Abandoned (and other car issues)

I drove my car today. No. I am not driving it because of the wintry mix. I am driving it because the city threatened to tow it away if I did not move it

Abandonment sticker-notice how dirty my car is

    I have not driven my car since- well, I can't remember when I drove it last. It has been several months at least. My car has developed a bad habit of not starting on command. I have to have Q come over and jump it whenever I want to drive it. When you have to go to that much trouble to drive, suddenly very few trips are worth it

     So there it sat, on the side of the road, parked slightly cocked eyed( I cannot for the life of me park straight) collecting dirt, pine needles and other fallout from the trees it is parked next to.

    Apparently it was gathering a forlorn and abandoned air. Someone even left a note on it asking if I was willing to sell it. He would take it whether it was running or not.


     He was not the only one who thought it was a forgotten car. The city came by and slapped an abandoned sticker on it. It said I had ten days to move it or it would be moved for me. How nice of them to offer!

     I meant to move it and clean it up before now, but considering how much trouble it is to start it and then keep it running for awhile so it would start again, I had not done it before today-and today was the tenth day.

     Q came over to jump it (he has been so sweet to do this whenever I asked, regardless of weather, and the "wintry" mix is quite nasty today) and I left it running until I was ready to meet Q at Stone Cup for breakfast  I also left it running while in Stone Cup, blowing all my environmental capital that I have earned for riding the bike. Well, I try.

     I did not have any sessions this morning and while I was in my car, I thought it was a good time to get the emissions testing that Chattanooga requires for yearly registration. Since I never had my car out running enough to go by the testing site, my registration expired. Probably added to the abandoned air.

     I went by my studio first to stop and start the car just in case it didn't start up again and I would be where I needed to be. It started fine.

     I went to the testing site, stopped the car, got out and went in the waiting room. It wasn't long before the tester came in and said my car wouldn't start. Test flunked. At least they were kind enough to give me my money back. They wouldn't jump it though and just pushed my car around the corner, leaving me to deal with it.

     I was contemplating what my next step would be- I had already called Q but he wasn't answering- when I tried to start it again, and behold, it started right up! The testers had not even gotten back inside so I asked if we could resume the test. No telling when I will get a chance to come back-probably not till the next time I am forced to drive.

    But no, I was told I had to get it fixed before I came back. Durn!

     But I did get myself to the car repair place to get this figured out. I am sitting here waiting for the bad news.

     I don't think this is going to be pretty!