It’s been awhile since I “transferred the flag” from the mercedes to the porsche; but unknown to most of you… the mercedes remained on Grapes’ Lido deck awaiting for its final disposition.
I had heard about various charitable organizations that would gladly cart the car away (for which I could claim a handsome tax deduction). After making a few calls I found out that these organizations wanted the car in driving condition… picky, picky…
Well, shit… if it were in driving condition I wouldn’t have had to pick-up Maheesh’s porsche… I would still be tooling around the hills of Connecticut in dignified style!
I had to approach Vinnie, master automotive surgeon who was largely responsible for keeping the merecedes on the road all these years, to make the call to the vehicle undertaker of Fairfield County: Lajoie Bros or one of the others, whose names I forget.
Meanwhile, the mercedes immobilized on the Lido waited on death row. This waiting period proved a source of contention between Ash and me… you see sometimes Ash comes back from his late lunch to find the parking lot filled to capacity, and there the mercedes was sitting in mute silence taking up a valued spot. I explained that I was waiting to hear if the Govenor had issued a stay of execution, or maybe outright clemency.
Even this imaginative excuse lost its charm in the second week. I was beginning to feel a tad guilty… yet I resisted telling him that perhaps if he took a shorter lunch, then maybe he would still find a parking spot.
Well… the time really was at hand. I had cleared my personal effects two weeks ago… the essentials: a beach chair, a picnic blanket, two beach towels, two paperback books, Hugh Johnson’s Atlas of Wine, and something to clear off snow and ice had been moved to the Saturn (my better car that I have re-claimed, albeit temporarily, while Suzy is in her Freshman year).
Still… when I returned from Maheesh’s Exxon Cafe this morning… I saw that the mercedes had been carted off.
I am glad that I wasn’t there to see the truck arrive…
And as stupid as this sounds… I feel like I have just said goodbye to a favorite pet… and if it wasn’t quite animate, it certainly was a “mascot”… something that was easily identifiable as part of my persona.
I will be sitting shiva over at the Office or in the Eagle’s Nest at the close of business. Those of you wishing to make a donation… please send what you can to the Return George Bush to Texas Fund.