More car problems
My lovely weekend of night shifts culminated in my car breaking down when driving home. All was fine until I went to drop from 5th to 4th and the gearstick went as limp as Pele's dick. I pull over as best I could and tried to avoid the pissed off faces of motorists forced to work their way around me. Cold, tired, waiting for the AA, standing roadside [in case anyone rammed into my car], it coudn't get much worse.
It began to rain.
Hard.
Thankfully, the AA sorted me out, towed me to a garage, who quoted me £90 for a replacement... gear linkage... thing. The money isn't so much a problem (work tends to make these situations two or three rungs below "crisis").
What runs through my mind is how I interact with people and how this affects me. I'll explain. When I was towed to the garage, the AA man told me to go to the reception and check in. I enter the reception, with the name of the problem fixed in my head. I'm met with three faces. The receptionist and two mechanics. The receptionist smiles. I smile. I assume friendly contact has been established.
The first thing I say is [gesturing to the car outside] "Apparently, I have a broken gear linkage." Within two seconds, one of the mechanics, a rough looking guy who seemed to have the cold, calm stare of a Mafia boss, said: "Morning". I wasn't sure if I had detected a note of sarcasm. I hadn't said "Hello". I became instantly paranoid that I had offended him in skipping on some basic social courtesy. After giving my details, I enquired about the potential cost of the repair. "Dunno, could be anything, could be ten quid, could be a hundred". Hmm, thanks for the ballpark figure there. But my Dad reckons such a repair should only cost about £40-50. Then, they quote me 90. Do I want to go ahead with the work? Well, what am I going to do - decline and arrange for it to be towed elsewhere? No. Yes, please, do the work. Thank you. Maybe I'm just paranoid, but the mechanic could have upped the price of the work just because I hadn't said "Hello" earlier on. Or perhaps he would have jacked the price up regardless.
See? These are the thoughts that consume my day.
Car will be fixed on Wednesday.
Off to bed I go.
It began to rain.
Hard.
Thankfully, the AA sorted me out, towed me to a garage, who quoted me £90 for a replacement... gear linkage... thing. The money isn't so much a problem (work tends to make these situations two or three rungs below "crisis").
What runs through my mind is how I interact with people and how this affects me. I'll explain. When I was towed to the garage, the AA man told me to go to the reception and check in. I enter the reception, with the name of the problem fixed in my head. I'm met with three faces. The receptionist and two mechanics. The receptionist smiles. I smile. I assume friendly contact has been established.
The first thing I say is [gesturing to the car outside] "Apparently, I have a broken gear linkage." Within two seconds, one of the mechanics, a rough looking guy who seemed to have the cold, calm stare of a Mafia boss, said: "Morning". I wasn't sure if I had detected a note of sarcasm. I hadn't said "Hello". I became instantly paranoid that I had offended him in skipping on some basic social courtesy. After giving my details, I enquired about the potential cost of the repair. "Dunno, could be anything, could be ten quid, could be a hundred". Hmm, thanks for the ballpark figure there. But my Dad reckons such a repair should only cost about £40-50. Then, they quote me 90. Do I want to go ahead with the work? Well, what am I going to do - decline and arrange for it to be towed elsewhere? No. Yes, please, do the work. Thank you. Maybe I'm just paranoid, but the mechanic could have upped the price of the work just because I hadn't said "Hello" earlier on. Or perhaps he would have jacked the price up regardless.
See? These are the thoughts that consume my day.
Car will be fixed on Wednesday.
Off to bed I go.