On Decorating An Auto Repair Place For Christmas

     Page One Hundred Seventy-Two.
     So... about ten or twelve years ago, my mechanic began decorating his garage for Christmas. This garage is on busy Mayfield Road here in Cleveland Heights and possibly thousands of cars drive by every day. A & A Auto is located in an old (1920's) three bay garage somewhat close to the street. The interior is very drabby and oily. The personality of this garage is old-school dirt but the craftmanship level is high quality. It's the type of place where Fonzie would have worked. There's only room in the parking lot for less than a dozen parked cars. It's a small, reputable operation and it's visibility is tremendous.
     So when Tom began decorating his place for the holidays, I was charmed. But the decorating stunk. It was just awful. There are three very large picture windows in front and two on the side. I think he put one measly string of lights around one window and that was it. The following year, he did something similar but it was even worse 'cause he only went up 1/2 way around the window. It was terrible. Year three he put one string of lights across the tops of all three front windows and then let the ends hang. At that point I was finished. I won't take up space in today's blog to talk about the fact that I was a professional Christmas decorator for nearly twenty years. But, I was. I'll tell that story another time when I have nothing else to write about. All you need to know for the sake of today's blog though, is that I'm good at Christmas decorating.
     So, the following year, about six, seven  or eight years ago, I marched into Tom's place long about early November and announced that I was taking over the Christmas decorating of his shop. For free. Just as a favor to the citizens of Cleveland Heights. He was happy as a bug in a rug.
     It's not really a big project. Just takes me a couple of hours to hang multiple strings of lights around each of the five windows. Every year I decide what color to go with. The lights are typically dead by the time I take them down 'cause they're plugged in 24/7 once I install them. So I'm not usually able to re-use them too much during the ensuing years. But lights aren't really expensive any more anyhow.The last couple of years I've really been into the old-fashioned multi-colored look. So that's what Mayfield Road drivers see when they're stuck at the light in front of Tom's place. It seriously isn't a big or complicated project for me. But it makes Tom happy and it really does improve the streetscape a little. 
     When I was finished the first year, Tom exclaimed, "Jeremy, this looks F%#@ing awesome!" Then, as I was leaving, he told me that my next oil change was on the house. I didn't say no to that. Nowadays, it's rare that he ever charges me for an oil change. He's just so thrilled to have me do the lights each year. I'm also quite friendly with all his mechanics and they like the way I dress the place up for Christmas too.
     I've mentioned before that I've filmed a number of cooking videos for YouTube. I have about 15 completed but haven't yet posted any. Three very short ones were filmed in A & A last spring just for the fun of it. One of these days I really need to start posting those things.

Still Life. Entitled: "Auto Repair Garage With Purple '73 Dodge Charger"

It's not much... but it's home

Car Repairs - God Help Me!

     Page Nineteen.
     I know that this blog is supposed to be about my experiences with food and children plus my history with elder care. I feel though that since I've already strayed from those topics occasionally, if I really go off into left field sometimes it isn't a mortal sin. Clearly, this blog would have already blown up if there were some strict rule about adhering to your own parameters. But it's still here, so there you go.
     I dropped my car off this morning to have some relatively minor work done. I needed a couple of new tires, new brakes, new wiper blades and an oil change. Neil then called me back and gave me a laundry list of things that need to be done 'else my car will explode, and take half of Ohio with it. For the record, I trust Neil tremendously. He's been doing my car for over twenty years. His brother-in-law was one of my best friends during my college days and I'm quite friendly with his father-in-law. Also, I decorate his garage for the holidays every December, for free. (That's a separate story.) He and I are buddies. But every single time I take The Golden Warrior in to be serviced, it needs an additional $43,769,753,008,178,264,938.61, plus tax, worth of work. I'm sick of it!
     I'm very grateful for this car. It's a 2001 that I purchased from some current elder-care clients in 2010. When I bought it from them in November of 2010, this nine year old car had 16,000 miles and they essentially gifted it to me, charging me 1/3 of it's value. I'm quite thankful that right now I have the money to put in the required repairs. Neil is also putting the wiper blades and oil change on the house which is nice. (Most of my oil changes are on the house to say thanks for the free Christmas lighting.)
     What did people do one thousand years ago when their cars needed work? I know that back then they didn't have as much disposable income as we do today, so how did they pay for their new mufflers, carburetors and broken air conditioning systems? I can't believe that British peasants of the middle ages were okay with the auto repair price fixing that we've come to terms with in the 21st century. Perhaps the Norman Invasion was really just a bunch of people looking for a cheaper place to get their cars repaired? Do you suppose that Richard III was really just pissed off over some car repairs gone bad? And I read on the internet somewhere that Joan of Arc was actually rebelling against the outrageous prices of transmissions, especially when she found out that the price is primarily labor as the parts themselves only cost a few hundred bucks.
     But, again, I'm grateful for my savings account. I have the money stashed away, though I'd really prefer to spend it on an Asian getaway. I want to... oops... Neil just called for me to pick up my car. I'll continue this later.....




     Neil promised me he'd keep the total under a predetermined amount, but he went over by $57.00, so he chopped that off. That was nice. As I was pulling out of the garage he rushed over and told me that yesterday was his and Kathleen's anniversary. They reminisced how I did her hair for the wedding. I have virtually no memory of that but I assume that it happened.