Monday, November 11, 2013

Miss Information's adventures in car ownership

Miss Information's car is 2 years old and a couple of weeks ago she took a day off to have it serviced. The service people assured her that everything was fine. Perfect, they said. They mentioned checking all the fluids and things and stuff and junk. Miss Information isn't clear on those sorts of things. Because it was suddenly teeming rain, she went right home. 

The next day, she went to the gym. After that she had plans to drive on the highway for awhile, because she likes that sort of thing. Shortly after merging on to the highway, a warning light appeared on her dashboard--an exclamation point inside square brackets. Miss Information has seen this one before. Something is off with the tire pressure. She exits the highway and goes to a nearby parking lot where she looks at the tires. It is now pouring rain. They seem fine enough. Is that driver's side one kind of low? Hm. Maybe it is. 

Miss Information drives to a gas station to check the air and put in more. (Miss Information does not have a working tire gauge but she's been driving around with a completely useless one for as long as she remembers. It's tradition.)

At the gas station, thanks to Miss Information's ridiculously literal interpretation of the car manual's picture showing where the location of the tire information sticker, she has no idea how much air should be in her tires. Not one to let a detail like that stop her, Miss Information puts a little air into the tire that seems low. 

The next day she goes to a local garage that is open on Sundays to get them to check the tire, because, well, the tire was fine on Friday at the dealership, it must have a leak, right? The garage is busy and tell her to come back another time. She hates that place, why does she always go there?

Miss Information spends the rest of the day anxiously watching her tires. On Monday, she starts to think that one of the tires on the passenger side seems low. Because it's raining again, she goes to a gas station and puts a little air in that tire. Please note, Miss Information now has found the sticker that tells her how much air to put in the tires. Also note that the air hose at the gas station doesn't have a working gauge. Once again, Miss Information guesses. All the tires seem the right shape. Phew. 

Miss Information decides to go shopping. She thinks about when she last saw the warning light. As she recalls, it was right before she took her car for its one year service. So, about a year ago. In fact, Miss Information remembers that it was exactly a year ago, practically to the day. She checks her records. She'd picked the car up at 3 pm on October 26, 2012. The warning light went off at exactly 1:15 on October 26, 2013. Miss Information clues in that warning light might be less of a report of an actual problem and more of an annual reminder. 

Miss Information goes into the settings menu. It wants to know if her tires are ok. She says yeah. The warning light goes away. 

Miss Information makes a note not to panic next year. 

Saturday, November 09, 2013

Miss Information is nice to someone. See how that works out.

The customer at the desk is looking for something. Specifically she is looking for the book she reserved. She tells Miss Information that after she'd taken it from the pick up shelf, she'd put it down somewhere and now it's missing. Miss Information is mighty impressed that the woman successful picked up her own hold because most people can't manage that. This woman must be a rocket scientist. Miss Information doesn't think finding the woman's hold will be brain surgery. How many places could it be?

The woman has already retraced her steps. She's even looked on the pick up shelf in case it may have found its way back there. Miss Information continues to be impressed with the patron's ability. She offers to check the circ desk in case the book has ended up there. It hasn't. She checks the bins of books being shipped to other branches just in case it wound up there. She also checks the pick up shelf, looks on the trucks the pages are shelving and asks around. The book cannot be found.

The woman takes the bad news philosophically. Miss Information marks the book missing, because well, the book is missing. She assures the woman that it will turn up and that the library will call her back. The patron thanks Miss Information and goes to the children's department.

In about ten minutes the woman returns, missing book in her hand. She explains that when she'd retraced her steps earlier she'd forgotten about going to the encyclopedias! Then she remembered and there was the book!

Miss Information is delighted. She hates mysteries. The woman starts to walk away. Then she stops and comes back. This time she doesn't seem so happy.

"You know," she says. "You've been nice to me. Really nice. And I'm an idiot. The public transit department treats everyone terribly. You should be more like them. You need to stop being nice. Stop it. Stop it right now!"

Miss Information chuckles but the woman glares at her. "I mean it!" she says. "Stop being so nice!"

Um. Ok, then. Miss Information will never be nice to anyone again. Frankly it's a big relief.