A Day in the Life

Another long day at the dealership, getting the driver side mirror and tie rod ends taken care of. 

To be specific … five hours!

And a soon to be return visit because, when the mechanic opened the box containing the new driver side mirror, he found it had suffered shipping damage.

Service Advisor said, “I’ll order another, make sure it’s not damaged, then call you to come back in.”

“And how long will that take?”, asked I.

“I’ll try to get you out in an hour and a half”.

Translation: Another three hours.

Oh well. Stuff’s gotta get done.

Just in case we went into overtime today, I’d taken the precaution of bringing something to snack on – cherry tomatoes, baby carrots, olives in a marinade of olive oil and apple cider vinegar. I also took a thermos of that bulletproof coffee I’ve become so fond of.

Next time, I’ll take the added precaution of throwing in some protein – like a boiled egg or cashews.

What did I do for five hours?

The wait, though long, wasn’t terrible, except for the first hour. The waiting room is a nice place to waste one’s life away. There was that needlepoint project to work on, plus this week’s Woman’s Day magazine and crossword puzzle.

The first hour was rough only because there was a husband/wife senior-looking couple engaged in conversation with another senior-looking husband/wife couple. The husbands hardly spoke a word, but one of the wives talked rather loudly and wouldn’t shut up. She talked at length about all the places they’d travelled to, about being stuck in traffic jams, while needing to go potty. She talked about one such traffic jam, when she was on a bus trip with a nice clean bathroom, but could see “white butts” as other drivers got out of their cars and went potty by the roadside. 

I was thinking to myself, stuck on a bus with this woman’s yaking yaking yaking? I would have lost my mind and started screaming.

She talked about how she doesn’t like Vegas, but loves casinos. That casinos have nice bathrooms and lots of real-life Indians. About how so many of her neighbors have moved or are moving out of California to Texas, Arizona, Arkansas, etc., because housing is cheap, but found utilities are high and weather is bad. One family found themselves in 30 below. How some relocated, found they didn’t like it, wanted to move back to Ontario, but couldn’t afford it, and how some of the areas friends moved out-of-state to, those areas are catching up -- getting expensive. She herself would love to live in Sedona, but is priced out.

I think the wife in the other couple was tired of her talking as well because, when the yaking wife took a break to go to the lady’s room, she and her husband escaped, went outside, and didn’t come back. That couple weren’t the only ones. There are two sides to the waiting room – one side has the television, which is where I was but couldn’t hear it for her yaking, the other side is the cashiers and car stuff to purchase. I noticed, during the hour the wife wouldn’t shut up, others in the area had gotten up and moved over to the quiet side.

At any rate, once the yaking wife returned from the lady’s room and found the other couple no longer there, she evidently didn’t see anyone else she wanted to chat up and became quiet. Didn't even talk at her husband.

I’m expecting to hear from the Service Advisor in another day or two to come back in, but needing to rest from this long day, I’ll be putting it off to next Tuesday, which means not catching up with the seniors here at the complex for yet another week or two.