This early morning actually started well over three months ago when my low tire pressure warning light on the Ford dash came on . I suppose I’ve become something of a procrastinator as every 17 days for the past three months I’ve broken out the compressor and refilled the right front slow leaking tire instead of just getting it seen to.
The nearby Ford dealership here in town has a very convenient system known as “The Fast Lane ” in front of its service department which opens at 7 a.m. for those with no appointments , it’s first come first served and by 6:30 a.m. I was already third in line with six more early birds behind me. The Ford employees were quite punctual and efficient and by 7:10 a.m. all ten customers had found comfortable seats in which to sit and stare unblinkingly at phones.
As I sat there phoneless I remembered when people in waiting rooms all sat together to quietly read magazines the likes of People or Time and so I got up to address the stack of mags on the table . Through the glow of all the phone’s in use I could see the film of dust over the top of this neatly stacked and seemingly long undisturbed time capsule .
It being cleaner I chose the mag second from the top and I was entertained by an interesting article or two about the history of Jamestown Va. until I flipped the page to notice a political comment forcing me to stop and check the publish date on the cover …… May, 2007 and I had to laugh and comment about the age of the magazine to the man on my left .
When he ignored me I made the same comment to the man on my right who almost raised an eyebrow with out tearing his eyes from his miniature screen. The lady who was second in line managed to provide me a three second glare however in an expression of disturbance . By now I was starting to get the hint that waiting rooms have become something like Libraries with that permanent ssshhhh and so went back to my silent perusal of ancient history .
That’s when the silence was shattered by the ringing phone of number seven in line and the whole room was then privy to an eight minute phone call about getting an oil change and going out for breakfast afterwards. I felt at this time I might be worthy of offering a glare but it didn’t seem to bother anyone else …. hmmph, guess it’s just me .
One things for sure, that 15 year old Time magazine has lasted a lot longer than that mans $600 phone ever will, and a hell of a lot more interesting than conversations about oil changes and pancakes at IHOP .
