Monday Meanderings - 7.29.2019

News from the Neighborhood -

A few weeks ago the City of Austin began posting notices about a pending re-paving of the streets in our neighborhood. This was good news because of the deteriorating condition of the existing asphalt and bad news because of the disruption it would cause.

The notices had dire warnings about cars parked in the street (they would be hauled to some other vague location) and the interruption it would cause (if they are working on your street and you need to come or go, tough luck).

The work began, and we carefully considered our lunch-time options in view of where the paving trucks seemed to be working and decided they would not get to us until after we had dined at Chuy's. We keep our priorities straight on things like that. So we left and had lunch and you can guess the rest.

It turned out to be a negligible delay - one side of our street had the tar and gravel laid down and by driving to the bottom of our block we scooted across to home and safety before the trucks started doen the other side. Home free.

As far as cars that had to be re-located, it appeared that they simply had tow-trucks gather up vehicles on to-be-paved streets and park them on already-paved streets. Like ours. And it soon became obvious that the tow trucks were NOT charged with returniing them once moved; it was up to the owner to find and remove his vehicle. But there is this one un-driveable (front end mashed in) vehicle that ended up across from our driveway that the owner evidently thinks is in a better place than in front of his or her house.

At first, we didn't know what the deal was, but Freddie - the across-the-street neighbor, had seen the tow truck deposit the car and learned from the towing company that they had no further obligation to return it. So he called it in as an abandoned vehicle and was told it might sit there a long time before any action by the city was taken. So, we doubled down and also called and got essentially the same story, but... the other day a cop put the orange sticker of death on the windshield, so maybe, just maybe it will be moved in our lifetime.

In the mean time, I'll make you a real good deal on a late model Chrysler SUV with extensive front end damage. As is. You will need to arrange its removal, but the price is excellent.