Thursday, December 19, 2013

December 19: Ed Banky, a Car, and Mechanics

Ed Banky was the basketball coach at Pencey.  Old Stradlater was one of his pets, because he was the center on the team, and Ed Banky always let him borrow his car when he wanted it.  It wasn't allowed for students to borrow faculty guys' cars, but all the athletic bastards stuck together.  In every school I've gone to, all the athletic bastards stick together.

I'm not really going to write about Ed Banky or athletic bastards.  I'll save my thoughts about school athletics for another post.  The reason I chose the above passage from Catcher is that it's the only one I could find that dealt specifically with a car, and that's the real subject of my first post this evening.

I dropped my car off at the dealership this morning for an oil change.  This is the same dealership that told me about four months ago that my vehicle needed about a $1500 repair.  Something about wheel bearings or a wobbly wheel.  The mechanic led me to believe that my tires could lock up and I could die in a ball of fire at any moment.  Or something like that.  It wasn't good.  So, when I left my car at the garage at 5 a.m., I wasn't expecting good news.  To be honest, I was expecting my car to be condemned.

Imagine my surprise when, at about 10 a.m., I got a phone call from "Buck" at the dealership.

"Yeah, I just wanted to let you know that we did the oil change," Buck said.

"And?" I said and held my breath.

"Everything looks great," Buck said.  "We'll have it parked outside when you come for it."

I stood there in shock for a couple of seconds.  "Really?" I said.

"Yup," Buck said, "you're good to go."

When I hung up the phone, I said a little thank you prayer.  And then I got a little mad.  How did my car go from being a road hazard to a "good to go"?  I didn't do anything to it.  I didn't get it fixed.  Yet, it miraculously healed itself.  Or the mechanic was lying to me at my last checkup in order to get me to pay for an expensive repair my car didn't need.  Take your pick.

I'm going to believe in the miracle, because it's Christmas and miracles are supposed to happen.

Saint Marty will save his piece of mind about shady dealership mechanics for another post.

My car's a little better than this

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