random thoughts – Day 2,093 (Tuesday) – service and oil and dance

It was cold again, but instead of hiding in the house like yesterday, things got done. There was PT and after that, I picked up Mom and we went to CVS, then the post office. I dropped her off at her house and went to the Jeep dealership. The call had come in the morning that the new fob had come in and I had a service appointment at 1:00. 

In the service lounge.

The fob and programming cost a chunk of change equivalent to my monthly car payment, but it’s a huge relief to have it fixed. No more messing around with pulling out the valet key and that is good. 

There were five of us in the customer lounge where the TV silently played a series of photos of landscapes, animals, and birds in fresh snow. Three of us were quietly reading -- I had a book, one guy was on his phone, and another lady was using a tablet. The final two customers blew in like a windstorm. They talked while they waited for someone from a car rental place to come pick them up, which is information I didn’t need know, didn’t want to know, and wouldn’t have learned if they weren’t such loud talkers. Some people have no concept of space and volume.

The woman, who was older than the rest of us,  slipped into coffee shop server mode and asked her similarly aged companion what he wanted for a hot beverage, and even though he said “decaf” right away, she still chose to read aloud the labels on all the Keurig cups. She made cups of whatever and narrated every step (taking the cup, adding the K-cup, looking for sugar and creamer). Then they sat at a small table and talked in stadium level voices which were intruding in the sentences I was trying to read. I even whispered a couple times “Shut. Up.”, knowing they would never hear it but it made feel like I tried and maybe the Universe would help. It was a very long ten minutes until the car rental guy appeared like an angel from heaven to deliver the rest of us from our punishment.

Later in the afternoon, as I sat on the couch going though the mail, the oil truck for the company Mom and I both use was at Mom’s house and I realized I hadn’t checked the level in my tank for a week or so. Luckily, even though I hadn’t called to order oil, the guy came to my house and topped off the tank. The learning about the house period continues and the day’s knowledge is that today’s bill plus the one from October equal the total year’s natural gas expense at the house in Lowell in 2024. Ugh.

Move the chairs, then dance.

Dance group was fun, but I overdressed. There had been a comment in the group chat that the meeting place might be cold, so I kept on the turtleneck from earlier today and added a velour hoodie with the fleece pants. It turned out, however, that it was not cold in the dance place. It was hot. The place was set up with chairs from a meeting or event that we needed to move out of the way, which was a great warm-up to the dancing. Usually, we just need to move a couple long tables.