March 23, 2012
Dear Everyone:
Another busy week here.
For starters, on Tuesday, I had a visit to the
dentist. Nothing special,
just the usual semi-annual inspection, cleaning and scolding (“You
really should floss every
day, you know.”) However, it
turns out a couple of fillings from some decades ago need replacing; so
I’ll be back again next week.
Then, on Wednesday, I had an appointment at the
auto dealer. More about that
in a moment.
Yesterday was the monthly
ARMA Chapter Meeting.
(Yes, ARMA still stands for Association of Records Managers and
Administrators.) About a
dozen people showed up. Of
those, four are on the Board and three represented the company that was
giving the presentation.
Nevertheless, we had a lovely time chatting about “eDiscovery”, i.e.,
how to find all those electronic documents, emails, voice calls,
“Tweets”, Facebook accounts, etc., that pertain to a subpoena in a
lawsuit. Fun stuff.
Back to the car…
A couple of months ago, I noticed a change in the
seat-belt indicator. Under
normal circumstances, when you start the car, if the driver’s seat-belt
is not fastened, a light blinks on and off on the dash and an alarm
“beeps” at you for a short period of time.
Once the seat-belt is fastened, the light goes out.
If the seat-belt is not fastened, the light stays on and every so
many minutes, the alarms “beeps” again as a reminder.
What changed was that the light-alarm combination
didn’t always come on, even if the seat-belt was not fastened.
And when the seat-belt was fastened, if I took it off, the light
didn’t come on as it should.
In fact, a completely different light would come on, which suggested to
me that there might be something wrong with the entire electrical
system.
This was worrisome.
Then, last week, I pulled into a parking space that
faced a blank wall, and realized that the left headlight had gone out.
(I always turn the lights on when driving, even in daylight.
It counts as one of the “five keys to safe driving:
Make sure they see you.”)
So I made an appointment at the auto dealer for
Wednesday morning. They do
have a “courtesy shuttle service” that will take you home (or to work)
and pick you up later; but living in a “gated community” makes this a
little more complicated. I
decided to just wait in the “Customer Lounge” for the duration.
I had my book,
MP3-player, and crochet project, plus enough diet
soft drinks and “nut bars” to last for several hours.
After reporting the “problem” to the “service
technician”, I settled in, with my back support cushion, etc.
I also requested that they replace both headlights on the
principle that when one goes out, the other is just waiting to go also.
It’s kind of like boxes of facial tissues.
They all run out at the same time.
Must be some kind of union rule.
In less than two hours they found the “problem”,
solved it, replaced both headlights and ran the car through a courtesy
car wash. And it only cost
me about $67. In other
words, the price for the two headlights.
Turns out, the problem wasn’t with the electrical
system, it was with the seat-belt fastener.
And it was covered by
The Warranty.
Which suggests to me that they knew almost instantly what the
problem and solution was and just happened to have the necessary parts
on hand. Like it was a
known-problem (computer lingo) that wasn’t important enough to require a
“recall” notice, but which came in fairly frequently.
So, all is well now.
This morning, when I started the car, the “Routine
Maintenance Required” light came on for the first time since last June.
Coincidence or Conspiracy?
You be the judge.
Love, as always,
Pete
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