Gasoline Alley

You can see Ansa in the back, begging the question what fresh hell has ol' Two Legs wrought?

 

I'm one who lets the small stuff get to her. The big stuff can go fly a kite. But the small stuff drives me around the twist as it slowly masses itself into global proportions.

I felt like an idiot today. Trouble with my second car (Strawbella) which I should never, ever, have kept. I got into the habit of ignoring her in spite of my good friend B's advice to drive her every third day or so.

So today B starts her for me, after inflating one of her tires, and then I go drive her off and next thing I'm without any kind of power at the crossroads with no winter gear on and the leashless dog in the back of it. And no cell phone with me. (You're beginning to see I should never be let out without a minder, right?).

So nice young man stops, and sits with me and sympathizes and says he doesn't know a piston from a battery but would drive me home. Sans dog, as he was driving girlfriend's car, he had taken her car and had snow tires put on it. My dream man.  So Ansa, my dog, watches me pitifully from the back of my car as I drive off with a stranger and leave her at the crossroads.

My friend B comes to the rescue again, picks me up, we drive to the crossroads and he charges up the car and we drive in tandem to my house. I let the car run for 30 minutes, and then shut her off and try and start her again. Fizzle. Nothing.

At this point my knickers are in a knot and the real fretting starts. I would be the neighbour from hell if I troubled B again. The CAA would come but it could be all hours by the time they got here and I didn't like their rep. the last time, a shyster. My brain rambles all around me, picking up fluff here, dropping it there. So I direct message B on FB, confessing to moronic/imbecilic/cretinous status for stopping the car and could he boost me again tomorrow?

B calls. Tells me he is on his way. He will keep my car overnight in his shed and charge up the battery over 14 hours. Then we will know if the battery needs replacing. Or not. No problem. No big deal. Nothing.

But an absolutely staggeringly big deal to me. I was about to be crushed by this one tiny piece of small stuff.

Worries, like I said before, never happen.

Car Mechanic of the Century - only in Newfoundland?

So I take my car to my fairly new (to me) mechanic first thing in the morning so he can assess the damage to my rim and tire.

The tire is hopeless - the sides are shredded. But he thinks he can hammer out the rim. Come back later in the afternoon.

Which I do. There were no tires in stock at his supplier so he drove to a Canadian Tire and picked one up, a good one. Cost him $64.95 plus tax and he shows me the bill.

And yes, it took a while but he was able to beat out the rim with a rubber hammer and it was as good as new.

So he installs the new tire and refurbished rim and tells me I'd lost the hubcap in the blowout but he would poke around the shed out back there and find me one, don't go out now and buy one, just drop by the next time you're passing and I'll have one for you. Free.

So he goes to his laptop and fiddles around and produces a bill for $80.00.

That's wrong, I say.

Too much? he asks.

Far too little, I say.

Well I charged you $3.00 for the disposal fee for the old tire and the taxes and the cost of the new tire so that comes to $80 in my reckoning.

No, you forgot the labour - you had to beat out the old rim and install the new tire and run around downtown to find a new tire plus your own mileage on top of that....

Ah no! I'm not charging you for any of that. You had enough stress with that blowout!

Now that's not right! I protest loudly.

Oh it is, it is! I can't take advantage of anyone's trouble. That's not my way of doing things, b'y.