4/16/09
There was newfound excitement in both of us as we walked over the salt lined doorway and distanced ourself from the sickness we had been experiencing. Approaching Hoe-Nay, my eager smile was deflated upon seeing the oil hacienda that had formed in three days time. On hands and knees, shifting my upside down head from the engine, I looked a second time just to make sure a mirage didn’t escape my imagination. “Oh Fudge!” Only I didn’t say ‘fudge’. I said THE word, the big one, the queen mother of dirty words, the f dash dash dash word” (ok, stole that from ‘christmas story’& georgia who says it quite often). Overflow huh? What a crack!
Feeling duped, I rose to my feet, and got on the horn. My third phone call was to Jiffy Lube, with the intention of war. The San Diego outfit gave me a new number to call. The puck was being passed because that is how things work. I went from one number to another, jumping through all the hoops they were holding up for me. Eventually I left a message with some guy who had some association with the other Lubers who did us wrong. 2 hours later I got a call back.
Tom Duong, the owner of the San Diego Jiffy Lube, was not happy to be talking to me at all. Our conversation started with him not even giving me an opportunity to fully explain the situation, but rather by telling me that they had done nothing wrong. “My workers are only giving recommendations on what to do. It is up to the customer to decide what course of action to take”. Where do these guys come up with this shit? I laughed involuntarily, and then plotted my intuitive counter argument. “Ok Tom, let me tell you one thing. If I were sick I would go into the doctors office to get well. If the doctor recommended such and such drugs to take, then I would take them. Why? Because Tom, I am not a doctor. Not knowing that field of practice allows me to take the professional’s advice, and trust that I will get better, and not worse”.
I paused to congratulate myself on my analogy. “The same applies with my vehicle Tom. I went in with an ailment, an oil leak. Your professionals, including the manager John, recommended an oil flush of the engine. It was one of several items recommended to help assure us a safe passage across the nation and back. Similar to my doctor, I trusted your mechanics because I was in their field of expertise. To sum up, $400 of expert recommendations resulted in me now looking at a pool of oil under the engine. Does that make any sense to you?” Of course it didn’t, but he was still not budging. The battle raged on!
We continued to parry and joust, me trying to strategically replace words and scenarios to gain the upper hand, and him still denying any wrong doing. Twenty minutes later something happened! My tenacity must have been wearing him because the first sign of weakness appeared. “Ok, I will remove the charge for the oil flush off the bill”($36). My instincts told me to keep chomping at the bit. Ten more minutes of firing solid argumentative jabs resulted in a bid to cut the entire $363 bill in half. I had chopped his leg off! He had revealed himself to me, and I knew I had him in the corner. This guy’s stock was sinking quicker than the september 2008 sell off in the market.
“I’m not sure if I agree with that” I said confidently. “That is my final offer” he told me like a game show host! His one remaining leg wobbled and his eyes lost focus as he revealed to me his guilt. What he was really saying was “This is my last chance to win the war!” I stayed flat lined and told him “Well, I just want this oil leak fixed. So let me see what it is going to cost. Then I will call you back.” I wanted to tell him that I was going to throw the dice, see what was behind door number two, use a life line, or something of the sort, but I didn’t.
In minutes we started up the beast and headed into town with Joshua and gang. We dropped Hoe-Nay off at a local Jiffy Lube to fix the leak. After explaining everything to Anthony, the super friendly manager(sound familiar?), we left. While they planned to remedy things, we had planned to eat lunch. After our meal I had pictured us jumping in our newly fixed vehicle of voyage, warming her up, and driving off into the sunset. Well anyone who has experienced this trip called life knows that things do not always play out as we expect. The advice I give to others and that I often need to give to myself is to “expect nothing, and enjoy everything”.
We were enjoying pitas when, in the middle of one of Cory’s crazy stories, my phone rang. Anthony reported back, “You’ve got a massive oil leak, and I would not advise you to drive this vehicle anywhere. You need to get it into a full service shop that can take certain components out and get to the source of the leak. One other thing is that you only had 1 of the 4 quart capacity upon arrival! To be quite honest with you, the flush of your engine they gave you in SD only increased the leak. I don’t know what they were thinking. I don’t really know why they would sell you a flush”. There it was! Those were the magical words, the closing statement of our trial.
We returned to the W.I.S.H. for L.O.V.E. home and were lucky enough to meet Joshua’s friend Robert, a kind soul with an intelligent smile and a warm heart. He recommended us to go see his friend Jim at Purcell Tire and Body Shop. Loving the connections we can create for each other, I immediately called and set up an appointment for the following day. We ended the night by watching V for Vendetta projected on a 8x14 screen. Incredible! I popped two Tylenol colds and was out before the government feared the people.
Joshua and Raegan dropped us off at the RV in front of Jiffy Lube the next morning. Now we had to figure how to move the beast. I called Ian who came through big with three letters “AAA”. An hour later Tom, the tow truck guy from New York, roared into the parking lot in what he called the “small guy” of the fleet. It was the hugest tow truck I had ever seen. I thanked him for coming. “Hey, that’s what we are here for,” he smiled and offered his outreached hand. Even though I would have preferred an introductory hug, the hand shake was firm and charactered. I know, I know. Why a hug? Because it’s a more detailed version of a handshake, far more personal and revealing. Although hugs from strangers make many uncomfortable, it doesn’t stop me from putting myself out there. My favorite is when I meet a couple. I go after the girl first as the guy gets all jealous and mad. Then I turn to him and lean in for some love, spreading more confusion. It’s so fun to keep folks on their heels, guessing, and learning. You see, hugs are genderless, and I want others to know that it is ok to receive love in the form of a hug. What can I do, I’m a super hero with hugs as my power. I will prevail!
Tom did his thing as I wrote this note for Anthony and friends.
gentlemen at jiffy lube,
honesty and kindness are hard to come by
and we came by both with you...
thank you for your help and
understanding with the RV..
we are greatly appreciative... fritz & aaron
We also wanted to give them some cash for their efforts, but only had $13. Actually I had $13, and when I turned to Giggles I got a not so confident look. With Tom sweating already, we couldn’t possibly stiff him. Gig opened the (not working) fridge in the RV and handed me the solution, one of the 25oz bottles in our prized box of yummy expensive beers for the trip.
Their eyes lit up in thanks as we delivered it. “Awesome, we’re gonna get krunk right now”. We walked away smiling, but didn’t make it ten steps before hearing Anthony. “Hey, just one more thing. If you look at your original receipt from the San Diego shop, you will see that they have marked that you came in with a full tank of oil. That is proof that the problem was not preexisting and that they made a huge error. Man I would have them fully compensate you for the towing and whatever it takes to get the oil leak fixed” Wowsers, this guy just gave us the keys to the kingdom! “Thank you brother. Be well”.
When we got to the tow truck Tom was ready for us. We climbed up into the fortress on wheels, foot to hand, about half a flight of stairs to our seats. Immediately we knew how lucky we were with this guy! There was an energetic vibrance in him, as well as an endearing genuine nature. He pulled into traffic and had shifted six of the ten gears before we were even at 30 MPH. What a trip! Tom was so friendly that we ended up talking with him the entire 45 minute tow. We spoke of our journey. In your typical New York accent he summed it up, “I’m envious of you guys. You are going to have the time of your life!” We pulled into Purcell Tire and Body Shop with exuberance because we had been reminded that we both were exactly where we needed to be on our life journey. And that my friends, is pure motivation to keep on truckin.
Jim, the manager, was the first person to approach us. He extended his hand like a president to visiting diplomats. I knew we were his friends before any words were even exchanged! He immediately perused the scene to give us his diagnosis. In less than a minute he said in a thick Saudi accent, “Why could they not work on this?” A chuckle escaped him. “This is easy” he said as a mischievous smile was displayed on his face, like he had figured out the secret of life and might have been willing to reveal it.
A grunt turned our attention to Tom, who was lifting one of many 100 pound iron planks that held the RV in place. We were so happy we kept the dough for him, and even accompanied it with 3 granola bars to replenish some of his spent energy (for simple travelers, this was the best we could do). His profuse sweating was interrupted by gratitude. Tom then brought the contract for Ian Denchasey to sign. This was the final test. My nervous hand made a big “I” and scribbled the rest. We knew our secret was safe when Tom waved good bye to us as he drove the “small guy” into traffic.
Here is a poem i wrote that week. I ended up writing a bunch of poetry during our voyage, and have decided to include one or two every once in a while for your reading pleasure...
tag me a mortal wound,
inquiring impending doom,
space distanced continuum
happenstance reverenced serum
children leading parentals
to perceptive realities
dreams become casualties
in this war of mental confusion
everything accepted an illusion
breathe in information
to breathe out education
sub stations of elation
buried thousands of miles from star style stations
of mass populations equation,
can’t stop the phasing
of whole populations
to equally studded fates
of miscalculations...041409
