retrieving things
Today was busy with errands. I started by retrieving my credit card from our favorite diner, where I had left it on Monday.
Next, I went to the computer repair shop to retrieve an old computer from before the trip. There was much confusion. They had found the disk drive unhealthy, as I had suspected, and recovered it onto a new drive. But by some mistake, they had also replaced the whole machine with a much never box, some 20 times faster than the old one. They asked my permission to do that, but hadn't received a reply. I decided to keep the new machine, at cost with labor voided, because the old one was indeed slow.
The big project was retrieving a friend's car from impound. "K" doesn't drive it much, and the police had not been enforcing the three-day parking rule on her, because she has a neighborhood parking permit. But for some reason they decided to enforce the rule just as she got too sick to move the car, and they had it towed.
She's still too sick to retrieve it herself. First, I had to go to the Seattle courthouse to get a document saying she could get the car back, and could pay for the towing in installments. The courthouse is not a good spot for parking, so I parked at the downtown library and walked there and back. She had a mess getting things in order with the court, amounting to hours on the phone. But for me it was easy there. I said her name, my name, and got the paperwork. I walked back to the library, three minutes late for free parking, but it was still cheap.
Next step was the actual retrieval. The towing company has always been a nightmare, but it apparently has new ownership that has made things even worse.
First I had to present the paper from the city: hardcopy only, no e-mail. Then a notarized letter from K granting me permission to retrieve her car. (At least they took that by e-mail.) The receptionist then told me that I could find the car near the "brown building". It was nowhere near the brown building. Employees laughed at me when I asked for help. I maneuvered around the pond in the middle of the lot. I found it only because K had a GPS homing device on her car.
There was also the matter of getting it out of the lot. It was blocked in on all sides by other cars, and the battery was so dead that turning the key didn't even produce a click. K had called AAA, but they don't go into that terrible lot. She then called her insurance company for a tow. But they couldn't move the car blocking in her car, or the truck blocking in that car.
After much searching, the tow truck driver said I managed to get the lot's forklift driver to move the truck and car blocking her car in, and he moved her car to the middle of the lot's drive.
Finally, the tow truck driver could hook up the car and haul it away, to a Les Schwab for a new battery. I thanked him for his patience.
Finally it was done. I celebrated with a cup of tea from a drive-through stand, then headed home.
At home I had a treat waiting: "J" and "T" had made casserole. It was delicious.