Only slightly incorrect Subway poster for service. from Jalopnik.

As I blogged on Friday, I went to an auto sales place today (Saturday). Reasonable human beings involved, no-hassle pricing (I don’t like to haggle), and auto sales are not the core business of the place (it’s a car rental company divesting itself of cars over 3 years old). The salesman wasn’t itching to sell me a bunch of bells and whistles. The issue on which this all turns is cost of the things the car price doesn’t include–the insurance and other costs (anticipated and otherwise). The one fly in the ointment right now is that insurance companies that provide online quotes aren’t equipped to deal with my situation. I’m a driver who doesn’t have a car right now, and my co-op doesn’t rate as a home but it really isn’t a rental, either. I will have to talk to a human being to sort all this out. And I’m not in a chatty mood.

But whatever the sticker shock effect of the afternoon, it wasn’t enough to dissuade me from the necessity of a car purchase. My subway line was only operating one way for the weekend (technically, it was running both ways but only express in one direction–either my trip out or my trip back would involve a backward journey to get to my station, which isn’t on the express line). This has been going on for at least a year, and not just on weekends. Wednesdays through Fridays are reserved for such work, which makes work commuting far too enjoyable.

And I’m not alone in my MTA-administered misery. Virtually every line in the system was a clusterf**k this weekend. And the only people acknowledging how screwed up the whole system was seems to be Gothamist, which published this broadside. 

Will update you on what insurance will involve. In the meantime, have you noticed that insurance commercials (of all sorts) are beginning to outnumber ads for actual products? Or is it just me?