More Customer Not-Service......

I took my SUV in to have the oil changed today, mainly because it was time for it, and partly in preparation for my road trip to Nashville this weekend with my two sisters. I won't tell you the purpose of our trip, because it might be all I can think of to blog about tomorrow night. Or Saturday night, when I hope to have wonderful news to post. Not that many of you will care.

But I digress.

I mentioned on Sunday that I had a technological close call with the code for the keypad on my SUV. I like to leave the keys in the car, and it's an aggravation -- okay, so a minor one -- that I can't do that now because the keypad won't work.

So when I went to get the oil changed today, I asked the technician to check the keypad. He said it would cost $50 to find out what was wrong with it and looked at me as if to ask if that were okay. "It doesn't work," I said. Implying that I'm curious enough to spend $50 to find out what the hell is wrong with it.

I waited in the customer lounge and played numerous games of BrickBreaker on my Blackberry, because I cannot seem to achieve the same level of mastery as my friend Wanda the Warrior Princess. Henceforward known simply as WWP. When they called my name to say my vehicle was ready and that the oil change I had a coupon for would only cost me $91, I asked about the keypad problem.

"Oh yes," the cashier replied, "he pulled your code for you. It's written right here."

"I know the code," I said, trying to smile and NOT to talk through my teeth. "It just doesn't work."

"Oh. Let me check on that."

Apparently the words "Keypad inop" written on the work order indicated to the service technician that I was too stupid to know my own code that I've been using for 4 years. So he "pulled" it for me. For which they charge $40.

Back to the customer lounge and more BrickBreaker. And college basketball, for which I have zero interest. Possibly even negative interest.

After finally going in search of the right PROBLEM, the technician came and told me that a wire is broken down in the door panel, and it will cost approximately $300 to get it fixed.

For $300 I can buy some pants with pockets to carry a key in.

Technological Close Call........

I wrote a post a few months ago about how I feel obligated to use the whole set of something. If I have a 5-piece luggage set, I feel guilty if I don't use all 5 pieces. Even if I'm just going on an overnight trip.

I feel the same way about gadgets. If I have them, I consider it my duty to use them. I have a GPS for my bicycle, so I won't just hop on the bike for a casual little ride anymore. It has to have the GPS on it to document my mileage, elevation gained/lost, and a map of the route.

My first motorcycle had a locking helmet hook on it, so I felt compelled to hang my helmet on its designated place, never mind that the cool people just hung their helmets on the sissy bar or the mirror and it was a B-I-T-C-H to lock/unlock anyway.

Some gadgets, however, I find useful in their gadgetness, not just because they are cool toys or features to have. For example, the key pad on my SUV. It was one of the features that sold me on this car. That and the fact that Hubby had a tee time and he had already told the salesman, "Wash it, we'll be back for it when I get off the golf course."

Using the key pad eliminates the need to carry my keys. Since I also abhor carrying a purse, this is very handy. I don't often have pockets, so I like the convenience of being able to lock the car but not carry a set of keys with me.

You can probably see where this is going.

It almost came back to haunt me in a bad, terrible, rotten, no-good kind of way. My apologies to the author of that childhood story, because I'm sure I just mangled its title.

Yesterday Hubby and I ran some errands, since the weather was too yucky for him to play golf. We meant to go to the tanning bed (give me a break, we're going to the Dominican Republic in a month and we don't want to get sunburned to a crisp), but we had already bought groceries when we remembered.

We took the groceries home, and Hubby said he didn't want to get out again in the yuckiness. So I went off to the tanning bed alone. That was the first good stroke of luck.

When I came out of the tanning bed, my key pad code would NOT let me in my vehicle. No reassuring click, no unlocking of the doors, no flashing of the lights, nothing. I did it a few (hundred) times just to make sure, and then I was pretty sure I had locked myself out of the key pad for a period of time. So I went to a nearby grocery store and bought something I had forgotten on my FIRST grocery buying expedition that morning, and just to kill some time.

No luck. The code just would not work.

So I called Hubby, and he came with the spare clicker and unlocked my door as he drove by. I'm sure the girl working at the tanning salon saw me walk out to my car and open the door and thought to herself, "Well the dumbass could get in all along." But I digress.

We tried the code again and again when we got home. It wouldn't even LOCK the doors. Hubby looked in the owner's manual to see if it mentioned a fuse or anything that could be wrong with it, but he came up empty.

And everything was basically okay, since I had the spare and now I know not to lock my keys in my car.

But I shudder to think what COULD have happened.

Because last night was the night that Katydid and Nurse Jane and I went to the Billy Joel/Elton John concert.

If I hadn't gone back to the tanning bed, I wouldn't have known that my keypad didn't work anymore.

Until after the concert.

In downtown Atlanta.

At midnight.

On a Saturday night.

With Hubby 60 miles away.

NOW who says tanning beds are a bad thing?