Knolltop Farm Wife (Melissa Hart)

Welcome to my blog! I'm a wife, mother of four and a self-employed freelance writer. In addition to writing, I am involved in producing several dairy magazines and am the editor of Dairy Agenda Today where I have a blog there as well! This is a place where I can get what's in my head, down on paper (the internet). I hope you find encouragement and maybe a giggle or two!
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Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Oil change please.

Good cool morning from the Knolltop!

Do you ever have those days when everyone is in a talkative mood? It doesn't matter where you go, everyone you meet wants to visit. That's what happened yesterday when I left the house for a quick trip to Walmart and home. I got stuck in my car talking to someone while on my way to the bank. I didn't want to do my banking while talking business, so I waited outside and in our small town, I'm sure everyone wondered what I was doing sitting in my van talking.

Off the phone with the first visitor I entered the bank and both tellers wanted to talk. They are fun to visit with especially when we talk about body fat percentages and muscle mass indexes. After 20 minutes, I finally got all my banking done and headed to the store. Wanting to get my oil changed and my tire fixed while I shopped, I took my car to Walmart's tire and lube. I decided they had too much money or too much business as I bought my groceries and headed into the shop and saw my van sitting in the same place I parked it. When I starred at the kid who was standing behind the counter while the older manager was bickering on the phone over some meaningless point, the kid told the mechanic passing through to get that blue van done.

I watched as the mechanic meandered over to my van, bent over to look at the low tire and meandered back in to tell me they can't fix it, something about not the right tire on the car, paying for it if something were to happen, don't want to be responsible...sorry.

By this time, I'm about ready to shake every person in that shop because this could've been done while I was checking for cracked eggs and whining about the price of butter. They had no other cars to work on...mine was the only one...and it took them a half hour to bend over and look at one tire! I looked at Junior at the counter and he looked back at me with a pained face and said with a nasally, whiny tone, "You don't want to get your oil changed still...do you?"

Well, heavens NO! Why would I want to get my oil changed? I came in here, asked you to change my oil, told you what package I wanted, told you how nice it was to have my oil changed while I shopped, gave you all kinds of positive reinforcement about what a great shop you had only to have you do NOTHING! Why would I want you to change my oil? I do this all the time, in fact I wake up every Monday morning, run out to my van, look at the mileage, check the oil change sticker in the corner of the windshield to see if it's time to change the oil because I can't wait to come in here and have you treat me like I'm asking you to bail out Wall Street with the change you have in your pocket! I LIVE FOR THIS!

No, I didn't rant and rave, although they both deserved a good kick in the pants, I just said no thanks, I'll be going now. And I walked out the door almost running into the older manager mumbling to himself about winning some battle with some other manager and high fiving every one he could get to raise their hand like he had just beat Michael Phelps in the 200 meters!

The day ended with sharing ice cream with homemade hot fudge with my parents after Sarah's volleyball game. All's well that ends well.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Now you know why I won't shop at Walmart. I go to the local garage for my oil changes or when time allows we do it at home. I try to go to the local grocery, even if the fresh produce at Meijer calls me! You can't beat the service from the people who live in your neighborhood. Hope you get your oil changed soon. Pam