My Car and the Old Bat in the Enclave...

The day finally arrived - it has been over a month since my car was rear-ended by a rich old bat with more money than brains - and I arrived the body shop early this morning where the rental car company was notified that I needed to be picked up.

The service manager greeted me with a wicked grin followed by a full blown out-loud laugh. I stood in the doorway stunned wondering what I had done to cause such an outburst. Assuring me that it was nothing I had done, the manager confirmed what I had already been told; that the old bat was "one of their best customers" meaning that she had used this shop FIVE times in less than a year. She had totaled her last car a few days before hitting me with her new one, which was why she told me that she didn't know how to drive the new one, yet.

The entire staff had a belly laugh and I finally joined in when the ramifications of her arrogance and stupidity finally sunk in. The car arrived from Enterprise and shuttled me to their office to finish the paperwork for the rental - paid for by the old bat's insurance company - and as the information was entered into their computer system, the small talk turned to the accident and reason for the rental. Then the associate handling my rental suddenly froze, and slowly put her hand up to her mouth in an effort to stifle a guffaw, which didn't work. She let out a squealing giggle and said something like, "oh my God, it's HER again" at which point all the other associates in the office swarmed her terminal as uncontrollable laughter broke out seemingly everywhere in the building.

You guessed it. The old bat required their rental services and evidently, wasn't the most charming of customers. Oh, the stories I heard. Hey, this is a very small town and things like this get around real fast. So, immediately I felt the love and sympathy from the whole staff.

The rental is a nice Suzuki sedan with a fab AC that cools almost instantly and almost blew me into the backseat. Great news, since the temperature today was in the mid 90s with high humidity and a duplicate is forecast for tomorrow. I drove to the park n' ride and get the bus into town for the day at job #2. We had a very busy lunch today, which was a good thing.

Oh, there was one reality check today. As I boarded the bus for the return trip there were no available seats and as I decided to stand near the front so as to chat with the driver, a pretty, young Russian summer worker offered me her seat. This was a first for me. I told her I was fine standing and actually enjoyed it. She didn't appear to be convinced, but let it go. It wasn't until I got off the bus that the incident fell into place. She was offering her seat to "an old man" - a very Russian thing to do - and I was suddenly quite embarrassed and feeling very old.

But as I started the car for the drive back to the apartment, I couldn't help laughing at the whole episode while hoping that there would be some kind young person willing to give up their seat if I truly need it in the future.

Damn that birthday last week!!! (sigh)

And so it goes.
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