So. This morning I had an appointment at the mechanic at 10:00. I took the car in on time (a-ppoint-ment…), and was excited because my friend Sharyn was going to meet me at the mechanic’s, to go for my “scheduled” run together.
We dropped off the keys at the appointment and (funnily enough), one of the mechanics wanted to be assured that the last time we were there (a week ago) that H wasn’t “mad at them” about the service. (This is H’s mechanic.) I assured them that he was just grumpy sometimes…but had to smile a bit that they were concerned about that.
Sharyn and I actually drove back to my house (I’d forgotten a book I had promised to loan her), and we went off on our one hour run. It was fun to catch up, and we planned to try to meet for a run whenever one could!
So, we were back at the mechanic’s by 11:45 . . . ready to pick up my car.
It hadn’t even been looked at yet.
(A-ppoint-ment…)
Sharyn offered to stay with me, but what are you going to do? I got a cup of Folger’s and CoffeeMate, and sat there in the linoleum lobby next to a machine full of 10-year-old Chiclets to “wait out” them getting to my car.
I read through my email on my BlackBerry, texted a few friends . . . the clock ticked… and (I have a pretty even temper) I started to get peeved. I actually Tweeted (which goes to Facebook) what was going on (because I was peeved). I even (heh heh heh) – remembering the tone of their voices when talking about H – emailed HIM at work, just to “let him know” that I was “still there” and the car hadn’t “been seen yet.” (Mean. I know. What can I say?)
And then – the light shone on my day. Coach Sedonia Facebook’d: “Do core!!! You know you’re iron when you find that the car shop is not going to be done with your car for 45 mins so instead of sitting and waiting you bust out planks in the middle of the parking lot!!”
I laughed, sat there in the plastic chairs . . . and then got a little smarmy smile on my face. No WAY would Sedonia imagine I would DO it.
So – I did.
My car was STILL sitting out on the tarmac, and the keys where inside. I had a yoga mat in the back of the car, but decided to make my “point” – so I ran my hand over the astroturf outside (yes, a little square of astroturf with a plastic umbrella set on top of it), realized it wasn’t at least STICKY with dirt . . . and started.
Abs. Planks. Bicycles. In FULL view of the mechanics. So, first, they came over to mock me. I didn’t do a thing, kept working out. When they came out to make comments the second time (they at least wiped the powdered sugar from their mouths with the back of their hands), I looked up, and said “I had an appointment here at 10. It’s now past noon. I was supposed to go to the gym, but now I have to do it here.”
They didn’t know what to do about me. They started grumbling. Then, about a minute later, I heard my car starting, and they edged it on into the bay. As they were working on it, they gave me these sidelong glances that started out being kinda smarmy, and then edged on…concern (I like to pretend it was Fear), as I just kept going.
Then, the REALLY big guy from behind the counter came out to “be friendly.” I was doing a plank, and he stood a bit far away, so that I could “see him” (it was funny – because there’s no way this guy could squat down). He made some sort of crack about whether I could do a few for him, too, and I said “Sure, no worries about that. But I’m definitely feeling hungry, since I’ve been here hours longer than my Scheduled Appointment, so I think I am going to have to call my Husband to come and take me out to lunch.”
Yeah that did it. Suddenly, it was a mechanic anthill on my car. I started laughing so hard that I had to do “bicycles” because you can laugh and do those (planks, not so much). Nice to have a Grumpy Husband that scares’em. I could also hear them talking as they were working on the car, “She’s still working out. That’s just not right. That’s right by the front door.” (What, like I was going to push business away from coming to visit their low-rider butt, stomach-over-the-belt selves?)
Once I started working out – and of course threw the “H word” at them – the car was done in 20 minutes!
That – and X Stretch with P90X – was my day.
(smile)
You Know You’re Iron When your way of intimidating people into getting a job done is to do planks, “bicycles” and burpies in their parking lot until they “submit.”
As I was reading this, I wasn’t worried about Big H, I was worried about you! I thought you were going to conduct some Marine Corps ‘verbal counseling'(If you have never seen a mad Marine Officer, thank your creator. Marine Corps Officer have advance degrees in butt chewing). Did those mechanics know, with whom they were aggrevating?
The interesting thing is that I have discovered that idiots like this wind up holding you “hostage” when they feel that they hold you in their “power.” I am so glad that I was able to do P.T. and “aggravate” them – without going into a full-on M16 flared “butt chewing.” (Maybe I should say there was too much BUTT there – eee-yew!)