Keep the junker running
Once upon a time, I had an aging pickup truck and no money with which to fix it... or register it... or insure it. Really, I was barely making enough money each week to stay fed and pay some of the bills. Thank god I wasn't a drinker. At any rate, steadily bits and pieces of the vehicle began to stop working or, in some cases, fall off.

Memorably, one winter the windshield wipers stopped working. Now, I live in Buffalo. In the colder months, we tend to get some snow. By "some", I mean we can get several feet in a go. After a good run, you can pretend you are Luke Skywalker in that last battle in the original Star Wars. Anyway, windshield wipers aren't really an optional convenience. Add in the complication that I couldn't afford to get stopped by the cops, since my vehicle lacked any of the necessary paperwork and my license was suspended.

So, I was forced to improvise. I cut the strings off of an apron I stole from work, tied them together, and tied the ends to one of the wipers while threading it through the cab of the truck. Pull the string one way and the wipers went up. Pull it the other way and the wipers went down. That winter, I got a lot of practice driving on ice with one hand while the other frantically worked the wiper blades. I won't claim that exercising that motion didn't have its perks, but it also required me to keep both windows partly open in below-freezing weather. All in all, very much the health and safety risk, though it did serve the broader purpose of allowing me to drive to work when it was snowing.
(bergec is filled with inertia, Thu 10 Mar 2011, 19:22, 3 replies)

When you mentioned you couldn't insure/register the truck, I wondered if the story was going to turn into a 'and then I got arrested for driving while uninsured'. Can you really drive while uninsured in the States?
( Bats, Thu 10 Mar 2011, 19:54, closed)

As easily as you can in the UK, I would think.
You just have to avoid getting pulled over for anything!
The suspended licence can't have helped, though...
( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Thu 10 Mar 2011, 21:51, closed)

you
Are a twat!

Appreciate the financial circumstances but you would have gone to jail if you had killed anyone apart from yourself.

A family could have been destroyed because of your stupidity.
(Suck it and Sea, Wed 16 Mar 2011, 19:10, closed)