04-V-2007.
This time we're going straight there, to the place where they had the dark blue Honda Civic, that she found doing a bit of a web search of the local dealers. Took a cab, got there, found exactly that car, haggled a bit for the price... well, shop price was 12k plus tax, web price was 11k plus tax etc, we got it for 11k total. Drove back, with temporary tags, in a cooled down vehicle.
It was nice to see Go change her mind about shopping. Now able to buy TWO gallons of milk at once, and no worry on how to get them home.
It took us some ten days to register the car. Because... to buy a car you need a driver's license, and also to register it. It's assumed that you had some (your dad's hand-me-down) car when you got your license, way back in high school. The case when you buy a car to use it to learn how to drive simply doesn't compute. So I had to sign as a co-owner.
For insurance we decided on Geico, despite stupid ads („15% or more on car insurance“ we always heard as „moron car“, speaks flat and fast). They are cheaper, and although they have almost no field offices, you can still get most of the stuff done online (which is actually why they are cheaper). They have to have something in the fields, and these are solo guys, contractors. So we had to visit one of them to estimate the car - whether there are any dents, scratches, rust, flood residues. There's no inspection in Florida.
And then I started teaching her to drive. I'd take her to work in the morning, pick her up in the afternoon, then we'd get in the car and went for a lesson. For initial lessons - shift, clutch, steering - we found a vacant parking lot in the area, then started making wider circles. After ten days I put her on the master task: to park at Walmart, then fill the cart, and then while pushing the cart out, to remember where she parked. Passed.
The shots are generally a mess, as I didn't bring the minolta, relied on her still having the old Agfa around. It felt quite slow now, so I didn't make too many shots, but at least it had the EXIF info inside, so at least the times are right. No clue why I left the shooter in my backpack so long - it was sitting there until 13th, and this one was shot on 14th.
Ricardo usually stayed longer at work, so he'd call for us to pick him up, some time around 22 or even later. He worked in a different building in the same compound, as a tester. Then we wouldn't go straight to the apartment, but to the next wing, where the postboxes for the whole community were. It was a largish cottage, the walls of which were just small doors. At each corner there was a sizeable trashcan, to discard the advertisements. Futile job, the advertising, nobody even looks at them, but we all pay for it, roundabout but inevitably.
Mentions: Agfa, Gorana Sredljević (Go), Ricardo Manuel Bariero (Ricardo), in serbian