Skip to main content

How I Spent the Morning of My Birthday? Getting an Oil Change


I am spending my birthday this year getting an oil change. I do not need a TV in the waiting room at the Chrysler dealership while I am waiting for my car to be serviced. I would prefer silence with all of us just sitting here looking at each other every now and then, imagining what the other person's life is like. For example, a woman is sitting across from me who looks like a young Woody Allen and I'm just thinking to myself, “What are the chances on my birthday of seeing a woman who looks like Woody Allen?” Just when I was having doubts about getting an oil change and tire rotation on my birthday, this unexpected gift comes to me.

I also do not need the psycho reality TV shows yelling and screaming in the background. I can sit and read a book or write a few paragraphs on my steno pad while I wait. Same thing for the airport. I don't need a TV or laptop or iPad to babysit for me while my flight is delayed. I can use the time to think, to ponder the meaning of life, and be thankful for the moments when I must wait and not be the one in control. I am a twentieth-century man who has been dragged into the twenty-first century kicking and screaming, or at least with my hands folded across my chest shaking my head “no.” I watch our collective attention span reduced to milliseconds and wonder where all of this is going.

I look up and find another gift directly in front of me: a tall, husky man who looks to be in his early fifties with fingers the size of Polish sausages trying to text on a tiny cell phone. This poor man with a nineteenth-century, industrial-age manufacturing body has been thrust into a twenty-first century smart phone world, hunting and pecking with fat fingers on a little phone. I'm seeing this on my birthday and I'm wondering what I did to get to watch this real-life reality show in the waiting room of a Chrysler dealership?

I've been here now for an hour. I've sneezed three times and received a rousing round of “God bless yous” coming from every direction. But the first problem of the day has surfaced: My left leg is asleep and tingling all of the way down my foot. I am in no shape to be called on by the service adviser to get up and follow him because my car is finished. I've noticed that at this dealership, the service adviser pokes his head in the door, calls the customer's name, and the customer pops up and follows the service adviser either to the service counter to authorize more work or to the payment counter to pay for the work and get the car keys. But with my leg asleep and tingling, I would be unable to get up right now. Five minutes later. Okay, the feeling has returned to my foot and I am ready to rise when he calls my name, a phrase that reminds me of a Christian worship song I really like.

This is what I'm doing on my birthday at 9:45 a.m. So far, so good, even for an oil change.

Labels

Labels:

Popular posts from this blog

The Monotony of Commuting

I have spent most of the past twelve years commuting at least one hour a day: 30 minutes to work, and usually 40 minutes to return home. I have tried a number of things to avoid monotony, such as taking as many different routes as possible. I may be the only person in the world who uses a GPS to commute home from work because I try new routes and end up in unfamiliar places. To make the most of the commuting time, I have tried a number of things. I have listened to the Bible and prayed, although it seems a little irreverent to interrupt the prayer yelling at someone who has cut me off. I have listened to Christian radio, which means I have heard the song " I Could Only Imagine " over 5,000 times. I have listened to pop radio. I have listened to the music of my youth to somehow re-energize portions of the brain and keep my mind sharp. Sometimes, I switch back and forth between Christian and pop radio, alternating between joy and guilt. I have listened to talk radio and sports ...
Read more

My Reflections on My UPS Career on Founders Day

We were given a choice whether or not those of us who were having a milestone service year wanted to speak on Founders Day in our department meeting. Since the one consistent feedback I have gotten during my entire 25-year career at UPS was that I don’t speak up enough in meetings, I thought I would make up for the whole thing here today. No one intends to have a long career at UPS. You come to work at UPS as a temporary thing while you are planning your life. Those plans do not include UPS. We come for the benefits, the tuition assistance, the non-standard hours that don’t interfere with classes or our other real jobs. Parents don’t envision their kids growing up and working for UPS. I think these are just the basic realities of life. I worked the majority of my career in Information Services Learning & Development or Corp HR Learning & Development. I would have never lasted 25 years had I been in Operations. I know exactly how long I would have lasted in Operations had I wo...
Read more