Happy Lucy Junior Conversations

("Conversations week"continues until June 30th. Enter to win fabulous prizes. See Conversations week post for details)

It is Lucy, Junior!!!!

Lucy Junior!! At my house! The Literal House of LadyLee!!!!

Hi Lucy Junior!!!

Yes! It is Lucy Junior. The L Deuce. Lucy 2.0.

Lucy Juicy if you're nasty!

Ha ha!

And I needed to take Lucy Jr. to the auto mechanic shop last Tuesday. Pronto...

Why?

Because I was driving down the road in these monsoon African rains that Atlanta has been having lately. And the windshield wipers were going good. And I noticed one day, during these torrential rains, that one of the winshield wipers was peeling.

*ladylee rolling down the road, bumping some Jill Scott*

"What is that?" I said, leaning forward and staring hard at the swishing windshield wipers. "What the world? Did a stem fall on my window?

No. The windshield wiper blade had peeled off down about 75%.

Sigh. I don't know how to change windshield wiper blades.

SUE ME!

I am a girl. I don't care about that type of stuff. Take it somewhere and let somebody else do it.

The next day at work, I announced to my boss, who was meandering around the cubicle area, "I'm going to go get my windshield wipers changed! And I'm going to get a road test!"

"The back blade on my Explorer needs changing too."

"Well, I'm getting mines done. Scared me to death yesterday? I though a small tree branch was on the window or something."

By this time, another coworker walked up. Her name is Mel. She listened in the conversation. She's only been in our group a couple months. She's a youngun, and she's from the ratchet downstairs crew. So she is happy to be upstairs with us where there is some semblance of sanity.

"Yo, man," she said. "You don't have to go through all that. You can go some wipers and I will change them for you."

"Uh, no," I said.

"Come on, man!" she said. She looked a bit too excited. "Come on, I'll hook you up!"

"No," I said again.

This went on for a couple of minutes, her trying to convince me to let her change her wipers and me hollering "No" or "HELL NO!"

"I tell you what," I finally said. "You go outside and change the back wiper on the boss lady car. And we'll get her to crank it up. If you can do that right, then you can change my wipers."

The boss stared at me unblinkingly.

Mel just stood there speechless.

I could see what was going through Mel's mind. If she went outside and jacked up the boss' back window wiper, she'd be sent back down to the plantation from which she came. She'd be sent back downstairs.

This killed the wiper blade discussion. Mel had the look of pure horror and fear on her face. The boss had the death stare. I thought she was gonna twist her fingers just so, like Darth Vader... causing me to suffocate and fall out.

Later in the hallway.... here comes Mel..

"Yo, let me do your wipers. Come on, man!"

"NO! I made an appointment to get it done."

Mel walks away.

Yes I made an appointment. I took it to the specialty shop I used for the original Lucy. I like that place because some of the mechanics own the same generation.

I made an appointment for wipers and a road test.

"Do you think you need an oil change, LadyLee?" the owner Chuck asked.

"I don't know. I didn't lift the hood when I bought it. Oil light never came on. And I've put 1500 miles on  it. You can check it if you want to."

Chuck blinked.

I was supposed to bring the car in for a pre-purchase check, but it was super cold and rainy that day. I went ahead and bought the car, since Lucy Junior's owner had all the paper work."

"We'll do a 5K check then," he said.

That was cool. And he could take as long as he wanted. My appointment was at one. Hopefully I could stick around until 3. Or 7 pm. That way I wouldn't have to go back to work. Hmm...

I sat on the couch- the nice nice leather couch -and played around on my laptop, texted a few people, and listened to my music (Jill Scott, ya'll!).  They have snacks and sodas and water. And I'm the one who is all for bottled water! Oh yeah!

Some random lady came up to me after an hour and said "They've been calling your name!"

Ok. Yes, I was in my own world. Totally plugged in. Oh joy!

One of the mechanics came out and talked to me.

"Is everything alright with the car?" I said.

And he said something that made me cheese like Celie.

"That is a perfect car!"

*ladylee holds back the urge to do rockette kicks*

"Yes, it is. Better than the one I wrecked," I said, a little too loudly.

We talked about it. I gave a mini-testimony.

"You just need your tires rotated. That is it."

And I let them do it.

I told Chuck that the last owner's paperwork said that I needed rear struts and mounts and front struts.

"Uh, does it ride well? Does it squeak?"

"Rides well and I rarely hear any squeaking."  Matter of fact, I don't remember any squeaking.

"If it was me, I wouldn't get it done," Chuck said. "Long as it rides nice like you like, not necessary."

And that was fine by me.

The car was already riding well on those Michelins... but it rides a tad bit better with the rotation.

Oh, joy!

I returned to work around 3:30 pm after running a few errands.

And here comes Mel....

"Hey, did you get your wipers changed?"

"Yes! Yes I did!"

And I got so much more. Lucy Jr. is all the car I thought she would be.

And when I think of her, I always say, "Thank you God for my good and perfect gift."