Amarillo by I Don't Know When

So yesterday I was all set to have a hitch and wiring installed on my car. That way, later this week I can pick up a rental trailer, drive to my office, load up my books and then try to get a good night's sleep before leaving Connecticut the next morning.

My appointment at U-Haul was at 8:00 a.m., Monday, January 2nd. Two guys were there, looking mostly-ready to work.

20 minutes after my car went into the service bay, one of the guys came out and said, "You're gonna have to come look at this." So I followed him through the door that says, "Employees Only." There, with us standing behind my car, it was explained to me that the bolts that have to come out before the hitch goes on weren't coming out. I'd have to take the car somewhere else to have the bolts taken out. Then, I could come back for "Install the Hitch, Part Deux."

So I called the nearest Ford/Mercurcy dealership (within spittin distance), finally got through to the Service Department, explained my unusual predicament, only to be told "Three of our mechanics are out sick this morning. Can't get you in. Sorry."

I really didn't have time for the nonsense, but wanted to ask, "And what sort of sickness do they have on Monday morning, January the second? Or does that sound too much like I think they all have the same thing?"

Click. Next call was to Dillon Ford. I got through to Service, explained the situation. The guy said, "Bring it over." So I brought it over. At the service desk, I began explaining my sad story again. The guy stopped me and pointed. I mean he pointed, like we were both supposed to stop, turn towards Mecca, hit our knees and pray.

Turned out, the guy was pointing towards the Dillon body shop, as in, "That's where you can get the problem solved." So I drove the car over to the body shop. (By this point, there's a part of my mind that was thinking, "You're never going to make it."). Once again, I explained the whole thing quite well; I was getting really good at it by that point. The guy, who looked like he knew what he was doing, just nodded.

Within about 10 minutes, the bolts were out. The guy said, "Gimme ten bucks." Of course, wanting to account for all my moving expenses, I took out my debit card. The guy who'd just saved me was mildly irritated. "No, I mean ten BUCKS." Oh, thought I, this guy wants buck skins. Bills. Moolah.

But did I have it? Just about the time I was getting good in a near-cashless system, here was a guy who wanted 10 dollars cash! To my relief, I discoverd that I had it. Whew!

Back in the car, I noticed that I should have, by that time, been done with all of this. Instead, I was going to get the hitch and wiring installed. And it happened. But not without an adventure.

Anyway, a few days back someone asked if I was still packing. Yep.