The Oil Change

I take my car to a mechanic for oil changes.  Now, that sounds a lot fancier than it is.  When I lived in Cincinnati, I would take it to someplace like Jiffy-Lube.  Most of what they do is oil changes with the occasional radiator flush and tire rotation; you are in and out in about 20 minutes if they aren't busy.  Here there is one fast lube place, a Wal-Mart and dozens of little mechanic’s garages.

If you’ve never been to a small town mechanic-it’s hard to describe.  I show up, tell them who my kin is (that means relatives in case you didn’t know) and they treat me like they’ve known me all my life… Ask after my family and neighbors; ask what I do and the like- all the while, letting me watch and ask questions about what they’re doing while they’re working under the car.  There are always 3-6 men in the garage whether they work there or not and at least one will be really old and missing teeth.  They always seem really interested that I would bring my car to a mechanic without male accompaniment.

A few months ago, I was having some trouble with my car; it was loud and didn’t have as much power as it should.  I took it to this place Mom told me about, apparently my brother-in-law worked there for a little while.  Mike was able to tell me what was wrong just by lying down in front of the car and wiggling a few things underneath.  I went to get cash-he doesn’t take plastic and Mom is one of the few people he’ll take a check from.  An hour after getting back to his garage, I was on the road with a new flex tube and a much quieter car.  And when I took the car back because the weld had failed and my car sounded like crap again, he said they had messed up and then fixed it without any hassle or charge.

So I walk in this morning and Mike asks how I’m doing-“fine and you?”  Then I ask after the possibility of an oil change-he says “pretty good” Mike asks if I want to leave the car or come back in a couple of hours.  I said “I’ll bring it back” and that’s the end of the conversation… he goes back to standing under the truck looking at the underside while the owner tells him what’s wrong with it. 

Oil changes, used tires and other small things are what keep small local garages in business.  I’d rather have my oil changed at Mike’s any day-his prices are fair, he’s fast and if anything is ever really wrong with my car, I know the name of a good mechanic.  Plus it keeps life far more interesting than spending 20 minutes sitting on a molded plastic chair.

In a couple minutes it will have been a couple hours and time to take the car back. 

I LOVE food

I Love to try new and different foods.

I especially love to try foods that go with places. I think of these as Vacation Foods; unique foods in new and different places.   One of the times when I went to visit BFF Sean in Boston, we went to this wonderful little microbrewery near Fenway park-they made the best burger and I had the hard cider they make to go with it… ommmmmmmm nomnom.  

On a different trip to Boston, Sean drove me up to Maine, where we wandered around on a rainy afternoon and stopped in a little town on the coast to eat… I had the crab cakes-they were wonderful-crabby and crispy.  On that same trip, we took a train to Salem on Halloween, for Samhain (pronounced sow an) a Wiccan Celebration about nature, the elements and compass directions.  What felt like thousands of people in the park all walked down to Old Salem after the Gathering.  Sean and I ended up in little Mom and Pop Pizza place; the pizza was great but the place was packed and you know how I feel about crowds.  We also wandered around in the psychic fair food booths and some of the open stores.  I bought my Nightmare Before Christmas metal lunchbox there.

Last summer I went to Santa Claus, IN with Mom and my sister’s family.  We mostly ate normal stuff like IHOP, amusement park food and stuff cooked at the campsite- my brother-in-law, Jamie is a great cook-so that was all good.  But we decided we were going to try something different-we went to a little place on the side of the road that sells buffalo burgers.  The burgers were good, but they were overpriced and small, we all ended up having to order a second burger.  If you ever eat there-be prepared.

The trip with the most memorable food was when I went to China.  Stephen, a friend from college who has been living in China since he graduated took me to some very interesting places to eat and I was really glad I took the Imodium with me.  I flew into Kunming, Stephen met me at the Airport, took me to the Hostel to drop my stuff, and then we went to find dinner.  About a block from the Hostel was a little street stall selling noodles and grilled squash with red pepper powder.  The food was spicy-but tasty.  Even though the travel books warn people away from them, we ate at street stalls most of the time I was there; spicy soups with noodles, meat grilled on sticks, Over the bridge soup (a local specialty mentioned in the travel books) and one particular little stall that warmed rounds of tortilla looking things slathered with stuff that looked like thick molasses then wrapped around a puffy dough glob… it was wonderful-squishy, sweet and warm; Mmmm better than doughnuts.

I met Stephen’s local friends and they were so honored to have an American to entertain, that they took me for a fancy dinner.  We were in a private room at somewhere or other and we were served all kinds of special dishes-the only one I remember was the deep fried bee larvae-it was crunchy. At another place, I got to try Hot Pot-we walked into what looked like a storage space full of kindergarten sized chairs and tables.  The tables each had a hole with a propane tank under it.  We picked the split bowl with fish stock in one side and spicy in the other.  They lit the tank flame to heat the stock and we went to pick vegetables and meats to add.  We added the stuff to the stock and waited for it to cook- it was so good.  If I could afford it, I would go back to China for the food alone but there are other places on my dream travel list to visit first.

I eat some interesting things at home too.  Some that I come up with myself-like whole pickles eaten with walnut pieces-a bite of pickle then a couple of walnut pieces… good combo.  I may try making it into a relish at some point.

Some of the things I end up eating at home don’t go so well-like the time Mom combined macaroni and cheese with ground beef and bean sprouts… It was just wrong-crunchy and squishy and the flavors didn’t go together.  I prefer tomatoes with my mac-n-cheese and ground beef.