Virgil
My Car and Masculinity
by , 02-01-2008 at 10:19 PM (2506 Views)
Well, I got my car fixed from that air bag fiasco. I was able to save quite a bit, making it more reasonable. I have a cousin, a second cousin actually, who owns a collision body shop, who helped me out. He ordered the parts (the two air bags, the coil which triggers the bags, and the computer modolue) for me and got a commercial rate, which was about 20% less. And I had it installed at his shop which was a more reasonable hourly rate than the dealer. Plus by handling it in cash, we by passed taxes. So even after I gave the mechanic a nice tip and giving my cousin an extra hundred than he asked for (he protested but I forced it on him telling him to put it toward his son's education) it came out to just under $2000. That's $600 less than the daeler wanted. So I guess I made it worth it. Now this car has to last me another year to make it worth it.
I hung out at my cousin's body shop while the work was being done. I watched the mechanic doing the work. It was really cool. Don't forget, I am a mechanical engineer. I like watching parts getting put together. Hey I design parts to come together (not in the auto industry) so it's interesting to see how the technicians actually do things. Now I was afraid to breath in the body shop. All sorts of fumes (from paint I guess) all in the air and dust from the liquid plastic that's dried and sanded. As an engineer I can stipulate all sorts of safety precautions, but you know what, these macho guys couldn't care less.Now this is just a small little business, not a factory, where health and safety are enforeced. But still.
I got to say I loved being around these macho guys. I'm such an office geek. The mechanic that worked on my car was probably in his early forties, relatively muscular (his arms were fairly large) but he had a bit of a belly. He had a scraggly beard and chained smoked the whole time. He must have had one or two cigarettes an hour.
Standing up for four hours was also challenging. I guess I sit at a desk all day, or walk over to the other engineers and sit and discuss or sit in a meeting somewhere. But I'm mostly sitting. These guys are not just standing but bending over, bending under, and crouching, and twisting. But they're not sitting. And there was no heat on in the shop. It's a very high ceiling and heating it would probably cost a lot. It was a pretty warm day for a January (above freezing) but after a couple of hours I was damned cold. And I'll never complain about the bathrooms at work again. The urinal had no running water, so you just peed in it and let it drain. The smell was strong. I wonder when it was last cleaned. And the sink wasn't working either, so no hand washing.But hey, that's macho. I loved it.
Now this weekend is the super bowl, and my buddies and I are going to play poker, drink beer, and watch football. We're going to make believe we're macho. Those mechanics are really macho.
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