Rental Car Shuffle
4/3/1

Monday was a full day. I woke early, worked all day, ate well with friends, and went to bed at a reasonable hour.

Working all day does not necessarily mean that I was at my place of employment all day. After I left work, I first went by the police department to pick up my accident report from my wreck on Friday. The line was short, but after I had gotten my report and started to the car, I stopped and went back and got in line.

There wasn�t anything wrong with the report that I picked up, but she had given me the original. I�m not sure if they do that. Just in case she had made a mistake, I thought I�d let them know. However, the line dynamics had changed into more of a line static, so after a few minutes of waiting, I left.

From there I went to the body shop to get the garage door opener from my car. The gal there said they always have people coming by to pick up their garage door openers.

Oh, and good news and bad news about my car. The bad news is that the frame is bent and that I need a new blinker assembly, bumper, and rear left fender. Do they still call them fenders? I think he referred to it as a body panel. The good news is that it will only be $1200. I had him repeat the number when he called. He said that the frame machine could stretch my car back into shape and that he had found used parts for my car.

After the body shop, I went to the car rental place. There are three interesting little things about the car rental place.

When I went in to return the green Mitsubishi Mirage ES sedan since it�s service engine soon light wouldn�t go off, they had a ton of cars. It seems they were having some big car sale in conjunction with my credit union and they had brought a lot of cars up from Birmingham. They had also brought up the attractive young lady who was flirting with me.

I did not flirt. I was my standard Mark. I had on blue jeans and an orange pocket T-shirt and my head was shaved and my goatee was untrimmed and I hadn�t shaved since Sunday, but this gal was hitting on me. This wasn�t just normal flirting either, this was a female flirting and mentioning that she was from out of town, from Tuscaloosa, five times in about ten minutes. Though others may not think so, the gal at the rental place still thinks I�ve got what it takes. My wife informed me that she thinks I have what it takes also. If I were traded on the stock market, I�d be up right now.

Since Tuscaloosa flirt was all giddy and stumbling over herself, but looking cute while doing it, mind you, she was useless and the manager took me to my new rental car, a silver Mitsubishi Mirage ES sedan. We talked cars some and he said that he was sorry that he didn�t really have anything more interesting in stock. He did say he had a PT Cruiser in his fleet, and that he could give me a call when it came in. I told him that it would be fun, but my car should be fixed by the end of the week.

When I got home and told Aisai, she responded, �Well, you have to call him back right now!� I did, and now if the PT comes in, I�ll get a call on my cell phone and I can trade my car out for it.

Third interesting thing isn�t a story so much as an observation. The Mirage had only 54 miles on it when I got it and had only a quarter tank of gas. Was this gas from Japan? Was I driving with Japanese gasoline? Not anymore since I filled the car up. Different cars have different tank shapes. Aisai's Mom�s Camry�s gas tank is bigger at the top and smaller at the bottom. My car seems to have a good balance between how fast gas seems to be depleted through the entire range of my gas gauge. I didn�t know about the Mirage, and since I have to return it with a quarter tank, better to fill it up.

Now if the PT comes in, I�ve just given them a bunch of gas. Life is rough.

I forgot to go to the insurance place and drop off the accident report and it was a good thing because as soon as I got home we had to leave for the airport to pick up Aisai's mom who had been out of town, in England, for five weeks. Aisai's sister Leeann lives there and Al�s mom was there helping with the baby while Leeann and David adjusted to their new house being remodeled, and just because she wanted to see her grandson more.

Before we left one fun thing happened. I was teasing Aisai about something, and holding one of those allegedly Cajun Pringles. Aisai made some move to smack or mime smacking me, and broke my Pringle. I made a disgruntled face. She made an oops face. Then I smacked her with my Pringle. It was amazing how much of the flavor powder stuck to her. I had to pick up a bazillion gibbles of Pringle on the bed and floor.

I noticed when we got into bed that night that I�d missed some. Oh, well.

Off to the airport, we were in the lobby at 5:09 when we realized that her plane was coming in at 5:20. Yikes. The last time we didn�t show up on time Leeann was sitting there waiting for us since the plane was early. Tom told us he wasn�t going to make it to the airport, but just as the plane was unloading, Aisai's phone rang and it was Tom asking where we were. Aisai told him Gate 1 and about 7 minutes later he showed up.

Aisai's mom�s plane was like a clown car. It was small and people kept getting out. And after they got out, more got out. And after that, a few more. Aisai's mom was one of the last out of Clown Car Airlines flight 5684. We got the luggage and went to the car that we had parked as close to the baggage pickup exit as possible. Tom marveled at the closeness of our parking spot. We mocked him. Well, Aisai's mom didn�t. She�s not the mocking type.

Due to the hoof in mouth disease outbreak over there, Aisai's mom had been craving a steak from Applebee�s for the last month. So, we ate at Applebee�s. Aisai and I ate very lightly since we are both trying to get back into shape.

But why should I bother? I got what it takes. Just ask the car rental gal.