sttteeeeelllllaaaa.....

so you tell me. what counts as charity here, anyway?

it is now three days later in the never-ending saga of stella's retirement. it turns out that my cab driver's beloved "automex" does not, as far as i can tell, exist. i think la mexicana incognita is a little disappointed (as am i) that she doesn't get to go all latina with the mechanics, but such is life...

also, sadly, stella had not been kidnapped by hamed or the cab driver. i found her parked safely in a lot behind lalo's on lasalle. feeling a few twinges of nostalgia for my sweet car, the only one i've ever owned (and also because i learned that aaa does not tow straight to salvage yards) i called aaa and a pickup truck came to move stella to the midas across the street faster than i could order a margarita for the wait. this wrecks my blogmate's and my streak of waiting for tow trucks while drinking, but i can't complain. this bought me a day and a half of procrastination since midas was closed until this morning.

what to do now? while at work saturday morning i managed to amuse my co-workers with my never-ending internet hunt for salvage yards, car donation charities, etc. i found:

- a salvage yard that would give me $125 if i could get stella there, $60 if they towed
- some charity called kars4kids, which claims to pick up the car, donate to some other charity that gives the money to youth in some fashion, and give me a voucher for 2 nights' hotel stay in some resort-esque locale

i was feeling good about the charity/hotel option (especially since aaa wouldn't tow me straight to the salvage yard) until this morning, when i actually looked up the charities in question on some non-profit evaluation sites. i was initially excited since their links included stuff like gottorah.com, which along with my new-found love for matisyahu, might further my previous designation as honorary jew (for the purposes of holidays, anyway), except that nothing on any web site actually told me my car money would actually go to said causes.

i had a long drawn-out conversation with mb last night where i told him i had known stella's time was coming, but wanted her to pass with more dignity than this. he told me it's like caring for the elderly, where you love them but can't bear the burden anymore and have to ask for help, except that the elderly don't get sold for parts.

so feeling even guiltier, i called another salvage place this morning to see if i could get a better estimate. hooray! bob at the salvage place told me that they just bash cars in, but he knew a lady who was looking for a cheap car to get around town, and once i got an estimate from midas could i call him? so now i'm wondering if i can an estimate for what i think is the starter (~$170 repair, i think), and an ok from salvage-bob saying the lady in question could give me the cost of the starter repair plus ~$100 (maybe total $300?) i could sell her my stella. this makes me feel less like i'm sending stella off to a yucky nursing home or pulling out her feeding tube, and more like she's retiring to be a walmart greeter or something minimally productive.

i think it might be the right thing. but i invite opinions.

to be continued... again...