Goodbye and Hello (UPDATED)

Mobility and stability

It has been a crazy two months!

You all remember the drama with my PT Cruiser? Well that’s over. No one would fix all the things that were wrong with her: catalytic converter, massive electrical problems and a big one: the engine would spontaneously die while it was in use - anywhere from 0 to 70 MPH! Also, power would drain from the newly-bought battery after sitting turned off for as little as two hours even when no lights were on. (I suppose that was part of the electrical problem.) I couldn’t do any food delivery for fear of being stuck someplace. Trust me, AAA got a lot of business from me in the last six months.

She couldn’t pass a smog check, obviously, and though some of my buddies around the way offered to get me a black market 2024 sticker, I decided against that - not so much out of morality or the fact that it would cost me even more money - but because I always manage to get in trouble when I’m doing something underhanded. ::: glances upward :::

So it was decided. I sold her to the CA Car Retirement Program.

RIP, Little Car. It almost felt like putting down a terminally ailing pet.

The upside is that I used the money to pay my rent, so I have only part of this month’s to pay … today, preferably!

Oh yes and there’s one more thing: one of my church bros bought a new vehicle and gave me his old car! My PT was a similar gift from an old blog friend. 

How amazing it is to get another vehicle as a gift! God is good.

With my new vehicle, of course, there were still expenses: new smog check (done), oil maintenance (done) and the big one, insurance (done). The title transfer is the last item. For this month, however, I had to choose between insurance and rent, so I chose mobility. And that’s why I’m giving it one more fundraising push right now.

These plans remain: to finish my second novel and to do more digging into the homeless situation here in Los Angeles and I feel blessed to have a reliable car especially for that purpose.

Speaking of homelessness, did you hear about what happened in LA over the weekend? A homeless camp downtown under I-10 went up in flames and destroyed a section of the highway!

I haven’t read any casualty reports but I do know that traffic is (more of) a nightmare because of this and it will likely be so for some time to come. I’d like to get some more pictures, assuming I can get close enough - which, of course, is doubtful.

Anyway, hit the tip jar if you value my work. As of this publishing I have 18 new free subscribers, thanks to Glenn. The goal is to get all 1285 free subs to donate $5; so far: 198. I only need about 200 of you today. Thanks.

UPDATE 11/14/2023: My landlord didn’t come yesterday, but he’s here now. I need $600 more in donations, which amounts to 120 additional donations of $5.