Spoiled

“You don’t know what you have, until it’s gone”

It’s amazing how spoiled we as humans get. What start out as “conveniences”, soon evolve into “necessities”. Case in point, yesterday, I needed to leave my SUV at the dealership for repairs. (Ridiculously expensive, but that’s for another post) Since my presence here at work is almost mandatory, and my wife needs her car today, I was forced into renting transportation.

The rental experience was almost painless. (Again, fodder for another rant). I dropped the car off at the dealership and left it overnight so work(?) can begin bright and early this morning. After filling out the required repair documents, I was ready to get into my shiny replacement. Enterprise car rental commercials  happily tout their pick up and drop off service, which I obviously used.

The rental agent showed up within 2 minutes, and we returned to the agency. After completing the necessary forms, I was ready to hop into my temporary transportation. Since I’m not exactly a spend-thrift, I opted for the least expensive model available. Upon climbing into my new  little toy, I began to understand how clowns feel. The vehicle is about the size of a clown car in the circus, but since it’s only me, no big deal.

Now I proceed to familiarize myself with location of the vital controls. Windows… hmm, no button… Oh yeah, I vaguely remember in days gone by, that one lowered the car windows with a crank. Ah, there it is… OK… not too bad. Seat adjustment…. hmm… again, no button… feeling around under the seat, and praising Allah that I didn’t find any gooey, foreign surprises, I found the release lever. BAM !!!!! I’m now sitting in the trunk !  OK, let’s try this again SLOWLY. Ah, relative comfort at last. OK, let’s go.  ZOOM !!!!!!!!   Oops, this car has pickup, not used to that.  OK.. now I have the hang of this.

After a short ride home, I park, remove the ignition key, exit the car, noting no other occupants followed, and realize…  NO LITTLE BUTTON. This car doesn’t have automatic locks. Now what? In a prior lifetime, I used to lock the car door by pushing down the doorlock button, hold the handle, shut the door and the car remained locked. WRONG !!!! That just didn’t allow me to close the door. AHA !!!   Going further back in time, I remembered that at one time, you close the door, insert the ignition key into a little hole on the door handle, turn the key and lock the door. VOILA !!!! Success again. However, this same inane routine must be repeated for EACH of the remaining 3 doors.

So another of life’s lesson re-inforced..  YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR!!!!  Go for inexpensive (read CHEAP), and you relinquish the rights to privileges previously taken for granted. How quickly we forget the way things were back in the STONE AGES, before all of today’s modern conveniences.