Fixing the Jeep

Remember an earlier blog when I told you about, "That's Trinidad for you?"  My dear friend Fred and his son, Joseph told me about how they said that about this little town.  At first, I thought it conveyed the resignation about the fact that you call 10 people for work, and maybe -- maybe 1 will call you back.  Then, after living here, that saying came to mean much more.

To me, it also means the sense of wonder about the people and the buildings and the weather and all of the other unique aspects of this place.

Case in point -- we took the Jeep to a local body shop after Les's little incident.  (Of course, I have to stress that this was Les's goof and not my own.  :)  Last Monday we dropped the Jeep off at the body shop.  Les called on it on Thursday and was told that they were a little behind because the whole shop closed to go to a funeral on Wednesday.  No problem there -- these things happen.  I received a call late Thursday telling me to pick up the Jeep on Friday and that it would be done around 11:00.

I had a busy Friday morning, so shortly before noon we set out to walk over to the shop.  We made a quick stop at our bank, then walked the remaining 2 blocks over to the shop arriving at 12:06.  The shop was closed for lunch.  All of the employees leave at 12 sharp to go to lunch.  But our Jeep was sitting out in front nice and clean and dent-free.  Les noticed that it was unlocked so I asked him if the keys were in it and sure enough -- it was sitting there unlocked right off the street with the keys in it.

We laughed and left a stickie note saying we took the Jeep and would be back to pay.

Now can you even imagine doing that in Southern California?  About 45 minutes later the shop owner called me to let me know that they weren't quite done with the Jeep.  They still needed to put the Jeep, Hemi and 4x4 emblems on the back.  Then we laughed as he said that he sure was glad that I left that note.  Otherwise he'd be looking around for the Jeep wondering, "Now where did I leave that big black thing?"

We went back shortly thereafter to settle up and they finished putting the emblems on.  Then we drove up to the mountain and our nice clean Jeep was covered in road dust all over again.  But it's so worth it!