Vestigial:

Rudimentary.  Of, or, relating to a vestige.  (Biology)  Relating to a body part that has become small and lost its use because of evolutionary change.  Like the small bones that used to be hips and legs that are hidden inside the muscles of whales.  Like claws on the belly of a male boa-constrictor that once attached to feet.  Like a car in New York City.  Like California license plates that still exist on a car in New York City, because I fear the DMV (or whatever the DMV is called in NYC.)  Because I fear the hoops I will have to jump through to get NYC license plates onto a car in a city that does everything it can think of to make you want to not own a car.

But it is getting to be time, now that I’ve managed to get it insured in NY (which turned out to be slightly more complicated than expected (and, oddly, exactly $2 less than the random mental number I had in my head).  Now that I can safely claw the car from one side of the street to the other (and make the occasional Costco run), it’s getting to be time.

I know that I should let it drop away, a vestigial car in NYC with its vestigial California license plates, but I have an irrational fondness for the thing, like a boa-constrictor stubbornly clinging to its claws.

So stay tuned….