The cops called at 6:20 tonight to say they’d found my car. It was abandoned in the rear of 2050 Lafayette – you can map quest it if you’re curious. That’s about five miles from where we live. It is on both the edge of the projects and on the edge of the Mardi Gras party. It’s quite possible that kids stole the van to ride it down to Mardi Gras Friday night. Why wait for a bus when you can steal a car. There is still a half of a tank of gas. The radio station was set to 100.3. They backed it into a wall and bent the tailpipe. That is the only damage I can find other than the ignition, which they did a number on.

At first I thought I was going to have to get it towed, but then the officer explained that I could probably just do the same thing they did if I had a big enough screwdriver. My key is now a big screwdriver.

They fingerprinted the van and asked me what was missing. I had a car wallet on the visor with a blank computer disk and a receipt for Sebastian’s last rabies vaccination – essentially nothing. My briefcase and tools were still in the trunk. All my student’s papers are still there. I sometimes keep a checkbook in the glove box and there wasn’t one there. I honestly don’t know if it was stolen, but I spent two and a half hours today closing my account and opening a new one. So hopefully that is a dead issue.

We went straight to Auto Zone and bought a club. Now we are ordering a pizza and I am dizzy with relief. Thank you all so much for your well wishing. I’d invite you all over, but I know you no longer trust my neighborhood.