The Car Inspection

NYS Signage for "We need more of your money"

Well, Oola, our Alien Green Soul, needed her yearly inspection.  New York government believes they don’t get enough money out of “Upstaters”, so once a year we have to take our cars to licensed garages (anyone who has paid New York State for the honor) and have them hook our cars up to a computer.  Similar to those in Vegas, these play a new, modern version of “Russian Roulette” to see if the car passes, or which expensive fix will keep the garage from passing “inspection”.  This year we were lucky to hear that our dealership, Fuccillo Kia of Clay was having a special!!!  They were charging only $1 to inspect any vehicle during the month of March!!!  WOOT WOOT!! Usually we need to pay $21 to play the “Inspection Game”!!  Pitman calls and the appointment was set for a Monday morning at 9am!!!  Umm….. Pitman?  You have a job!  After checking out the necessary legal paperwork governing the Eagleminco’s Roost, apparently even though this is automobile upkeep and repair, if the male part of the Pitman Community is unable to perform his marital duties, it falls upon the female part of the Pitman community to pick up his slack… again…. <sigh> imagine that.  BUT I digress.
 

The night before the appointment, we were traveling home from dinner at his parents, and the high anxiety part of the Autism world rears its ugly head, and Pitman announces when we get home, he will be checking to make sure all the lights in the car work.  Then he realizes that at 8pm on a Sunday night, he probably won’t find a place that is open where he can get a new bulb.  So then he gives me the directive, “We have one more day, if they find a blown bulb, just tell them thank you, that you’ll replace it yourself, and be back tomorrow!!!”  

Correct me if I’m wrong here, but is my time worth nothing?  I am already planning to travel for 20 minutes, sit for probably another 20 minutes, then 20 minutes home. BAM!  One hour killed.  IF we do have a blown bulb, Pitman is now adding in a trip to Pep Boys (because my son works there, and I will always shop there to keep him employed and I hope you all will do the same), try to figure out what I need because my masculine tendencies do not allow me to ask for help, then I get tired and frustrated and my feminine tendencies kick In and I wait in line and ask for help, get the bulb and head home.  Now, what I envision next is that I will wait for Rob to come home and announce he’s going to do this real quick before dinner.   He will proceed to try to take apart the car only to run into problems ten minutes into the process.  After one half hour and a few new curse words later, we will all choke down some dry chicken while he looks up instructions online until he gets a fire call.  When he gets home from the fire call, he’ll try to put the car back together as best as possible and call it a night.  The next day I’ll head back to the dealership to kill another hour-plus of my day.  So, I inform Mr. Pitman that I will NOT do that.  If, indeed, we need a new bulb, I will tell them to replace it on the spot, so there.

Fast forward to 9am Monday Morning.  I bring in my car and sit and wait.  I have a LOT of observations of my local Kia dealership, all of which I will share with you at another time.  And I wait.  And I wait some more.  After I wait for about 45 minutes, they come out and tell me….  I have a blown bulb.  I try my hardest not to laugh in the poor guys face.  I tell him to go ahead and change it.  As he walks away, I ask how much it is…. He tells me $12.  I say that’s fine, and I start to text Pitman.  “We had a blown bulb.  I told him on the spot to change it.  Its costing you $12.  Neener, neener , neener.”  

Oola is the only one who can't complain I blog about her too much.

Of all the responses I’d expect from Robert, I get a response I SHOULD have expected, but didn’t.  “Which one,” he asks.  

“I didn’t ask”, I tell him, “I was too busy laughing and thinking “Neener, neener, Pitman is a poopy head.”  Then it took them another 45 minutes to change said light bulb.  At that point, I started looking around for Chip Foose or Ashton Kutcher wondering if Pitman had set me up, hoping that Pitman was having me “Overhauled” and not “Pranked”, ‘cause in this family, you never know what you’re gonna get.  When Rob gets home & looks over the paper work, he informs me “You didn’t pay $12 for the light bulb, you paid $1 for the inspection, $1 for the light bulb, and $11 for the tech to put it in.”   Is it just me, or did he get in the final “Neener?”

As always, I will work for money, but I am not for sale.  Meaning, I'll review anything, and I do love a challenge, so send me ideas and suggestions, but my opinions can't be bought.  I do take Paypal donations anytime at eaglemingoroost@gmail.com.