Hey, it could happen...

As Tropical Storm Beryl headed up the eastern seaboard on Thursday night, the forecast was for a fairly heavy hit out on Massachusetts’ more exposed areas. Nantucket, Martha’s Vineyard, and Cape Cod were in a direct path. Worcester, of course, is about 2 hours inland, so we were supposed to get some rain, possibly thunderstorms. In a cinematic turn of wish-fulfillment, however, my dreams brought the storm closer to home. Thursday night I had a vivid dream about being at work on Friday as the storms rolled in. I happened to look out the window at one point and saw dark clouds, an angry colored sky, and lots of churning winds. I commented that it looked like tornado weather. I grew in Wisconsin, which sees plenty of tornado weather. Massachusetts, however, gets minimal twisters. No sooner had I said that, though, and a funnel cloud started forming, pretty much right across the street. I started herding everyone away from the action. We basically made it into the production area and then couldn’t figure out where to go next. There really is no safe place nearby. The sounds of wind and turmoil began to die down, anyway, so we headed back to the Quality office.

Looking out the window this time showed a different scene. The tornado had ripped clean a perfect path of emptiness, including half of our building. The front building, which houses the offices, was completely gone except for the back wall that adjoins the production building. We didn’t get touched, but Sales, Engineering, Purchasing, HR, the owner / president, et cetera, were all GONE. We were just kind of staring blankly in disbelief at the wall, while ill-formed thoughts about unemployment drifted through our minds. Then I saw my car. From this side it looked OK, but the top was down. I was Positive I hadn’t left it down, and was rather upset that the interior got soaked. Going over to the car, I noticed the other side was completely mangled and the top had been ripped off, not lowered. There was even a stray wheel lodged in the door. It was with planning of insurance forms and unemployment checks that I realized I could now move south! Paychecks while not working relaxes the stress of the condo sale, so I was free to pack up and leave. (Yeah, sorry all those people died, but wuhoo!!!)

Car Trouble

Ronny had a rather beat-up old Saturn that was slowly dying. He decided he worked too hard to not have a better car. So, we would occasionally stop in at used car lots. I fairly hate used car shopping. The slimy salesmen, lemon risk, and general sense of predatory deception combine with memories of spending countless hours following my father around used car lots. I would find myself expressing the same whiny “I don’t wanna” with Ronny that I had with my father. Sunday we were heading to the car wash, and Ronny wanted to stop in at the lot next door to it (“Dallas Carboys” – in Texas that is probably as tired as anything, but in Mass I guess it passes for clever). There we stumbled upon a 2000 Neon with only 30k miles. He said it was $5,900 but offered it for 55. I told Ronny to play up the poor immigrant bit and go for $5000 even. The sales guy was trying to hold at 52 until Ronny waved the “cash” lure. (I had picked up a couple things from my father.) Kelly blue book lists it at $5100 to 6440, so Ronny either got a good deal or a juicy lemon. Mass has a lemon law, so Ronny’s not stuck with it if it is too citrusy.

Now the dilemma. Ronny has a few immigrant-related document issues, so he asked his brother-in-law to help out. The b-i-l has a MA driver’s license, so can get insurance, so can register a car. The b-i-l said sure, he’d sign the forms, so Ronny used the b-i-l’s name when buying the car. Now that he has the car, with the wrong name on it, the b-i-l has decided not to get insurance for Ronny. He’s caught in a tight spot now, because he can’t register the car, and he can’t change it to his own name without transferring, but he can’t transfer it out of the b-i-l’s name until it’s registered in the first place. Ronny already sold the old Saturn, so is now freaking out about driving an unregistered, uninsured car. Ronny seems to have a history of getting screwed over by his brothers-in-law.