New car!

We purchased a new car today! Well, new for us. It's 3 years old, but has only run about 8000 km. It must have just been used to go shopping on Saturdays or something. It is a nice color of blue, has A/C and seat heating, the back seat folds partially or completely, with enough room for taking stuff along to Sweden. It's pretty basic otherwise, place to park my gum and my parking card and a cup of coffee. It's job is to take me from A to B and not need *too* much gas.

It will be such a relief not to be totally dependent on the dysfunctional public transport here in Berlin. I still want to use my bike in the summer, I've kind of gotten to like the ride to work from the train station on bike: through quiet streets, over the water on a pedestrian bridge, then down a wide bike path. I get to school in a good mood, and I think the students appreciate that.

WiseYoungMan will *not* be driving this car, however...

Nimble? Not!

We spent hours on Saturday driving out to have a look at a car we were thinking of buying. We had to change trains twice each direction, and always just missed a train, having to wait 10 minutes for the next one. That was 40 minutes of unnecessary waiting, and 90 minutes for a trip that normally takes 40 (each direction) by car.

I am not patient enough for this.

So I decided to join a car-sharing scheme so that I can quickly obtain a car for such a trip (and for replenishing the juice/water/beer supplies that are dwindling without a car). I decided on Flinkster (flink is a German word for "nimble", sounds good). Since I have a BahnCard, I don't have to pay a monthly fee. The hourly rate is a bit higher, but I don't need it much.

I registered on the web site, and the first strange thing happened. I typed in all my data, then my BahnCard number, and then it wanted me to type in everything again. Dutifully, I did so. I printed out the forms and signed them, and then noted: The telephone number I had put in was not filled in, on the other hand my Prof. Dr. (which is on the BahnCard but which I didn't fill in) was on the form. So if they have the data already, why am I being asked to type it in again?

I was to take the form to any DB Service Point, open every day and in Berlin even on Sundays until 10pm. So on the way home from church I stopped by. First off, I misinterpreted the term "Service Point". I took a number in the ticket office and waited - as the only customer in line - until the clerks finished discussing whatever it was that they needed to discuss. Well, I was wrong, but at least one of the clerks showed me the way.

The information desk was what I needed. I stated my business and was greeted with blank stares. "Flinkster?" Yes, the car-sharing thing. I later saw that there was even an ad for it posted behind them. Hmm. One of the two people starts digging in a drawer and pulls out a folder that has seen better days. They grumble. They mumble. They put something in the computer.

I hand them my papers. One types something in, frowns. Mutters. Types something in again, frowns again. Um, speak to me? It seems there is a problem in the system. I explain that I had to put everything in twice. We mumble and grumble. One of them looks up and says "we are guest workers here, we normally work somewhere else."

I call home and ask for "Tatort" to please be taped. No way I am going to be home on time.

They finally get something going, ask me a few questions, ask for my ID and driver's license. They type in a bit more information, frown a bit more at the screen and my ID. I get both the ID and the driver's license back, wait some more, and then they want the driver's license again, after they discuss something about a sticker. They take my driver's license and affix a sticker to it!

"Wait a minute, that's an official document! You are a private company! Are you allowed to put that on my driver's license?" " Yes, sure, that's how it works!" "I was supposed to get a card." "Oh now, now we put stickers on the driver's licenses."

I get it back while they stamp and sign a bunch of stuff. Sure enough. Another RFID tag. Now, with a separate card I can leave it at home unless I need it. But the driver's license I always have with me, also when driving cars that are not rented by the DB. There are getting to be quite a few RFID chips in my wallet, I don't find that very comforting.

Finally I asked if they had some information on this new sticker-on-the-driver's-license thing. They rooted around a bit, and then I just said thank you and left. The process of getting set up for the Flinkster was all but nimble. I hope the cars are easier to rent.

Got home too late for "Tatort", so I started watching the taping, and then it was a re-run. Auch das noch...

Bye-Bye Car

Uff. We invested a good bit of money into the car at the beginning of the year (new tires, rebuilding the motor) so that it would run until the inspection ran out the end of August. We were planning on getting a new car then, and have been lazily visiting the showrooms.

I had WiseYoungMan drive me to the airport on Tuesday. I was nagging him from the get-go: no starts like that young man, watch where you are going, DON'T TEXT IN TRAFFIC! He dropped me off and I left instructions as to when he was to pick me up the next day when I got back.

I was picked up by WiseMan - for a bus ride. WiseYoungMan totaled the car Tuesday evening. He's okay (glad for that), but he insists he's not at fault. The car just broke out to the left, luckily no cars were coming the other way, and he smashed the car into a wall. Luckily he wasn't going fast, he somehow managed to get the car driven home. So we had the junk man come and look at it, I got a few hundred Euros for it (making me suspect that I could have gotten more if I had shopped around). WiseYoungMan got all my stuff out of the car, and it was hauled off.

I was so sad to see the car go - after all, it's been a member of the family for about 8 years! Driven all over the place, it's kind of my mobile office. Sure, it's usually dirty (although I just sprung for a deluxe car wash on Monday!), but it was my mobility tool. Lots of adventures we had with the car, I was really sad to see it get towed from the parking place.

Today, I had to bike to work. And then biked out to an auto showroom - they don't tend to be easily reachable by public transport and/or bikes. I'm not sure what I want. And I'm not sure how I'm going to sort out getting to Sweden for Pentecost. Maybe I don't need a car?

Passed a Porsche

Tooling down the two-lane secondary highway this afternoon there was a ton of traffic. And I was behind a Porsche doing 99 in a 100 zone. I waited a bit, nothing happened, but there was space for me to hop over and pass. I did, had to speed up to 110 to get past him, but it worked!

Strangely, the Porsche didn't pass anyone, even on the autobahn. Must have been a new owner....