Car Mechanics, 'Sexing', and Wet Laps - Revised
How's that for a title?? My last several posts have been a little on the 'heavy' side so I thought I would lighten things up a little with a couple of recent stories stemming from two of the hats that I wear.
Single Woman: My car, Victoria, needed new brake pads and my dad offered to put them on for me so I went up to Dubois this last Saturday. We went out to breakfast and then went to his shop to get down to business. First, I changed my oil. I'm proud to say that I do know how to change my own oil and except for the trickiness of getting the oil filter off and back on, I could do the whole thing on my own. This was my first time changing Victoria's oil and because of my miscalculations, I did manage to cause an oil spill that would rival that on the coast of Louisiana, but all went well and pretty soon we were ready to move onto the brakes. My dad took the tire off and spent a while trying to find the right sized tool to begin taking the old brake pads off. After trying different things, he finally realized he didn't have the right tool and said I should probably take it to a mechanic to have it done.
So Monday morning I called around to find who could change the pads for me and the Ford dealership was the only place that could do it on such short notice. After taking Victoria in, I waited ALL day for the call to say she was ready to be picked up but it never came. I called after school and found that Victoria also needed new rotors on both the front and the back and also that the pads my dad had bought for the front were the wrong ones. Many phone calls were made back and forth between the mechanic and I and then my dad and I as I tried to relay the information from the mechanic. Finally I had my dad call the mechanic and actually talk to him in person and they got all the specifics worked out. In the past, I had had other mechanics try to rip me off when I they saw I was a single woman, but after getting my dad on the phone, they were usually more respectful and fair. The price the mechanic gave me for the parts/labor on the front and back was a little under $300 and the work would be completed today.
Imagine my shock when the mechanic called me during class and told me Victoria was ready for a grand total of $500! Because I was with my students, I couldn't react to the drastic change in price at the moment so I finished reading with them and got them sent off to lunch. I tried to call my dad since I knew he would call the mechanic and get to the bottom of the price issue but as my fate would have it, he was out of cell service ALL afternoon! So I put on my big girl panties and decided to deal with it myself. I had a friend drive me down there and I walked in. After the man at the counter showed me my bill and repeated the high total, I told him something along the lines of, "This is not the price I was quoted yesterday and I won't pay it. I am prepared to pay $300 today, because that was what I was told, and I'll pay the rest when I can." He told me he couldn't make that decision and needed to talk to someone in a higher position than him. He found the man he needed and explained my situation. The man looked at the bill and compared it to another piece of paper he had and said, "Well, these prices aren't even the ones I discussed with him yesterday." After waiting for about a half hour, he comes back and after giving me a big shpeal about what happened and what prices he took off, the total came down $110. It was still more than I wanted to pay, but I did believe that after all he told me, it was a fair price.
So, it was a small step for Angie Hensley and a huge step for womankind as I walked out of there with my keys and drove away after getting my price down over $100!!
2nd Grade Teacher: Our little private school doesn't have a gym or lunchroom so each day, we walk our students a block down the street to another private school that allows us to use their gym for PE and lunch. The fastest way to get our students down there is through an alley, and even though the students tend to be more rowdy walking that route, the few minutes it shaves off the time for the hungry little bellies is worth it. Last Thursday I walked my students down the alley like I had the previous two weeks of school, without even giving it another thought. Lunch that day was Stromboli, a HUGE favorite of the kids, and so they were all excited as they talked about how many times they would go back for additional servings. Because of their excitement for lunch, they weren't really paying attention to their surroundings as they walked down the alley. I wasn't really either, as I had walked students down that alley a million times before and could do so without much thought. So imagine my surprise when I happen to glance over to my left as we reached the end of the alley and behind a wall not much shorter than the students were two grown adults engaging in a full-blown baby making demonstration!! The surprise turned to shock and then horror as I tried to get the rest of my students past the 'couple' without them seeing anything. Thankfully, they had absolutely no idea what was happening around them and I was able to hurry them across the street and into the gym. I quickly called our school so the two older classes that still had to walk down to lunch could be directed to walk down the sidewalk and not the alley. I knew that if the older kids caught sight of what was going on, there would be no telling what would happen!
With the major crisis at hand diverted, I quietly let some of the teachers in on what I had seen, careful to make sure no students heard me. Somehow, of course, a few of the older ones had overheard something and realized why they had to walk down the sidewalk. After getting the classes all back to school after lunch, while my class was on the playground, I had to talk with a policeman as one of the adults from our school reported the incident to the police. The younger kids stood there with their jaws dropped as the officer came back two different times and I went to talk to him. When they asked why he was at our school, I shrugged it off and made light of it by telling one of my students from last year that I had convinced the officer to leave him at school for the day but if it happened again, he would be hauled off. The student, of course, took it all in stride and laughed it off with his classmates. Aside from having to file a witness statement later that day, I considered the incident done and over with.
This morning, the mom of one of my students, a sweet little blonde named Anna, asked to talk with me in the hall. She told me that Anna told her over the weekend that there were two people 'sexing' in the alley last week. Sexing!! I think she got the word 'sexing' from 'texting' because all of my students know what texting is and often pretend they are sending a text to their friend. The mom tried to act nonchalant and asked her daughter what she had seen that made her think that's what the couple was doing and Anna's reply? "I saw their feet." I laughed so hard! Ahhh, the minds of second graders!
Dog Owner: Last week was picture day for our school. After my students had gotten their pictures taken, it was time for mine. The kids asked if Maggie could be in my picture and I said yes, thinking about a volunteer that used to help at our school who was blind and always had his guide dog sitting beside him in the picture. Well, the photographer thought it would be a good idea to get Maggie to sit on my lap. I tried calling her up but she wouldn't do it. So the photographer said he would just pick Maggie up. I told him that wasn't a good idea because Maggie gets nervous when she's picked up, but he thought he knew best so he picked her up and sat her on my lap. He had no sooner gotten back behind his camera that I felt this warm, wet sensation on my lap. Sure enough, Maggie had emptied her bladder because she was so nervous! The kids thought this was hilarious as did most of the staff! Thankfully, I live close enough to the school that I was able to run home quickly and change my clothes.
It's only 4 weeks into the school year and the stories are abundant concerning my little ones, my dog, and my car. Stay tuned for more!
Single Woman: My car, Victoria, needed new brake pads and my dad offered to put them on for me so I went up to Dubois this last Saturday. We went out to breakfast and then went to his shop to get down to business. First, I changed my oil. I'm proud to say that I do know how to change my own oil and except for the trickiness of getting the oil filter off and back on, I could do the whole thing on my own. This was my first time changing Victoria's oil and because of my miscalculations, I did manage to cause an oil spill that would rival that on the coast of Louisiana, but all went well and pretty soon we were ready to move onto the brakes. My dad took the tire off and spent a while trying to find the right sized tool to begin taking the old brake pads off. After trying different things, he finally realized he didn't have the right tool and said I should probably take it to a mechanic to have it done.
So Monday morning I called around to find who could change the pads for me and the Ford dealership was the only place that could do it on such short notice. After taking Victoria in, I waited ALL day for the call to say she was ready to be picked up but it never came. I called after school and found that Victoria also needed new rotors on both the front and the back and also that the pads my dad had bought for the front were the wrong ones. Many phone calls were made back and forth between the mechanic and I and then my dad and I as I tried to relay the information from the mechanic. Finally I had my dad call the mechanic and actually talk to him in person and they got all the specifics worked out. In the past, I had had other mechanics try to rip me off when I they saw I was a single woman, but after getting my dad on the phone, they were usually more respectful and fair. The price the mechanic gave me for the parts/labor on the front and back was a little under $300 and the work would be completed today.
Imagine my shock when the mechanic called me during class and told me Victoria was ready for a grand total of $500! Because I was with my students, I couldn't react to the drastic change in price at the moment so I finished reading with them and got them sent off to lunch. I tried to call my dad since I knew he would call the mechanic and get to the bottom of the price issue but as my fate would have it, he was out of cell service ALL afternoon! So I put on my big girl panties and decided to deal with it myself. I had a friend drive me down there and I walked in. After the man at the counter showed me my bill and repeated the high total, I told him something along the lines of, "This is not the price I was quoted yesterday and I won't pay it. I am prepared to pay $300 today, because that was what I was told, and I'll pay the rest when I can." He told me he couldn't make that decision and needed to talk to someone in a higher position than him. He found the man he needed and explained my situation. The man looked at the bill and compared it to another piece of paper he had and said, "Well, these prices aren't even the ones I discussed with him yesterday." After waiting for about a half hour, he comes back and after giving me a big shpeal about what happened and what prices he took off, the total came down $110. It was still more than I wanted to pay, but I did believe that after all he told me, it was a fair price.
So, it was a small step for Angie Hensley and a huge step for womankind as I walked out of there with my keys and drove away after getting my price down over $100!!
2nd Grade Teacher: Our little private school doesn't have a gym or lunchroom so each day, we walk our students a block down the street to another private school that allows us to use their gym for PE and lunch. The fastest way to get our students down there is through an alley, and even though the students tend to be more rowdy walking that route, the few minutes it shaves off the time for the hungry little bellies is worth it. Last Thursday I walked my students down the alley like I had the previous two weeks of school, without even giving it another thought. Lunch that day was Stromboli, a HUGE favorite of the kids, and so they were all excited as they talked about how many times they would go back for additional servings. Because of their excitement for lunch, they weren't really paying attention to their surroundings as they walked down the alley. I wasn't really either, as I had walked students down that alley a million times before and could do so without much thought. So imagine my surprise when I happen to glance over to my left as we reached the end of the alley and behind a wall not much shorter than the students were two grown adults engaging in a full-blown baby making demonstration!! The surprise turned to shock and then horror as I tried to get the rest of my students past the 'couple' without them seeing anything. Thankfully, they had absolutely no idea what was happening around them and I was able to hurry them across the street and into the gym. I quickly called our school so the two older classes that still had to walk down to lunch could be directed to walk down the sidewalk and not the alley. I knew that if the older kids caught sight of what was going on, there would be no telling what would happen!
With the major crisis at hand diverted, I quietly let some of the teachers in on what I had seen, careful to make sure no students heard me. Somehow, of course, a few of the older ones had overheard something and realized why they had to walk down the sidewalk. After getting the classes all back to school after lunch, while my class was on the playground, I had to talk with a policeman as one of the adults from our school reported the incident to the police. The younger kids stood there with their jaws dropped as the officer came back two different times and I went to talk to him. When they asked why he was at our school, I shrugged it off and made light of it by telling one of my students from last year that I had convinced the officer to leave him at school for the day but if it happened again, he would be hauled off. The student, of course, took it all in stride and laughed it off with his classmates. Aside from having to file a witness statement later that day, I considered the incident done and over with.
This morning, the mom of one of my students, a sweet little blonde named Anna, asked to talk with me in the hall. She told me that Anna told her over the weekend that there were two people 'sexing' in the alley last week. Sexing!! I think she got the word 'sexing' from 'texting' because all of my students know what texting is and often pretend they are sending a text to their friend. The mom tried to act nonchalant and asked her daughter what she had seen that made her think that's what the couple was doing and Anna's reply? "I saw their feet." I laughed so hard! Ahhh, the minds of second graders!
Dog Owner: Last week was picture day for our school. After my students had gotten their pictures taken, it was time for mine. The kids asked if Maggie could be in my picture and I said yes, thinking about a volunteer that used to help at our school who was blind and always had his guide dog sitting beside him in the picture. Well, the photographer thought it would be a good idea to get Maggie to sit on my lap. I tried calling her up but she wouldn't do it. So the photographer said he would just pick Maggie up. I told him that wasn't a good idea because Maggie gets nervous when she's picked up, but he thought he knew best so he picked her up and sat her on my lap. He had no sooner gotten back behind his camera that I felt this warm, wet sensation on my lap. Sure enough, Maggie had emptied her bladder because she was so nervous! The kids thought this was hilarious as did most of the staff! Thankfully, I live close enough to the school that I was able to run home quickly and change my clothes.
It's only 4 weeks into the school year and the stories are abundant concerning my little ones, my dog, and my car. Stay tuned for more!
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