December 20, 2004
-
good news just when I needed it
I was logged into my ISP just now, “cleaning my spam filter”, rescuing
a few valid emails that had been diverted there and deleting a ton of
spam. That job tends to get me down because the subject lines of
the spam run the gamut from intriguingly vague to distressingly
explicit. The volume increases during the holiday season, too,
I’ve noticed. It takes attention, discrimination and endurance to
get through that task.For a drug addict, wading through that spam can be like a walk in a
minefield. The one that said, “take some Valium and have a
blast,” didn’t tempt me. I’ve never been a downer freak.
The ones that offer relief from depression, though — they do give me
pause. It would be too damned easy to poison myself, and there
are too damned many toxin merchants out there clamoring for my
money. Oh for the good old days when it was just a few sleazy
types hanging around the schoolyard whispering, “Wanna try something
fun, little girl? The first one’s free.”While I was fighting my way through the “message center,” a call came
through on the CallWave from Greyfox, and it was good news indeed.In October, Michael our friend the mechanic had told Greyfox his water
pump needed replacing. The Old Fart had been replacing more
coolant than oil because of a leak at the pump. Michael told
Greyfox that the engine would have to be hoisted out to reach the water
pump and while he was at it he should probably change the timing belt
because the car is an ’88 model and they usually don’t last much longer
than that. Greyfox went to Mountain View Auto Parts, our favorite
because it’s a local family-owned business and their prices are
generally much lower than the national superstores like Schucks and
NAPA who spend so much on advertising. The parts cost about
$90.00 there, and would have cost as much at $250 at one of the others.Michael had injured his back before he got the work done. Greyfox
hung onto the parts and kept adding coolant and viewing the puddles
under his car with alarm. When the alarm edged over into panic he
called around to a few of the local garages and was really alarmed at
how much they wanted to charge for the work. Michael does his
work on his off hours at the place where he is employed, and charges us
a lot less than the going rate for shop time.This weekend, Michael had recovered enough and caught up with his other
backlog of work so that he could take the car in. He
discovered that the water pump problem was just a loose screw. He
tightened it. When he got a look at the timing belt he could see
that it had been replaced recently — that probably happened during the
repairs after the wreck that rendered that car cheap enough that
Greyfox could afford to buy it. So Michael put everything back
together and had Greyfox’s car back to him within a couple of
hours. He didn’t charge him anything.That was the good news. The bad news was that the receipts for
the parts said, “no returns after thirty days.” But today when
Greyfox went into Mountain View Auto, they took the parts back and gave
him a break on the restocking fee. He was crowing with happiness
as he recorded his message to me. This time of year, when
business is slack, we live off our credit. Today, Greyfox has
some cash for groceries. That’s really good news.I will be back later with the Christmas blog, on mistletoe and holly and other woody subjects.
