Blogocentric Formulations

A lesson in karma

True story from this morning:

I'm running just a few minutes late to work. My wife, already at work, calls and says she forgot something. The school she works at is in the same direction as I go, but it's not exactly on the way. It wasn't a critical item either; I could run it by her school (and make myself twenty minutes or so later), or I could say, "Sorry honey!" and be on my way. I opted for the former, deciding to be a good husband and help her out.

Not two blocks from her school parking lot after I drop off what she needs, a funny smell starts coming from the engine of my car. Then steam starts to pour out from under the hood and the temperature gauge is quickly climbing toward the red. At the intersection I stop at, there's actually an auto repair place... and it's open! While I was waiting for my car to be fixed, I checked the reviews on Yelp and it turns out that this is one of the highest-rated mechanics in the area.

It ended up being my radiator that was busted, which they replaced for a reasonable price with OEM parts. This place offers a three-year warranty (standard is one year) on all their work for free, and are known for dropping you off and picking you up free of charge (they've even dropped customers off in Burbank - more than 50 miles away!), and will give you a car to use at their expense if they have to keep yours for more than a day. Oh, and since I was rushed this morning, he wants me to bring the car back after a few hundred miles so he can check the work to make sure it's holding up and give the car a more thorough evaluation... free of charge. Hell, most impressive of all is that he replaced the entire radiator and all the engine fluids in under four hours! Last time I had that done to one of my past cars, it was a 2-3 day affair. And did I mention that he even washed my car while it was being fixed?

Even though I had to pay a big chunk of money and ended up losing most of my morning to car repairs, I was able to get lunch with my wife (which never happens since we work 40 miles apart), and I can't help but think that - had I been selfish and just gone to work without bothering to bring something to my wife - I would have been stranded on the side of the freeway somewhere, would have needed a truck to tow me to who-knows-what mechanic in the middle of nowhere that might or might not have been able to fix it right then and there, and wouldn't have found such a great mechanic that's actually semi-convenient for us.

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