Monday, November 22, 2004

Trust them, they know what they are doing…

Car and Rubber Service A/S, number 700something, 8.30 am, - 2 Celcius and dropping, November, dark.

“uuuuuuut uuuuuuut uuuuuut” ….. probably not there yet…. Probably have to wait… oh, somebody answered! “Car and Rubber?” “Oh, hello, I have an old Opel Astra, and now the heater is dead, and that’s a little inconvenient in this weather.” “Hang on, I’ll give you the workshop.” Short flash of a diesel and grease scented mess of tools and pits and men in blue coveralls passes through my not-enough-tea-yet brain. “Workshop?” “Hello, this is me, I have an old Opel Astra, and now the heater doesn’t work.” “Does the fan work?” “Yes, it just gives off no heat.” “Did you check the water?” Another flash, this time of me with the hood of the car open, book of instructions in one hand and flashlight in the other, dressed in 20 layers of clothing and looking desperately for some place to check something which hopefully isn’t frozen solid. “There is frost liquid on the car?” Ouch, I have no idea, normally we take the car to the workshop to check this when it starts getting cold, but this is a month early and I have hardly been in the country lately, much less driven the car! “Eh, Ah, I…” “It may be that the frost liquid level is low, or just the cooling water, and you could check that, you know.” Can a voice really carry a smirk that well? OK, time to capitulate, admit total lack of knowledge and blame somebody else. “I haven’t been driving the car for months, I have hardly been in the country! My husband uses it and now he has problems with it and I have to fix them!” No longer a hidden smirk, but outright laughter. OK, I like that better. “Come on over, we’ll have a look at it.” Yeah, I know it’s idiots like me that keep you guys in large houses, nice cars and long vacations in Spain. But we’ll see who is laughing when you desperately need an essay on new media theory!

2 comments:

Thomas said...

Hehe - nice! What a relief to see that I'm not the only one who's got problems when it comes to having a car in Volda!

Torill said...

Thomas: If I could live without a car, life would be so much easier!

But for fairness sake: The guy who helped me was nice, not a hint of stray testosterone or macho superiority, and the problem was a detail I now will be able to fix in the future. However: he did hint at deep flaws in the car's cooling system, muttering about changing parts and hours of work. The car is now under strict observation, and it may have a new part soon.