09 April 2008

My Trip to the Dealer

I took my truck to the dealership this morning, hoping for rust in the frame - rust was detected, Toyota will be in touch with me later.  (Toyota has a buy back program, if your Tacoma (96-00)  has rust perforation(s) then Toyota will buy back your Tacoma at 1 and 1/2 times the Kelly Blue Book value.)  

My appointment was at 8:00am, normally I care to go to the dealer but the inspection required that I do.  So stopped first at Dunkin Donuts to pick up a coffee, I waited in line for 10 minutes, placed my order only to discover I left my wallet at home.  I got back in the truck and headed to the dealer knowing for sure they would have coffee, they did.  I know the woman in front of me at Dunkin' Donuts was sure I was stalking her - who else waits in line behind a person for ten minutes, then does not wait for their order but runs back to their vehicle (which just happened to be beside her's.) 

After I pulled into the garage, met with a service manager (in a glass office), and headed into the "waiting area" where coffee and pastries were waiting for me.  [For the record I appreciate good coffee, I do not know a thing about coffee (yes a coffee book is on my 100 books list) but I know a good cup when I taste one.  Yet you could challenge this view since I was stopping a ubiquitous coffee and fried dough chain, I just didn't have the time to brew my own this morning.] I would have figured to find a regular old school coffee pot, nope - a fancy European one-cup-at-a-time private brew machine.  I looked it over for a good five minutes and ascertained how to operate it.  I pushed the correct button but all I received for my ingenuity was a cup of hot water.  Hmmm.  I took a step back and found some coffee in what appeared to be supersized creamers.  I picked one up, but did not find a handy pull back tab, no problem I can open this with my mouth or I could even pull out my pocket knife.  With the coffee container in my mouth I heard "No, do not open that."  

A woman, who works at the dealer, told me just to stick the container in the machine without opening it, according to her the machine brews the coffee similar to a French Press.  Whatever. I enjoyed my cup of coffee (although it was in a styrofoam cup, which I detest).  I attempted to read the Times while the Today show blasted from a flat screen plasma tv.  For the record, "America's morning "news" show was running a segment on a 6 foot 4 woman and an even 5 foot man and how hard it is for them to find dating partners - I thought for sure they were going to end up dating, but I did not get to hear if David Gregory was able to accomplish that.) I scanned the others there, mostly retired boomers - none were drinking coffee.  I am all for trying to up the ante when it comes to food choices but sometimes works best is what has worked best for years, an old school Bunn coffee pot.

After a half hour in the "waiting area" the manager came to get me to tell me the news.  I could not get over how much this replicated a hospital setting.   The news was good, there is rust - enough for a buy back, well time will tell (I hope so.)

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