Maybe He Should've Just Turned Around...

I wrote about both Kate and Will's first day back to school, so I thought I would share about Ryan's first day back to college.

His first day of classes was August 22nd, a Monday. So he decided to go back to Statesboro on the preceding Thursday, so as to have a couple of days to get everything in order. His apartment complex decided to implement a parking permit policy over the summer. They seem to be having trouble with what you might call "riff-raff" there, you know, break-ins and thievery, drug deals, and some other unsavory goings-on that I won't mention specifically. So they are making some changes to try and "clean up" the place. They would like to be a college students only apartment complex.

So, anyway...

 Ryan left home Thursday morning headed to a neighboring town to pick up a copy of his lease (which he needed to secure his parking permit). He met his friend for lunch and upon leaving the restaurant, noticed that he had a flat tire. His friend recommended a place to have his tire repaired and it was there he was told that he needed two new tires, and new rear brakes. He called me to tell me this good news, and I set up an appointment for him to have that taken care of the next week.

With that taken care of, he headed to Statesboro, and barely arrived there when his car began to overheat. He made it to his apartment complex, and with steam pouring out from underneath the hood, his car died. He called to tell us this tidbit of more good news, and his dad told him to call a mechanic and make an appointment. He did this and then called a friend who came to pick him up and take him to campus to take care of things there, and then to Wal-Mart for groceries.

Of course, we received another phone call from him. Upon returning from running his errands, he discovered that his car was missing. Agghhh!! Mike told him to call the police and report it. He did and they told him to check with the apartment management the next day because they have been towing cars without parking permits in them. Surely not, we thought. He had only been there for two hours. He hadn't even had time to pick up his permit.

On Friday morning he called the management office and sure enough, they had had his car towed away. It didn't matter to them that he had not been there all summer and had not had an opportunity to get his permit. It didn't matter to them that his car had been broken down in front of his apartment. It didn't matter to them that he had had a flat tire earlier in the day and that had delayed him from getting back to Statesboro and getting to the management office before they closed for the day. He called on another friend to pick him up and take him to get his car. And they charged him a $125 towing fee to get his car back.

And as if that wasn't bad enough, he apparently didn't have everything he needed in order to get his parking permit. His copy of the lease (which was just a letter written by the apartment owner) didn't contain all the information the apartment management deemed necessary. His insurance card for his car didn't bear his name because it is insured in my husband's name, with Ryan listed as an insured driver on the policy. Apparently that's a big no-no for these people. Thankfully, these things were easy enough to correct. Another letter written by the apartment owner. A letter from our insurance agent stating that Ryan is an insured driver for his car. And now he has his parking permit.

I'd like to give a big shout-out to Karen and Heath, his friends. Thanks guys for taking care of my son and getting him where he needed to be while he was without his car.

Oh, and as for his classes... He says it seems to be going better this semester than last. I guess that's good considering his rough start.