Wow....what a day.

I had to take Sebastian to get him looked at today.  We dropped him off at 8:30, then in mom's car, we got breakfast as Denny's.  After that, we went to the VW dealership and mom found and test drove a car she thought she'd like to get.  After all this, she and I decided to do some shopping.

We drove from the east end of Hagerstown, where everything had been so far, to the west end of Hagerstown where the shops are.  We were in one store, when my phone rang.  The mechanic was telling me they found out what was wrong with Sebastian.  To get him all fixed up would cost roughly $1700!

Now, bear in mind, the plan was, whenever mom got her new car (the grey one), I'd get her current one (the white one) and she would use Sebastian as a trade in.  And since she was looking to get the new car sometime soon, like in the next week to two weeks, I didn't really want to sink $1700 into a car I wouldn't have all that long.  And according to the mechanic, I should not drive it too far or too long without getting this fixed.    So I told him I'd call him back and then discussed it with mom.

She said, "Let's just do it today.  Just tell him to put the car back together, we'll pick it up and take it over to the VW place and we'll just do all the exchanging today."  I kinda just blinked a few times and look at her like she was crazy.  But then I thought, "well that would solve all our problems,"

So, that's what we did.  I called the mechanic and told him to put it all together.  She called theVW dealership and told them to get the card ready.  Then we had to drive back to Waynesboro from the west end of Hagerstown, pick up the titles to both our cars, and then drive back to the east end of Hagerstown.

I picked up my car, we took it to the VW dealership.  We got there just a little bit before noon.  We had to go through the paperwork, through the financing, getting all that crap worked out and then, FINALLY, about 4pm, we walked out of there, she was a brand new car and me, with a car new to me.

OH, but the day wasn't over yet.  We still hadn't had lunch, so we drove to a local McDonald's, of all places, and had a quick meal.  Then, from the east end of Hagerstown, we drove past Waynesboro, 15 miles or so north to Chambersburg, to the local AAA store in PA, and got the title and plate changed for ME (ie, changing the white car's title from mom to me, moving my plate to that car and turning in the plate that had been on the white car).    After about another $100 and 45 minutes, that was done.  And since both of us had already called the insurance company and gotten everything changed that way, we were, more or less, done.

We still had to go to mom's place so she could get everything out of the white car and into the grey car (I had cleaned out Sebastian earlier at the dealership).  She got all her stuff out and I moved my stuff from the trunk to where I wanted it in the new car.  And then, FINALLY, about 6pm, I got home.

And MAN, was I tired!

Anyway, here is the last pic of Sebastian I took.

Here is mom's old car, my new one:

And here is mom's new car!

So, goodbye, Sebastian.  You were a good little car.  I had you a smidge over 6 years, and only had 81,000 or so miles on you.  You and I were through a lot, but in the end, it was time to move on.

And so, new white car, I hope you treat me as well as Sebastian has, and I'll try to return the favor.

Which leads me to this: What should I call my new car?  I'll let you, the Palace readers, vote on what you think they best name should be.  Here are my suggestions/your choices:

Beverly (named after my mother where the car came from)
Belle (Because the car is white, like cotton, and in the South, cotton came from plantations, and Southern Belles lived on those plantations)
Snowflake (cause she's white as snow)
Madchen (German for girl, since she IS a Volkswagen after all)

Cast your vote below:




POLT