I feel like people (other than on DU) don't get that the grid keeps you off once you're off

[Fumesucker]

99. Yours was the first post I clicked on after walking in the door today

I just spent several hours driving a friend around to get a title and tag for a $400 car they bought literally nine months ago. The car wasn't stolen but the previous owner had managed to screw up the title paperwork almost beyond the point of recovery. It's an older Toyota Corolla with fairly low miles and runs great but is somewhat dinged up, a good car for a poor person.

This is someone who makes a bit above the median income but has child support payments as well as a second family and just recently large medical bills that even his union insurance didn't protect him from completely. Then his running car broke down to the point it's not worth repairing and after spending months of effort on getting the new paperwork on the still running Corolla in the end I had to drive them an eighty mile round trip to the state office to get the title. Originally I was only going to drive them ten miles round trip to the county tag office, the tag office told them it had to be done by the state which was another forty miles in the opposite direction, then it was back to the county tag office with the title to get a tag.

Get the paperwork sufficiently fouled up and even buying a hooptie car can turn into a nightmare.