I Surrendered (Almost)

It pains me to admit this publicly, but I actually attempted to buy a car today. Fortunately, fate intervened and the car had already been sold. Thank God, now I can return to a state of blissful ignorance about insurance rates and the price of a new water pump for a 1988 VW Fox. Unfortunately my bliss will only last until my housemate sees an advertisement for a cheap car and gets me all worked up again, the bastard. I know that weeknight trips to the climbing gym, the lumber yard, or the grocery store would be less of an operation if I owned a car, and that car ownership would not negate my ability to ride or walk to work on a daily basis, but car ownership is not something I feel really ready for. Cars seem to exist for the purpose of making people upset and for generating money for a lot of people who are not me. Purchasing a car in St. Louis includes 4% state and 4% city sales tax, in addition to a road worthiness inspection (please give money to the mechanic), emissions testing (and fee), licensing fee, property tax (how is that justified?) and state mandated insurance. Due to the high rate of felony car theft in St. Louis, it would have cost almost as much to insure the Fox for a year as its Kelly Blue Book value. I got a headache trying to understand the economics of that and just said forget it and returned my excess thoughts to conducting polymers and excess time to unleashing my orbital sander on an old chair. My housemate returned from travels and asked me if I had at least made an offer on the Fox, which spurred me to today's fruitless action.

My resistance is probably futile, and I am going to have to surrender to the process of car ownership at same point soon, attendant costs and all. The battle is finding an auto in reasonably good condition, that gets decent mileage and doesn't require a computer to repair. The Fox was probably ideal, and I am an idiot for not jumping on it like graduate students on free food. I suck at these sorts of big decisions, and as usual failed to act when presented with the opportunity for a good deal. Then again, I am sure another car that meets my needs, standards and budget is available, I just have to continue to look, and enjoy every blissful day of life without slavery to some vessel powered by infernal combustion. Like today. Mahalo.