Ozark Oddments: A Convenient Breakdown

Thursday, May 23, 2019

A Convenient Breakdown

“How do you know if you've got a good mechanic? By the size of his boat.”

Tom Magliozzi (Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers)

We took the car I drive to Randy, our mechanic (and we dread the day he decides to retire), for the annual inspection so we can get it licensed and for some routine maintenance – oil change, filter, windshield wipers, check the radiator, check the battery. The usual.

And about 90 minutes later, Randy calls my husband and “needs to talk.” He had put the car up on the lift so he could check the brakes for the inspection, but when he tried to drive the car off the lift, it wouldn’t start. The starter was kaput. Just like that.

So, Randy put in a new starter (which cost some $$$) and a new battery, and the car was repaired and were not otherwise inconvenienced.

Having a car quit working while one is out and about is very stressful, even when one is prepared: each car we drive has a good jack and a good spare tire, we have roadside assistance, we have mobile phones (although my ability to operative my is problematic) to call for help. And we didn’t need them. At least this time.

What a good place for the breakdown to occur.

I don't know if Randy has a boat, but I wouldn't begrudge him one.

1 comment:

Far Side of Fifty said...: Yes I have had that happen...good thing yours happened during a mechanic visit! One time I had to walk three blocks to a place that sold batteries...I could have been stranded in the country :); 11:55 AM

Post a Comment

Thoughts to ponder

Most of us go through life so absorbed in the cocoon of ourselves that we rarely stop to consider the other. Of course, we think that we do; indeed, we may pride ourselves on our capacity for empathy; we may be considerate and thoughtful in our dealings with others, but how often do we stand before them. so to speak, and experience what it is to be them?--Domenica Macdonald

The Unbearable Lightness of Scones, by Alexander McCall
Smith

+++

Living is like tearing through a museum. Not until later do you really start absorbing what you saw, thinking about it, looking it up in a book, and remembering -- because you can't take it in all at once. --Audrey Hepburn

+++

I like living. I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow, but through it all, I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing.--Agatha Christie

+++

Life can be wildly tragic at times, and I've had my share. But whatever happens to you, you have to keep a slightly comic attitude. In the final analysis, you have got not to forget to laugh.--Katharine Hepburn

+++

One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship

"Two people... told me that the word "Christian" would turn people off. I wouldn't mind if to be a Christian were accepted as being the dangerous thing which it is. I wouldn't mind if, when a group of Christians meet for bread and wine, we might well be interrupted and jailed for subversive activities. I wouldn't mind if, once again, we were being thrown to the lions. I do mind, desperately, that the word "Christian" means for so many people smugness, and piosity, and holier-than-thoughness. Who, today, can recognize a Christian because of "how those Christians love one another"?--Madeline L'Engle, "A Circle of Quiet"