Friday, April 17, 2015

Good morning crew,

Somehow. Somehow! Replacing four little tires on my truck turned into a two-thousand dollar repair.

I dropped the thing off Wednesday morning and the guy said he would get started on it right away. And get started on it he did.

When I finally got a call back from him at noon I had a feeling something was wrong.

"Everything wrapped up?" I asked him.

"Weeeeeeell," he said, "our mechanic found a few things while he was under your truck."

"Like what?"

Whereupon he started in upon a list that sounded like he was reading out of an auto parts catalog. Apparently I needed balls, and joints, and drive belts, and balancing...oh, and a new battery, because at that point, why not?

I kind of got the feeling that he was banging away under the hood of my truck with a hammer to see what would shake loose.

I asked him, "Do I really need all this stuff? I mean, can't you just replace the tires and let me have my truck back?"

"Sure," he said, "If you want to die horribly in a fiery crash. Tell you the truth, I'm surprised you made it in here alive."

So I didn't gamble on my life and had him do the repairs.

On the plus side they gave me 12 months of 0 interest credit to pay it off. But I seriously wonder if it would have been cheaper to let them just keep the truck and spend the 2 grand on a new vehicle.

Laugh it up,

Joe

joe@gophercentral.com

P.S. Did you miss an issue? You can read every issue from the Gophercentral library of newsletters on our exhaustive archives page. Thousands of issues, all of your favorite publications in chronological order. You can read AND comment. Just click GopherArchives

***
"The only fun thing about filing your tax return is getting a refund. About 80 percent of taxpayers get money back, which is a weird thing to be happy about. That means you've been overpaying all year long. It's like if someone broke into your house and the police recovered the stuff and brought it back and you said, 'Oh, presents.'" -Jimmy Kimmel

***
"It's April 15, tax day. The federal tax code is over 74,000 pages long. But stick with it because after page 72,000, it gets really good." -Conan O'Brien

***
"According to a new poll, 57 percent of the people believe Hillary Clinton will be the next president. Now 43 percent of the people in that poll believe Hillary Clinton is already president." -Dave Letterman

***
As one of relatively few female airline pilots, I've often been mistaken for a flight attendant, ticket agent or even a snack-bar employee. Occasionally people will see me in uniform and ask if I'm a "real" pilot. Still others congratulate me for making it in a male-dominated field.

One day, I was in the restroom before a flight. I was at the sink, brushing my teeth, when a woman walked through the door and looked over at me. "My sister would be so proud of you!" she remarked. I figured her sister must be in the airline business, so I smiled and asked why.

Replied the woman, "She's a dentist."


*-------------- Guaranteed to Roll Your Eyes --------------*
For the first few months of her co-op job for the state of Georgia, my sister had nothing to do, so she surfed the Web or did crossword puzzles. One day she expressed her boredom to a co-worker.

"I know," she complained. "Everyone thinks state workers have it easy. But there's only so much you can pretend you're doing."