a bad day to be me

It could have been a really bad horrible day. First my car needed what was supposed to be a routine service...that turned out to be a major expensive big deal. Like the price of a used car...and I only found out when I went to sign the estimate. A little warning, please guys. When you tell me it's a little routine maintenance I'm not expecting to need a second mortgage to pay the bill.

Never drive a small black car. It's what I got from the rental company, very cute, and a woman backing out in the Trader Joe's parking lot didn't see me. I was parked, not moving, rolling up the windows. She swung the nose of her car into my parking place as she was backing out and whacked! my rental...and kept going. She left a gash more than six feet long in the side of the car. Thank goodness she eventually stopped or I could have been carried away by the edge of her bumper, never to be seen again.

Not a great day so far, and it could have been a really horrible day, but Eric Nguyen at Traveller's Insurance and Sarah and Peggy at Enterprise Rent-A-Car made it better.

Eric made me laugh, and kept calling people at Enterprise until he found someone who said if Eric would pay I didn't have to leave them a whacking big deposit. Sarah and Peggy kept working and stayed cheerful as my blood pressure went up, and they seriously deserve a raise for keeping their cool cheerfulness.

When I came back the next day for - wait for it - another rental car (my car gushed $73 of gas onto the ground. I think the Alamo Chevron may now be a superfund site)

the Enterprise crew were - gasp! happy to see me and let Ally ride home in the rental car with me (no dogs in rental).

Apparently my car had a bad seal in the newly replaced fuel filter. Seriously, guys? It's a Mercedes - this is not supposed to happen! You'd think they'd check this stuff out before they send you home. I shudder to think what could have happened if I'd been on the freeway when the filter cut loose - I could have been a fireball.

This is not where you want to see your car -

Moral of the story? No idea. Ask me when my heart stops racing and my blood pressure returns to normal.