Success!

We are officially allowed to occupy this house.

I suspect that some of our snarky remarks about inspections might have gotten back to the inspector himself. He glanced over a couple of things, scratched off the whole list of "violations", and didn't even LOOK in the basement or at the room in the hall or anything!

I think the porch lookin' pretty and the general open space being back to general open space made him happy.

So I have a small amount of paperwork to do and then I'm in good with the city.

Special extra bonus fun:
I did gently mention the giant van of doom across the street. Apparently, this particular city inspector is liked by my nasty neighbor. The inspector has offered to discuss with him shifting the van forward or backward so that someone else can park in front of or behind him. Holy Gladhanding, Batman! We might get a space back across the street!

Oh, yeah? Watch this!

Famous last words.

Han Solo said them in The Empire Strikes Back, and Leia immediately responded with "Watch What?"

There's a REASON why I've always kind of self-identified with Han. He drives a big ol' clunky piece of crap that makes everyone laugh until they see him maneuver in the damn thing, and of course it goes faster than it ought to.

Except when it doesn't.

My car's battery has just died. I cast my net far and wide to look for a solution:
Is there somebody out there who can take a battery to where the car is parked and slap the thing in there? I would pay a shade-tree mechanic for such a favor. (and pay for the battery as well, of course.)

Is there somebody who can hook me up with a cheap tow to a local shop? Or a slightly more expensive tow to my favorite shop on Lindbergh in Hazelwood?

Is there somebody who can arrange for that tow to happen tomorrow while I'm on the road in the Nissan?

Augh.

It's the Road Trip Curse, you know. The Curse has figured out that I'm an (insert my surname here) after all, and some ancestor of ours defiled a temple to a god of transportation.

Please, Asphalta! Lay blessings upon me!

At this point I'm simply going to take the shiny red Nissan to Michigan, which will be nice because I can plug in my MP3 player. Or any MP3 player, really. I just didn't want to put a bunch of miles on it before I sell it.

Oh, and about that road-trip... I had planned to visit the S.O., but that's not going to work for logistical reasons. So therefore I'm going to Michigan to visit my two remaining Grandmothers (out of three) and see the lake and watch fireworks over the lake and lay on a beach drinking rum.