Well, this has not been the best of weeks so the finally sit on a Friday evening with the girls now couldn’t have come fast enough, which it didn’t by the way. It was a slow fucking molasses crawl.
It started (after my four day weekend short mini stay-as-always-cation where I truly enjoyed myself and had some fun, some of it even Ok, in the Attic) when I woke to the never ending realization on Tuesday that there is always a Yang to the Yin. Shit balances. A friend and colleague had been let go at work on that extra Monday that I took off throwing numerous hats and angers into the air. An immediate anger when one of the good ones, a one in this case of 20 years spent, is dismissed. You’re missed Jay.
Then on Wednesday BB decided that that last left hand turn before the station I was making through a traffic light was a little more than he was in the mood for so he almost completely locked up the steering wheel when he stalled hard. Thought for a second I was going into someone’s front yard. It was all I could do to continue that turn then drag and cajole him after a re-start to the station parking lot.
Next up? The fretting. Though I’m lucky and thankful that I still have a gig I’m one of the too many in this country who don’t have enough to cover the unexpected’s that may arise, enough to cover an unforeseen emergency. The loss of a vehicle, maybe even a temporary one, as hopefully is my case, is one that surely qualifies.
So, I called “my guy” Lou. Though I’ve only been to him and his shop once at the recommendation of a really good friend he was good to me then and, even though it was only that one time, I trust him. He’s become that “Yeh, I got a guy”.
BB-less now though, I had no way of getting home, or back to work the next morning. Thank you Randy, thank you Celie. I’d like to think, no, at least I know, that as long as I’m capable, I would do the same to help in someone else’s unfortunate circumstance.
But as I went through Thursday, continuing the fretting as to how I was going to get home THIS night and THAT back the next morning I realized I had to rent a car. I wasn’t going to ask Randy to drive almost an hour and half or Celie the same out of their way again, not if I could help it. Which I could.
I started making some phone calls. Local to the station Enterprise car rentals, two of them, discovering that, holy shit, car rentals are freakin’ expensive!! Like almost 60 bucks a day. This came as a bit of shock but I guess I wouldn’t really know. The last time I needed any kind of car rental was after a small accident I had five years ago, and the insurance covered most of that. But still.
Neither Enterprise worked though. One had no cars at all and the other had me second in line for the “possibility” of one. Why car rentals are in such demand right now I couldn’t tell ya but I had to have something, “possibility” just wasn’t going to cut it, and we were approaching the end of the day.
So, it was time to improvise, especially as I was surely going to need whatever it was through the weekend.
U-Haul.
Though they charge by the mile they are only 20 bucks a day and with my total daily work miles (about 50) coming to around 35 bucks at 70 cents a mile it worked out to the same as a car rental and, after calling the closest of U-Haul’s? I was GUARANTEED a ride, as opposed to the Enterprises. A U-Haul Cargo Van (the big brother to my BB, a Scion XB, that seems a bit of a little brother van). So it was a family thing.
Plus, the closest of U-Haul’s is located inside the Key Food Grocery Store on Main Street in downtown Beacon. Need to rent a truck AND grab some cold cuts, deodorant, cat food and maybe some extra toilet paper? This is the U-Haul for you (I mean, shit, I WAS already there and there’s plenty of fucking room in the back for the bags right? And even the bodies in a much more sinister completely different story).
But needing it through the weekend? With being as “social” as I am and with the most driving I ever do on the weekends amounting to none (the quick run to the convenience store down the hill for one of those Mickey chocolate covered ice creams I’ve become a fan of doesn’t count) I just saved the 35 bucks of my daily back and forth to work, twice. It truly becomes a 20 dollar rental if you ain’t goin’ nowhere.
You just have to deal with, in this case, a U-Haul Cargo Van impersonating a comfy rental sedan and you’re all good. It’s just a ride, a bit more bumpy, but it’s just a ride … you are taller though. I find that a cool thing.
Now in the future, if a situation like this does arise, hopefully not, but if one does, maybe providence will even provide some folks who just happen to be needing help in a move. You could actually MAKE a few bucks on the deal. HeHeHe, no, that would never be the case of course but you could at least score some “after move” free pizza.
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