cars

Ubering in style

I brought my car in for service today – I needed schedule A service and I needed tires.

I go early, before my mechanic arrives, and I leave the car and the key with the gas station attendant in the store part of the place. I block the main garage door, and I leave a note. So when the guys arrive, they get to my car first and it’s done by lunchtime.

I dropped the car off at 7:30 am today!

When my gas station guy called me to discuss the car, I asked him if he was surprised the car was there so early. He said, “No, you always do that.”

My Uber ride home was a Tesla. My second Tesla. I was thinking it was my first, but when it was time to open the door to let myself out, I couldn’t find out how to do it, and it reminded me that on my ride to LaGuardia Airport in NY last month, I was also in a Tesla.

I’ve been in three or four Ubers that were Mercedes and one Ferrari. Yes, a gleaming white Ferrari driving by a beautiful blond girl. It was at Miami Airport, coming home from NY a couple of December’s ago. Maybe it was for Art Basel people, which was at that time, maybe not. I was tempted to ask the girl why she was driving an Uber, but it was none of my business.

A few of the Mercedes were in New York and one in Miami. One Mercedes was an SUV – really nice.

I sometimes think it might be fun to drive an Uber. For maybe a day. But then again, I hate to drive down the block to the supermarket, so that’s out.

We used to have a Freebee service in our village. Many towns in the Miami area have them. They are golf cart type things that you summon on an app and they take you anywhere you want in each particular town. It’s free, hence the name Freebee. You just leave a tip.

So basically in Coral Gables, you are picked up and dropped off in Coral Gables. In Key Biscayne, the same – only service in Key Biscayne, etc.

Miami neighborhoods also have free trolleys. I used to use that often when dropping off my car, but they changed the route so that I would have to take two trolleys, which isn’t bad expect for the wait for the trolley. So a half hour wait, four times – two and from, wastes a lot of time.

So for now, Uber will do – until I pick up my car later today.

Till next time . . .

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It pays to be honest

I saw this cartoon the other day, “Geech,” by Jerry Bittle.

This could have happened to me with my car many years ago, and to this day I am still using the same mechanics.

What happened was, I heard this squeaking sound which I thought were the brakes. So I brought it to a mechanic in the neighborhood. I had never been there before, except to buy gas, and I noticed a sign that said they worked on foreign cars, so I brought my car over.

I told them there was something wrong with the brakes, and I took an Uber home.

They mechanics called me a short time later to tell me there was nothing wrong. But I insisted. I said, “Go look again, I can tell there is something wrong with the brakes.”

They called back a little while later and told me to come and the car, they had checked again and found nothing wrong.

There and then they had my business for life.

They could have said, “We fixed the problem, that will be $750.0o,” and I would have paid it and been on my way. But they did the right thing. Ever since then I’ve been sending everyone their way.

And they got a lot of business from me over the years. I had an older car that needed a lot of work and they did it all.

I would leave the car for everything, they were cheaper than the dealership, of course. I would leave the car and the keys early in the morning with the person working the gas station part of the place. I would block the garage section, so they had to get into my car to move it.

They would always have the car done early in the day and I would go and pick it up and be on with my day.

I finally got a new car and haven’t been by except for small things not under warranty – tires and things like that. And to guy gas.

It pays to be honest.

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I have people who do that for me

I had mentioned in the past that when I was younger, I knew how to do everything. I just grew up that way.

I helped my father with everything around the house, I was the one who mowed the lawn and cleaned the pool. I know how to hang things and fix thing. But over time I paid people and forgot how to even tie my own shoelaces.

Well, I do know how to do that, but, I forgot how to do so much.

My car needed antifreeze, I don’t know why, because most of the containers say its good for 150,000 to 300,000 miles, so perhaps last time I got a tune up, they emptied it and forgot to refill it.

For months, the light was going off. I kept putting it off because I didn’t know how to deal with it. In the past I changed the oil, the far off past with a far off car, but now, I had no clue.

I mentioned it to one of my neighbors a month or so ago, he’s a young fire rescue guy who knows it all. He said he had an extra container of the fluid; did I want it?

I did, but I didn’t take it because I didn’t want to have to try and put it into the car with him standing there watching me.

I attempted to buy the fluid a few times, but something came up and I never got around to it. I finally made it the auto parts store the other day, and it was closed due to an electrical problem.

The other night I asked my young neighbor for the fluid, and he gave me a full container. He asked me if I wanted him to do it for me then and there. I said, “No, thanks, I can handle it.” Which of course, I couldn’t, and I would have loved for him to get it done right then.

The next morning, I attempted the job. I couldn’t find the lever to open the hood, I had to look it up in the car manual, and I finally found it, but then you have to put your hand under the hood and release something. I could not manage it.

Another neighbor, my age, came by and I asked him to help. His wife who was with him asked me, “When was the last time you opened it.” I responded, “Never, I have people who do that for me.” Which came out as the biggest fucking elitist thing to say, but since we are all the same age, she got it, and we all laughed.

My neighbor fooled around with it for a bit, and he finally opened the hood. They went off for their morning walk and I joked that I would be waiting for them to return so he could slam the hood shut for me.

So, I finally got the fluid into the car, and all is well with the world. I bought a new container of fluid, returned it to my other neighbor and that’s that.

For now.

With a car, it’s always, “For Now.”

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