The First Time Is Special
You can never get the first time back. Ever.
My daughter just turned 19 last month. For her birthday, her grandpa bought her a car. I know what you are thinking. It’s her first car, love at first sight! Ha! Fiddlesticks, I say!
No, this is my poor daughter’s third car. The first one was cosigned to the wonderful graveyard of cars, about a month after she got her license. Totaled. By a Ford F-250 Super Duty going 70 MPH in a 15 MPH school zone. But the cop on the scene didn’t want to assign blame … SMH.
As my husband said, we were very lucky. She was unscathed except for a profuse amount of tears. Yeah, I cried like an entire box full of Kleenex. Good thing I keep them in the glove compartment. My daughter was mature, and she helped her mama deal with everything.
We bought her first car for a good price, shortly before her 16th birthday. After the accident, we got her another car. She got into a minor fender bender with a tree with that one. The tree won, but she was not hurt at all. The car suffered a big dent. But she kept that car up until said third, new car.
At any rate, her father, we shall call him B, of whom car-giving-grandpa is his son, wanted to pay for her inspection as a birthday present. My husband, we shall call him D, and I are convinced that car-giving-grandpa yelled at his son for having the car plates (that were mailed after a fiasco with the car dealership) in the mailbox for like 2 weeks. (Any resemblance of the letters to the person’s actual first name is purely coincidental.)
For informational purposes, you need to have an inspection within like 10 days of getting your plates.
B and Daughter have some conversations, which went vaguely like this:
Conversation 1
B: I want to inspect your car as your birthday present.
Daughter: Cool, thanks so much!
B: I’m going to take it to XYZ Garage. Drop it off today.
Daughter: I always take my car to ABC Garage to get it inspected and to change the oil.
B: Well, I want to take it to XYZ Garage.
Daughter: Okay, lemme ask Mom.
B: You always do what your Mom wants. I want to take it to XYZ Garage.
[Daughter asks me what D and I think, as we are grocery shopping while this conversation happens.]
D: We always take our cars to ABC Garage because they can do it in a day.
Me: But he can take it wherever he wants if he’s paying for it.
Daughter: Okay. [To B.] You can take it to XYZ Garage.
B: Why do you always do whatever your Mom wants?
Conversation 2, approximately two days later:
Daughter: Hello, I can’t go around driving without my car being inspected. When are you taking it to XYZ Garage?
B: They couldn’t get it in until tomorrow.
Daughter: Did you make an appointment?
B: No. I’ll go do that now.
Conversation 3, the day after:
Daughter: When’s my car being inspected?
B: XYZ Garage couldn’t get it in for another four days.
Daughter: I need my car!
B: I’ll take it to ABC Garage. I told you they inspect it within a day.
Daughter: !!!
B: I want you to come with me to get your car inspected.
Daughter: Okay, why? Cuz it was a birthday present. That means you should do it.
B: I want to be the parent to help you get your inspection for the first time. It will be fun. We can have quality time together.
Daughter: Um …
B: Well?
Daughter: !!!
God must have a really bad sense of humor to invent child custody.
A Spooktacular Spectacular Announcement
I’ve long promised a legal thriller short story. Well, dear reader, I’m happy to say that I finished it! And this month of February, the month of love, I give to you my first love. Ghost stories. Because long before I met the man of my dreams, I was reading the spooky and the scary.
Download a month’s worth of ghost stories (most for free)! Mine is listed there, too, titled “Charlotte Watson and the Missing Bullet.”
Happenings
I am reading Rhythm of War by Brandon Sanderson, a massive book of 1200+ pages. This is book four of the series, so that means I also read books one, two, and three. You read that correctly. That’s about 4,800 pages. I think I went blind. I might be blind because I stabbed out my eyeballs with a pencil. It’s a really good story if you like being blind. (Those are referral links! Thank you for your support!)
I’m still watching Goliath on Amazon Prime starring Billy Bob Thornton. Season 2 legal recap is coming soon. Spoiler: Not as good as season 1.
For those of you who are buying their first car, here are some things you should know. Parents, I feel for you. Watch out for trees.