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A funny thing happened on the way to Florida. On Saturday we bought a car, a '95 Ford Escort that cost us the princely sum of $750. Before going forward I should go backward:

A week ago Wednesday we set out to look at some cars. We'd searched the classified ads and made appointments to see three of them in the afternoon. To do that we had to take the DC Metro all over town. It was a terribly cold day and several times we almost gave up and came in from the cold. Enough spying out cars we thought. In fact, we only saw two cars, the first a 1992 Escort and the second a 1995 Escort. We were put off right away by the "owner" of the first, if he was that. He kept us waiting nearly an hour, and he turned out to be a small time dealer (I suspect "crook"). He advertised as a private owner, but probably had borrowed the car from a dealer and wanted to sell it to us on a markup.

After seeing his car we went clear to the other side of DC to see the 1995 Escort. The owner arrived and immediate used his "hard sell" on us: "You probably don't even want to bother looking at the car, since on the way over the heater fan went out." He had originally advertised the car at $1500; when we called he said — he was so anxious to sell — that we could have it for $1000. It turned out that he had a new baby, had just bought a big van, and wanted to get the car out of his hair so that he could deal with the baby. Now he said he would reduce the price to $750. We, not being price conscious at all, said we would look it.

First looks made us want it. We quickly tested the lights, brakes, etc, and drove it around the parking light. But I wanted to test it in the daylight and when the cold wouldn't be so extreme. So we set another meeting on Saturday. The car came, the car was seen and tested, and the car was bought. The next day, Sunday, we got several quotes for insurance, all at half of the NYC-NJ quoted price, and signed up with GEICO. Sometimes internet, phone, and credit cards are truely amazing.

We went to register it on Monday, a whole week before our scheduled departure. The clerk there thought we were trying to cheat the Commonwealth of Virginia out of part of its 3% sales tax as the Blue Book value is $2250.  It is not really worth that much since it needs a new muffler, new tires, a repaired fan, and it has no fancy equipment such as a tachometer. We convinced the clerk the price was honest. Still, he wanted us to come back with a bill-of-sale, which we lacked.

But then we learned that were in a kind of catch 22 situation: we couldn't register it unless we had VA driver's licences, and we couldn't get a VA license unless we had proof of residence and proof of our social security numbers.  We offered our passports that had allowed us into China, Vietnam, and Ukraine, but they were not good enough for the Virginia DMV. But from a later, calmer look at the proof of residency requirements, we learned that our insurance bill would serve as proof of residence. We just lacked social security cards. So being good, law-abiding citizens, we dutifully walked over to the Social Security office (it happened to be a convenient 10 minutes walk) to get replacement cards. We went on Tuesday, thinking all of our problems would be solved — we would walk out with an SS card, go back and register, and be able to leave on Friday or Saturday. Instead we came out having been told that they would be mailed to us in two weeks!  

So now we are busy trying to arrange for somewhere to stay for another month in the hope that that will give us enough time to get the social security card and do whatever the DMV requires so that we can get the car registered, and be on our way. We tried to stay in our current place for another month, but it seems that is not to be — the true lessee wants to move back in. He is tired of relying on friends.

Other than that our life in Washington continues to be fascinating.   This morning we went to the American Enterprise Institute for a discussion of changes to Hong Kong law regarding sedition, subversion, and treason. Before the talk I met Robert Bork, Jr who was there to cheer on his daughter, Ellen Bork, who was on the panel and I had a brief discussion with him; I didn't recognize him at first because he has shaved his goatee. After the talk I spoke with a former assistant ambassador to the UN, Harvey Feldman. Jan talked to Ellen Bork and found her very interesting. And still later I got interviewed by an NYC-based Chinese TV channel, UCNTV about my experiences in China and seeing censorship at first hand.

In the afternoon we were at the Brookings Institution listening to a panel discussion of the State of the Union speech. It was introduced by Strobe Talbott, now President of Brookings, and moderated by E. J.  Dionne, a Washington Post columnist. Forgive the name-dropping, we are still rather enchanted by the opportunity to be up close to the makers and shakers of Washington!

Finally we had a nice walk home through a light rain/slow through Georgetown and across the Potomac on the Key Bridge. Its a nice life even if we do have to worry about registering a car and finding another place to live.