer in my garage the dead car that has reposed there since August of 1998.

Achieving this gargantuan feat required the following tests and trials, like unto the labors of Hercules and the soul-getting of Spike:

1) Pick up phone book, open to "Junk Dealers."

2) Choose one reasonably close to my house.

3) Phone them.

4) Wait 45 minutes for truck to show up.

5) Open garage door.

6) Hand over title and check for $30.

Man, was that gargantuan and crushing. Jeekers, am I glad I spent five years girding my loins to take on that challenge.

I post this embarrassing little clip from The Highlight Reel of Kat's Inability to Deal With Life so that all the rest of you who from time to time feel like you're not taking a grip and coping efficiently can feel better about yourselves.

The next challenge: Getting the Title For the Car I *Have* Been Driving For the Past Five Years Actually Transferred From My Brother to Me. Wow, that one might call for prayer, fasting, and meditation, eh?

(Oh, and thanks to all who previously posted good references for donate-a-car organizations; unfortunately, I found nobody was really interested in being given an eighteen-year-old junker with a rusted-through frame. Can't imagine why.)

Comments

[thepouncer.livejournal.com]

Oh man, I might have to suggest this to my best friend, whose dead car has been sitting on her parking pad for the past two years. She keeps talking about donating it, but at this point I think she's in the "no one would want it" pool too.

So glad you managed to clean the stables without diverting a river.

[katallison.livejournal.com]

The impression I get is that the donation places are glad to take anything that can feasibly be restored to useable/driveable condition; the problem with mine was that the frame was starting to fall apart, which is unfixable.

But yeah, just getting it junked went *so* much more easily than my catastrophizing imagination had pictured it. Good luck to your friend!

[rhiannon-jehane.livejournal.com]

I post this embarrassing little clip from The Highlight Reel of Kat's Inability to Deal With Life so that all the rest of you who from time to time feel like you're not taking a grip and coping efficiently can feel better about yourselves.

Thank you! Absurdly Simple Things That Feel Hugely Complicated seems to be a theme with me lately, and it's nice to see that this happens to other people too...

[tehomet.livejournal.com]

What Rhiannon said. Thanks Kat.

[the-star-fish.livejournal.com]

Heh. I almost hate to tell you this, but the last two cars I've sent to the junk-yard? I got paid $35 each for. See, they can re-sell the parts...

But probably things are different there.

::ducks::

To make you feel better, I was driving for 7 months on an expired registration. Which in this state is a license-suspending offense. The only reason I renewed it was that my inspection sticker needed renewing, and you can't have one without the other ...

:looks around::

Hey! I'm at work!

::looks busy::

[bethbethbeth.livejournal.com]

I am shrieking with laughter here. It takes *exactly* that long here to do *anything.* Lightbulbs wait to be changed until the roomie's parents come to visit!

rotfl!

Hee.

[tracy-rowan.livejournal.com]

This reminds me of a story my friend, Charles, told me recently. He's a contractor and has a whole gang of people who work for him in various capacities. So one day this couple tells him that there's something wrong with the electrical system in their house because they can't get any light, and could he fix it? He goes over to check it out, so he can talk to his electricians, and discovers that some things are still working. So he tries changing one light bulb. Success. He changes another. Success.

I think they were darn lucky he's an honest man.

[popfantastic.livejournal.com]

Whoo! Congratulations! I hope you did a little tap dance in the spot where the car used to be. (As my brother complains every time I get in a snit and clean out his room, "But now it's just space.")

I'm so happy for you!

[planetalyx.livejournal.com]

I don't know you well, but when you posted about this outstanding life-item, I wondered if you'd got to it... and I sort of thought you would. New garage pace--coolness.

[tracy-rowan.livejournal.com]

Jeez, what is it about stuff like this that makes it seem so insurmountable? I go nearly catatonic when I contemplate certain kinds of tasks. I have to tell you that it actually does me good to know that someone who I consider to be as smart and competent as you does stuff like ignoring a dead car in the garage for 5 years.

[djinanna.livejournal.com]

>>I post this embarrassing little clip from The Highlight Reel of Kat's Inability to Deal With Life so that all the rest of you who from time to time feel like you're not taking a grip and coping efficiently can feel better about yourselves.<<

Actually, it really does. Make me feel ... well, maybe not actually *feel better*, but at least feel like I'm not alone, like I'm not the only one who does things like this.

So, thank you very much for posting it.

[elke-tanzer.livejournal.com]

Some people learn from experience.
Some people learn by example.
Some people never learn.

Thanks for being an example to others...

Now, any advice on how to get off my ass and go buy light bulbs? My front porch light has been dead for nearly a month.

Oh, and I have been putting off fixing the fenderbendered front of my car since last October... that needs to be done before this October or the insurance won't pay for it. :-P

*glances around, loves all the other only-human folks here*

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

They wouldn't take your junker? Ungrateful bastards! So much for charity not biting the hand, and all... But congratulations on taking that bull by the horns.

[kittygoslingp.livejournal.com]

Hey go you! My weakness is form-filling, I'd rather move house than fill in a form. I'm due a refund of £1,000 (I don't know say US$1,700) but I just can't get the form filled in and if I did I wouldn't be able to get the thing posted.

[theodosia.livejournal.com]

I've had enough embarrassing instances of Unpleasant Things That I'd Put Off Dealing With Turning Out To Be No Big Deals that you'd think I'd have learned a lesson or two from it. That's what you'd think, all right....

[ardent-muses.livejournal.com]

This made me laugh and feel VERY good, but not because I was laughing at you. I suffer from the same condition, and it's good to know that I'm not the only one who can't pull stuff like this together. Congratulations on getting that off your mind!

(For my next project, I'll be changing the lightbulb in my garage, instead of just turning on my headlights when I need to find something. Oy.)