I broke down today and rented a car. I had planned to try and do my 6+ weeks stay in San Diego relying on the help of friends and strangers. I lasted 3 days. Not having a car in Southern California is a nightmare. On Monday, I finished work about 4 hours ahead of schedule and then had to entertain myself until C.T. picked me up to have dinner. I discovered that Starbucks will refill your iced tea endlessly for 50 cents a pop. By the time I was at dinner I was exhausted and hadn't worked enough to warrant how I felt.

So I rented a car. The catch is that I am going to be here for such a long time. I checked most of the major rental places before I left to come west and it was going to run me about 1,100 bucks for the car. Before taxes and insurance. If I spent that much money it was not worth coming here to work in the first place. So yesterday my friend B.Y. walked us through the yellow pages looking at all the discount rental places. I finally settled on a place in Encinitas which is just north of San Diego. It seemed kind of far to go for the car but the plus was the cost. It was only going to run me 350 for the month. With insurance and tax it was still a lot of money but it was manageable.

So B.Y. drove me up this morning. Were we in for an awakening. I feel cheap and dirty. I also feel like I have done something illegal. And I kept expecting to be stopped by the police for driving a stolen car. The place is far from reputable. But when it was all said and done I drove away with a car (sort of) that will hopefully get me from point a to point b.

Basically the rental agency was a "buy here -- pay here" place. There were about 6 cars on the lot. I got to choose between a Hyundai that was a stick with no air conditioning to a Ford with air conditioning, a broken radio and no power steering. Since the weather's been in the 90's for the past several days I went with the Ford. It has 117,000 miles on it and looks like it's been driven hard. The paper work we filled out was a barely legible photocopy. I filled it in, gave the seedy guy behind the counter my license and waited for him to process everything. He had little to say other than to let me know I was writing on his part of the counter and I needed to move. And if I paid the entire amount in cash I didn't have to pay the tax. He took my credit card ran it through the machine and soon I was on my way.

The car is okay. It seems to run well although the lack of power steering means I can't drive it with one hand. It takes both hands on the wheel to make the turns safely. There is no cup holder so I have to do this with my Diet Coke balanced between my legs. When I got out of the car at work today I looked as though I had peed my pants. Turns out the radio works, it's just missing the knobs to turn it on and to change the stations.

At the end of the day I can't really complain. I needed a car. I couldn't afford a monthly rental from a real dealer. So I went with what was available. Now I just need to make sure I am not in any accidents because although I asked for insurance I am not sure what I got. Wish me luck.