let it be a sign

I took the car to the dealer’s this morning to have them check the sunroof drain lines.

It is not a warranty item any more; the drain lines were clogged, not damaged.

Cost to blow them out with compressed air: $0.00.

My favorite repair cost. My charm? Being a "loyal" customer? Fortune smiling on me?

I don’t care what it was, Zero dollars is a prime price to pay for auto maintenance.

"What can I do to keep it from happening again?" "Keep the sunroof closed".

I guess I will. It’s 22.50 for the drain lines, but $120.00 for the labor to replace them, so… I guess I will be lots more careful.

***

They called me at around 11:30 and said the shuttle van was out on a parts run; it might be awhile before they could pick me up. I said, "ya know, now that I think about it, I’ll grab a bus and cruise down there" and did. It’s been so long since I rode the bus that I forgot how much it costs, but of course they have a website and I looked it up.

$2.35. Wow. I had a flashback of going to see my friend Jhni, when she lived in north Pasadena (California), from my boarding school in San Marino – 75 cents. How times have changed, eh? For that 75 cents, I could, and did, go to Disneyland from school, all the way across the LA basin.

Of course, the $2.35 would take me anywhere the buses go here too, but $2.35, wow, that’s not pocket change for me anymore.

It just expired, but after the car wreck in 98, I had an "Honored Citizen’s Pass" and that fare was one dollar, even today. I couldn’t renew it because I don’t have a doctor to sign the papers for me, and besides, I’m not disabled any more, and economic disability doesn’t count.

It had been a long time since I took the bus anywhere; it was a kind of adventure. Gotta take ’em where ya find ’em, ya know?

***

What next? More job applications. Some prayer wouldn’t hurt either.

It’s funny, but my cousin’s wife called the other day to say Happy Memorial Day, and told me that I have more faith than most anyone she’s met – and they are church people too. I do have faith that things will work out, but I very much fear losing my black beauty, sunroof and all.

Faith is nice and all, but please, let it gain me a good job too.

***

1 more thing:  not counting these lines, that’s 433 words.  A thousand a day, Cat, get’s you that book in a month.  Whadda ya gonna do about it?  Gonna write, or feel sorry for yourself?

 

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