I Suck At Donating My Car

it's painful enough to lose my son (braden). today, i lost the woman who has been with me for fourteen memorable years... my purple saturn.

okay, so the loss of my purple saturn is really not that bad in the grand scheme of things. i am just slightly attached to the car because it was the first car i ever purchased.

i was able to save enough money to buy my purple saturn when i was attending northeastern university. northeastern university had what is known as a "co-op" in which a student could get some hands on experience working in the real world in the field of their major. at the time, i was majoring in electrical engineering... yet somehow i managed to land a gig for draper laboratories doing computer programming. (and by computer programming, i mean writing silly episodic stories for my friends to pass the time away.)

needless to say, saturn was a relatively new car company at the time. they had a slogan of "a different kind of car. a different kind of company." naturally, the young impressionable student that i was... i drank their kool-aid from tennessee.

i had saved enough money to purchase a car from them. in retrospect, i probably should have used the funds to actually pay for school since i was paying for school by myself, but that is a different story. and thus, my relationship with my purple saturn began.

i had many memorable times in my purple saturn. i would drive everywhere in my car (back when gasoline was under a dollar). i loved my purple saturn. karen, unfortunately, did not share my enthusiasm for the car. karen used to think that the car did not like her because my purple saturn would occasionally drip rain water onto her from the skylight. it was quite amusing.

and yes... sometimes... i actually did talk to my car... those were good times.

sadly, my purple saturn has become a shell of its former self. the interior has become a mess. the engine hasn't been running well. the final straw came when the brakes finally went. as a result, my purple saturn has been sitting in the driveway... for numerous months... until now.

(pictured below is my purple saturn about to be towed away for good.)


yesterday, i had contacted a company in regards to donating my car. now, i suck at donating my car. i kept meaning to donate my car for awhile. i just never got around to doing so.

my original choice was to donate the car to a place for veterans. after all, they were the only place i knew about because they had advertised in the mail. the only other option i knew of was from my friend (hot amy). hot amy mentioned the elder affairs also accepted automobile donations. well... as much as i like to entertain the thought of old people driving my klunky car like a bat out of hell... i decided on neither of the above options.

instead, i chose to donate my purple saturn to the family care foundation. interestingly enough, the family care foundation is a christian organization. by no means am i religious. (i actually still have original sin depending on who you ask.) the family care foundation, however, is supposed to provide services for developing communities. their slogan is "caring for today... investing in tomorrow."

as i was looking to help families and their children, i thought the idea of the family care foundation was the closest. and yes, i thought about the march of dimes. unfortunately, i did not see anything on the march of dimes website allowing me to specifically donate a car to them. so... the family care foundation it is.

i only wish the family care foundation knew the donation was in braden's memory. unfortunately, it was not one of the options during the donation process. nonetheless, it is comforting for me to know that the donation of my purple saturn in braden's memory will help others who are less fortunate.

yay braden!

UPDATE:

as requested, here is a video of my purple saturn's last day of living in the driveway.