Cars, the Tow Truck Driver, and Me

I don't know shit about cars.

I don't know about horsepower in cars. I don't know about rims on cars. I don't know about the make and models of cars, and in fact I have only recently learned what the difference between a make and a model is.

I don't know, and I don't care. Maybe someday I'll buy a nice car so I'm not embarrassed by what I drive, but at the moment I've moved past embarrassment about my 1997 (or 1996? Heck... I don't know) Mazda 626 and place the focus of my insecurities about other things (the number of cats I own, how often my litter box is cleaned, and other stuff (some of which are not cat-related, even!)).

Theoretically, I know it makes sense to get a car serviced. To occasionally get it washed. To pay attention to it other than when it's low on gas or when the insane amount of paper that it accumulates in the back seat starts to become a driving hazard.

I know these things in theory, but I don't think about my car other than when I drive it, get gas, or have to pay my insurance every six months. Getting the oil changed or getting a tune-up is about the last thing I want to deal with. And so I don't.

In spite of my lack of commitment to keeping my car in good working order, it does work. I have AAA as a backup, though, because I know that someday, somewhere, it won't. Well, this morning about two blocks from my apartment was one of those "someday, somewhere" moments.

I was driving to work after using my car a bit more than normal over the weekend. It had seemed "chuggy" when I was running errands on Saturday, so I wasn't surprised when it repeatedly sputtered and eventually came to a stop at an intersection during my commute this AM. I could re-start it, but it'd die again shortly thereafter. Not an ideal, nor particularly safe, way to navigate the Seattle streets.

No biggie. I parked it, called my office, called AAA, called the garage where I am gonna get it towed, and waited for the tow truck.

Eventually the guy showed up with his large AAA truck with a flat bed and we went around the block to get my car. A very, very nice guy. Really. No sarcasm. Don't make the series of conversations we had change your mind. Let's dig in:

AAA Guy: Wow. Your car has a lot of pollen on it.
Me: Yep.

and

AAA Guy: Do you live in an apartment?
Me: Yeah.
AAA Guy: How much do you pay?
Me: $[n*.8, where n=actual monthly rent]
AAA Guy: [eyebrows raised] Wow. That sure is a lot. I guess you gotta pay a lot to live in a neighborhood like this.
Me: Yes. It is great to be able to get drunk regularly and not have to pay for cab fare since I have about 10 bars within staggering difference.

OK. I didn't say that last sentence. I wasn't irked, but the guy was nosey! He asked me to pop the hood and tried to get a handle on what was going on, and we had this exchange:

AAA Guy: When was the last time you had this serviced?
Me:Um. I dunno. A while.
AAA Guy: Like how many miles?
Me: I have no idea.
AAA Guy: You said it did this before?
Me: Yep. Like two and a half years ago.
AAA Guy: Have you had it serviced since then?
Me: Probably not.
AAA Guy: What was wrong with it when they fixed it last time?
Me: I have no clue. I don't know anything about cars and don't really have much interest.
AAA Guy: Sounds like my wife.

Haha. I don't think he was joking. At. All. But it makes me laugh.

After we got into the truck, he fell into a bit of a pattern. I need to make a bit of a system here so you can get the flow of our chitchat.

When you see "**", put in him saying, "Yeah."
When you see "##", put in him saying, "Sure."
When you see "^^", put in him saying, "Wow."

AAA Guy: So are you a lawyer, or what?
Me: No, I actually work ** up on Capitol Hill ## at a creative agency.
AAA Guy: Yeah, wow.
Me: I manage a team ^^ that builds ** Web sites ^^ and stuff.
AAA Guy: Sure.

After the first interjection, I actually sort of paused. Then after the second one, I thought he might have been making fun of me. After the third and fourth I thought he had just stopped paying attention, but he kept talking to me, asking me questions.

We moved on to discussing the Seattle Sonics and the possibility of the Portland Trail Blazers relocating up to Seattle. Him asking my opinion on that topic is like an five year-old trying to get a drink of water from a firehose, but ...

AAA Guy: So Paul Allen might move the Blazers up here, huh?
Me: Well, I ** don't know about ^^ that because ** he actually had sold ^^ the Rose ** Garden and ## looked ## to sell the team, too ^^, but ** he ^^ ## bought it back and ## now ** it's looking like ## they're not ** going anywhere.
AAA Guy: Wow. Yeah. Because we need a team. All we have is soccer and football. And baseball. And the WNBA. And college football and college basketball at two universities in town. Where are the Sonics now?
Me: They're in Oklahoma ^^ City. ## They're the ** Oklahoma ^^ City ** Thunder ##. ^^

OK. He didn't go into quite that much detail about the surfeit of teams, but he sort of trailed off when he realized how many sporting options there were in this town even without the Sonics. The rest is pretty accurate, though.

Nice guy. I wasn't disappointed, though, when the shuttle driver from the garage didn't talk to me much when he gave me a lift to my office...