the car pound et. al

i had this all written up before but it didn't save so i have to do it again. otherwise this would have been posted already.

it is now thursday night. over the weekend i drove my parent's 2003 maxima down to nyc. we arrived on saturday night. everything was going swimmingly (something i'll hopefully write about after this) until monday morning. we left the apartment where we were staying to find that the car was gone. after a couple hours of scrambling to confirm where the car was (ie that it wasn't stolen) we ascertained that it was towed and was at the pier 76 impound lot (charmingly titled the car pound) at 39th and 12th ave. the waiting area at the car pound was bloated with quite the cross section of new yorkers. after an hour wait and a $185 charge i was able to get the car. as i entered the massive hanger that contained all the other vehicles the NYPD had towed i noticed there were two parking tickets on the windshield. they were written 18 minutes apart and were for $115 each. the officer who accompanied me said i could have one of them thrown out.

so that was monday morning/early afternoon. $300 american well spent.

i'm not done yet.

after that ordeal was over i was just relieved that i had the car back and a way to get home. i'm desperately broke and so the money is a huge issue for me but i can deal with that.

tuesday morning rolls around and we leave the apartment heading towards the car. what do i find? the fucking headlights are gone; stolen. completely ripped out of the sockets. at that point i wanted to cry. apparently the headlights on 2003 maxima's are huge targets for thieves because a) they're easy to rip out and b) something about the wattage of the lights on that particular model of car makes them of particular interest to those who are theft inclined. i then made the questionable decision to drive home, which i did successfully. i'm still in the midst of dealing with insurance and body shops to have the lights replaced, as my parents are on vacation. the damage is in the multiple thousands. this is definitely the last thing my parents needed to deal with while they're away.

so there you have it. call it acts of god, or bad luck, or bad karma. however you characterize it (and i'm purposely avoiding analyzing it in these terms) there is no doubt that this is a series of very unfortunate events.

oddly enough this doesn't change my opinion of humanity or even my opinion of nyc. i still love that city and i still believe there is a fundamental goodness in people. beyond that i'm at a lose for words. all i can do is be stoic and carry on.