driving

Threes a Charm

During the course of our marriage, my wife an I have owned a few cars. We have had two trucks, a few cars for her to drive to work, and 4 total mini-vans. Based on the present mileage and the daily driving I am likely to do, tomorrow is a virtual lock to be the day we “flip it”.

Based on the history with our mini-vans, this achievement is the source of some concern.

Our first minivan died on the way to school. (We bought it used from a guy I worked with.) The boys were in preschool. The van died before we got to school. We called the tow truck. I believe friends picked the boys up and finished taking them to school while I went with the driver to the dealership. I don’t remember what we paid, but they did use the “old school” method of buying a car. He took every one of my offers and had to “show” his boss. The van we bought that day served us well…that is until it hit 100,000.
I was driving my oldest daughter home from soccer practice. The van was fighting me the whole way home. Once I hit the driveway I coasted to the end of it. The van had less than 101,000 miles. Due to our fostering and the fear of being without a minivan, we were already a two minivan family at this point. We absorbed the loss of our “beater” minivan, and we shifted all minivan driving to our solo van. As time allowed, we did get a second van so we could have the comfort of a backup.
Both of these van moved to Texas with us a few years ago. As the older van was stretching to the 100,000 mile marker, our oldest son was preparing to drive. Although it was not a cool car, it was his “get me to school” car. Unfortunately, it did not serve in this role long. Just after the 100,000 mark, our son had a collision that totaled it. Everyone was fine. We were left with our one van. It is this van that will be graduating tomorrow to what has been very dangerous territory for our vehicles.

It did have a collision in the spring, but it recovered and has been treated well since. It had two flat tires in one day last December, and it still got us back to Ohio only a few hours late. It has allowed us to fill everyone of its 8 seats a number of times with friends and travel supplies as the 6 of us traverse states to the north and east of us. We are hopeful it will do many more great things before it expires. If already has a couple of trips on its schedule for Christmas and Spring Break.

This is our third try at getting a car to zoom past 100,000 without a hiccup. We think we have done all of the right things. It has a new battery; it has all of the appropriate maintenance. (The cabin filters may be a little dirty, and their may be a couple shopping cart or door dings on its aging exterior. We don’t wax it regularly, but it has been through the car wash twice in the past month.) We “hope” it goes for another 100,000 miles. (Frankly, I would settle for another 50,000 miles.) We don’t visualize some witch doctor creating a voodoo “doll” of our van using carpet fibers from the floor mats or paint chipped off from a deliberate keying. We just know when his time is up, it is up. After he has gone his last mile, we want a place where he can go to watch the young cars drive around. (Not sure if this is the ideal retirement for a worn out car. I was trying to think what might approximate grandchildren.)

Completing this POST-100,000….

As I ran a set of errands yesterday morning, I forget entirely about the changes transpiring on my dashboard. As I hopped in the van to pick up my daughters, I looked down and was completely shocked to realize the van and I were 9 miles past the “flip”. As my morning miles were quickly relived, I thought, “Oh, that happened!” It is my hope the unobserved passing of the 100,000 mile mark will be followed by MANY more unobserved miles as we work toward the last mile of our van’s service to our family.

Waiting Room Etiquette

As I got an oil change this morning on my wife’s car, I had my Kindle by my side. I had nothing really pressing that needed read, but since the maintenance light was turned on on the dash, reading here was just fine. (This was the place we always come, so they had our license plate and all of our info in their system.) As my cell phone rang and I immediately stepped out of the door to prevent others from having to listen to my call, I realized people standards vary on how they interact with those they share the waiting room with.

You should leave the waiting room when you are on the phone: Two other customers also received calls and stepped out of the waiting room. I had no way to judge them or what is going on in their lives because other than minimum interaction with the oil change staff, I did not hear their voices. However, if a person chooses to stay in the waiting room and talk to the staff of her mother’s rehab center about her mother’s depression and how the move has been so hard on her, then my brain gets filled with information that would otherwise be private. I really prefer not to know about all of the challenges that people face if I don’t know your name first.
Where to sit: This is a pretty obvious issue. In almost NO cases should a person sit next to another person. To help clarify this point, I will sometimes put my extra items on the seat next to me. Since I was on the edge, I only had one seat to protect. As a person sits in the middle, this strategy is not always as effective. Corners are also good. Just as in Tic-Tac-Toe, there are good starting positions and better places to put an “0” if an “X” is already present. If TV viewing is a must, the rules are slightly modified. However, if you don’t like woman’s talk shows, you better have a book or a smartphone.
Talking with fellow waitees: I have talked to others before, but this happens quite a bit less than half the time. If someone is reading a book and I catch the title or if I see a religious symbol of some type, I might say something. If the response is unenthusiastic, I am not married to the idea of engaging in a conversation. At the moment, I cannot think of many/any times a fellow waitee has started a conversation with me. If so, it was likely based on the person eavesdropping on me attempted conversation. So, something in my failed conversation served as a catalyst for the “new” conversation.

I am sure there are other rules that apply, but I intersected with none of them today. A little advice during checkout,,,if you say “yes” to any of their recommendations (rotate tires, change bulbs or change filters), ask for a discount. I used an expired coupon today and received $20 off of the air filter. Saving money almost makes knowing the problems of my fellow waitees mother worth while….

Tea For Two

I was very glad when my son could come home this weekend after having been gone for two weeks. He had only completed his first week of “official” school, but it was still quite good to see my second born. While his hair was longer and his beard appeared to be in need of reduction, my brain’s facial recognition software still picked him out rather quickly. And, since he was in our house, even very buggy software would have picked him out.

Besides our normal father/son chatting, our mutual affection for ice tea (specifically black mango) did come up in conversation. So, after the arrived home Thursday night, we planned a couple of tea runs. Although we normally buy a gallon of tea at the local QT, we optioned to buy individual refillable glasses for our first “run”. (It really was not the optimal way to buy the tea. After he left for school, I decided to free up the freezer space and stop filling it with two pitchers of tea-one our homemade-decaf-black-mango AND one from QT with their specially caffeine, sweetened version of the same. The decaf version was maintained in his absence, but the QT version got pulled. When it was pulled, the lid “somehow” disappeared, making its discounted refilling an impossibility.) Our first run provided a full 54 oz each of the sweetened beverage (we mix our tea, so it is not ALL sweet or all NOT sweet) We were happy and quenched.

When Saturdays “run” needed to be done, I knew we would likely also need to make a Sunday run to give him tea for the drive back to school. As my cheapskate took control, I searched for a gallon jug I could use and fill. I was rewarded by a milk jug full of water. The jug had previously been in our freezer taking up space–it was my idea so I thought the freezer was fuller than it really was and I would stop buying so much “stuff”. My wife determined this wish was not important, and took it out anyways. After giving the jug a quick bath in bleach and finding a lid that “sorta” fit on top, we ran to QT.

As we did our pre-filling taste test to confirm the tea was worth the expense, we filled our jug. There may have been a little leaking while we were filling the jug. This was merely attributed to Jeff being a little sloppy filling it up. Once we starting walking to the front to pay for it, our prognosis became much more dire. Our patient was “bleeding” out and needed a tourniquet or some other form of immediate first aid, or she might not make it home. Fortunately, a few napkins and a few spills as the tea sloshed over the car’s floor mat allowed us to arrive home w/ only a 20-25% or so loss. As soon as the car was in the garage, I rushed in to get 2 large cups to pour off the tea before it continued to flow out through our very leaky container.

Despite the need to soak up the moisture on the front passenger side, the leaving the floor mats on the driveway to drive out, and the loss of tea, I really enjoyed myself! I had a little adventure with my son. He saw dad didn’t get rattled by a small little thing like a leaky jug. And, most importantly, we did something together that we can refer back to in a few years that will start with, “I remember when…..”

The Road Rager

Apparently, I still have enough testosterone to get myself in trouble while driving!

My daughter had a birthday party at 5:30, so with traffic it was not a stretch to think the 20 minute drive could stretch to 30 minutes. And, “traffic” really came down to one intersection. When we were backed up one light before the backed yo light, I started doing a bit of self-talk. (Not sure if I was talking out loud or in my head, but I am sure the dialogue did take place.)

“We will be lucky to make it through this light in 4 lights. I hope he doesn’t want to turn into the Home Depot. He should go straight and turn at the next light and come in the back way. Boy, the left lanes (the road has 4 lanes. The left two are turn lanes, and the right two are the going straight lanes. The far right lane has the option to also turn right. I was positioned in the straight-only lane.) are clearing out quickly. I am sure somebody is going to try and sneak in so they don’t have to wait in the long line. I hope they don’t do it to me. If I am lucky, I should get through the next light, but these cars sure don’t move very quickly. I REALLY hope I can make it on this one. Oh, good. It looks like I am going to make it.”

At this point, I am sure I started talking out loud. As the light turned yellow, I was just getting into the intersection. And, the guy in the car next to me (my left) wanted to skip all of the waiting and sneak right in front of me from the turn lane w/o waiting. It was at this point, my testosterone kicked in briefly, and I gave the car enough gas so I would stay ahead of him. On the other side of the intersection, there is a train track. And, since the nose of his car was just ahead of mine, I yielded to him. Prior to yielding, I made a hand/arm gesture trying to ask the question, “Why should I let you in when you came from the turn lane and decided to go straight?” (In my mind, this “him” is a petulant little child who may be living in the body of an adult, but is a very sad little boy deep down. He expected the world to submit to his whim and if it doesn’t submit, he has to throw a temper tantrum to show why you should never deny him what he obviously deserves. He was likely the type of child who got everything he wanted, and when he did get in trouble, his parents would blame the adult who found fault with their fantastic, beautiful son. )

If only this was the end of the incident, I would not have fully learned the lesson that I needed to. As we drove toward the next light, I tried to switch lanes a couple of times so I would not be behind him. Each time I switched lanes, he would switch lanes ahead of me. The closer he was to me when he switched lanes, the bigger he shrugged his shoulders. I think he was trying to say in his “I am more important than you way”, “How does it feel when somebody cuts you off?” My response would be something to do with waiting my turn and using the lane for its designed purpose. I resolved at this point to try and keep an appropriate distance from him while trying to get my daughter to her party in one piece.

With two traffic lights to go before I made a right hand turn, I was trying to drive carefully. As he was still in front of me, I knew I would make no sudden moves. But, when traffic opened up enough, I switched into the left lane. I was working on passing him, when he pulled out in front of me leaving me almost NO room to brake. He didn’t need to get over…he was still working through what he perceived to be my personal affront to his manliness. (His wife or girlfriend was in the front seat and maybe he wanted to impress her. Since I had the minivan, he must have thought it would be really impressive to mess with the dad driving some portion of his family around. ) He shrugs his shoulders and feels really pleased with himself for his incredible victory in this battle of minds. This is where my rarely used “long horn” seems to beep for a second or two. (A short been would not have allowed me to vent adequately) His head swells with pride knowing he has gotten to me so superbly. He has a little trophy to put on his shelf with all of the sports trophies he garnered for being a participating bench-warmer in various soccer and t-ball teams. His favorite trophy is probably the one for “Most likely to be thrown out of a game for being a bad sport” and the most accurate trophy from High School was for “Most likely to be involved in a drive by shooting”.

At the last light after pulling my head together and realizing what a psycho I am dealing with, I stay at a distance behind him in the far right lane. Once the light changes and he clears the intersection, I put on my turn signal and turn right. I still had a bit of emotions to gain control of, but I survived and learned a very valuable lesson. I do not think I would have let him ahead of me as he entered the intersection in the wrong lane. After viewing his actions, I would, however, assume he was a psycho immediately. I would turn at the first light and camp for a couple minutes so he would be WAY beyond me. Let him get to his destination w/o having to deal with getting revenge on some crazy old man in a minivan.

As much as I ranted here, I did say a prayer for him and myself. Neither of us handed it perfectly, and I can only control what I learned from the experience. I pray we both become better people and have experiences to get us to the point where we are supposed to be. (If I rant any more right now, it will make me seem like I need LOTS of help after the little party we shared. ) Fortunately, I walked for 6 miles afterwards with the last mile spent with a good Christian guy. I have put this little learning experience into perspective. Life happens, and if you don’t learn from the bad experiences, ask someone to bump the record player to get you our of the annoying rut you are in.

The Pros and Cons of a Rental Car

Due to the little driving hiccup our van endured a couple of weeks ago (it was my hiccup and the van could be driven away. My pride was only partially recovered when the rental car was returned. I should, barring any further issues, be recovered by the end of the year.), we had to get a rental car. Due to confusion from Safeco (they assigned us 2 adjusters. I contacted the “wrong” adjuster and delayed the acquiring of the rental by a day or two. Service King would not allow me to come in and drop the car off until Wednesday [I was calling on Monday]. I knew my “rep” was waiting on his wife to have a child, so I pushed it a bit and was able to get the van dropped off. The van was routed to another Service King where construction was keeping them from getting many cars. Supposedly, our van was placed on a flatbed for the trip to and from.), the damaged car was almost in my possession longer than my inflated ego could handle. (My youngest son is supposed to get his license in February, and son #1 had a little accident in the past couple years that caused a bit of damage.) Once I had the rental car, these are the pros and cons I discovered:

Pros

XM Radio: I enjoyed finding the classic rock station (or one of the them…I believe it was Classic Rewind). I could identify about 4 out of 5 songs they played on the station–the station hit my rocking age pretty well. A few stray bands I wasn’t very familiar with AND too much Foreigner.
Built-in Movie: The controls were a little tricky for this. The whole front navigation screen had to move down to allow the DVD to be put in. We lucked into the DVD sound once, and then the day it was returned I figured out how it actually worked. The girls have put this feature on our next vehicle purchase.
Heated seats: Not sure if I fully figured these out. The heating controls (yes, there was a manual, but it was a rental – why should I read it?) involved multiple buttons. And, if the buttons were hit once it was front and twice for the rear (or something like that). Fortunately, it was “warm” most of the days we had the rental. I figured the windows out without a problem!

Cons

Every time I drive it I am reminding that kissing other cars in public with your car has a cost.
Getting request from the back to change the channel or provide volume to the CD player can put me in a situation where the rental is susceptible to its own accident. It is not just the kids requests. I was playing around with Satellite stations. As I switched between categories and played with features, I saw more than one “future” where I was going to have to explain how the rental arrived on the wrong side of a dotted line or straddling some other driving obstacle.
Our “real” van was certainly lonely. Before we dropped it off, I had to clean out all of the umbrellas and misc. other things that we had let accumulate w/i its various crannies. I am sure he was very sad to be away. I remember, vaguely, having a dream of looking out through my headlights and having rain come over them–even while in a garage. I am sure this was not any type of “connection” between me and the car.
The biggest con…..forgetting to grab the garage door opener when turning the rental car back in. Recapping this story might bring up bad memories in all who are reading (or possibly in the teller). So, I will just say, one word–visors!! Beware the comfortably tucked away visor.

It is good to get things mixed up a little bit. And, this adventure into rental land allowed for an occasionally interesting trip. Hopefully, we can rent again before we are forced to do so again by a driving disaster…

Walking Down Life's Road With Andy