Goodbye For Reals, Volkswagen

So I haven't said much about it, but our old Volkswagen has been haunting us. You see, when we got back home, my husband prepared all of the paperwork and title and sent it to the gentleman in Winnemucca that had taken the demon car.

Except....

Towards the end of September, I got a call from a strange phone number. I didn't answer it, because it could have been any number of random weirdos or bill collectors, but then they left a voicemail. So I listened. It was dude from the shop. The paperwork had never arrived. Well fuck.

So I started researching how to get a duplicate title. My husband, god bless him, had never contacted the DMV to say that the loan was paid off and we now held rights to the title. So we had to contact Volkswagen Credit and get a letter of release before we applied for a duplicate. That took about a week.

Then the dog got sick. And I let it go for a few days.

Then I felt like shit and it still went for a few more days.

Then we had no money to get a duplicate title, which in Illinois costs ninety-five fucking dollars. Seriously, Illinois. Fuck you.

So I contacted the guy again. He was going to send a check, and I'd just use a card to pay it for now. Then I got sidetracked again (life is a bitch, what can I say), so I never got around to it. Finally, this week, I put my mind to going TODAY to get the title and to stop fucking procrastinating.

Except the DMV is now closed on Saturdays in Illinois, so we couldn't go. Goddammit, Illinois.

I finally decided I'd go on Tuesday, because I had a doctor's appointment anyways, and I'd be out and about.

Except....

My phone rang an hour or so ago. It was the guy from Winnemucca. They had FOUND IT. Somehow, the original fucking title and paperwork had finally turned up in that little town. He doesn't know if it had been lost at the shop and his wife barely found it, or if it had been lost in the mail, and was barely delivered to them. Honestly, at this point, neither of us gave a fuck. We were just glad he finally received it. And maybe everything happened for a reason, right? I mean, if I had gone and done the title early, we'd be out $95 for no damned reason.

So now I guess the relationship with the Volkswagen is truly over. I'm still sad that we had to junk it. It may have been a piece of crap, but it was our piece of crap. I mean, sure, it leaked gas when the weather changed and stalled a lot and the engine light never turned off, but it took us a lot of places. Across the country, several times (before its spectacular death in Winnemucca). New York for Thanksgiving. Michigan for New Year's Eve. Wisconsin for Indian Summer Fest. Camping in Indiana. It was with us from the time the kid was born. It saw us through, even on its most bitchy days. I miss that stupid little car, and while I love the Hyundai, it's still not "ours" yet (even though it has already been in a minor accident and the hubcaps are missing because they were fucking cheap clip ons and flew off). I'm sure we'll get to that point someday where it has "us" stamped all over it, but not quite yet. Not quite yet.