Relative Something

A week and a half ago, I dropped off my car at a Subaru dealership near my work, for one of the mileage milestone checkups. I wanted them to give it extra attention to address any issues pertinent to the fact that I would be commuting 6-times as far as the car had previously been driven daily.

They discovered my tires needed to be replaced, which I suspected, and also that I had a leaking rear strut. I wonder if that explains the weird resonant vibration that started to appear as I accelerated. Whether it was caused by the strut, or the tires, that vibration is gone now! As a bonus, I have gained about 5 mpg since the work was done!

With the additional things they discovered needing to be fixed, they couldn’t get it all completed in one day. I was provided a loaner car, and since it was a Friday, I would have that loaner over a weekend. I have Mondays off, with my schedule of a 4-day work week, so my car sat until Tuesday when I was able to retrieve it.

As I stood watching it come out of the car wash at the dealership, the first thing I noticed was that the brand-new Wisconsin license plate was folded under. “Dang,” I thought, “I bet the car wash was too rough for it. I really need to get one of those frames for the license plate.”

Then I went on my merry way, enjoying the smooth new ride.

Sunday, as I bent down to show my son how the new license plate got bent, I noticed the bumper was cracked right in two! That wasn’t a result of the car wash! I surmised that a driver at the dealership must have bumped into something.

Imagine my disdain for whoever could do such a thing at an auto dealership and not own up to it!

Later, as I was contemplating how I was going to broach the subject with the service rep, I was reviewing the scenario of my dropping it off that Friday morning, and discovered this memory:

In the early morning darkness, on my way to the cities to drop off the car before going to work, I was barreling along in traffic at 70+ miles per hour, when a fox popped up out of the ditch and landed on the road, dead-center between my headlights!! I had no time, and no option to react. With cars beside and behind me, I held my wheel and avoided making any quick maneuvers.

I heard him tumble beneath the length of my car, and assumed he was a goner, but I didn’t consider that the initial impact was above the undercarriage.

By the time I got to the dealership to drop off the car, it didn’t occur to me to look. When I picked it up again, 5-days later, I had completely forgotten about the hit.

I have already broadcast a silent apology to all the virtual shop-drivers I convicted without due process.