Second Opinion
Summer season is finally ending which means that at last, AT LAST, there is available parking on the street near our house. All summer long Hans and I would play "shuffle the cars" every morning and afternoon. This was not really because there wasn't anywhere to park...it was more me and my insane need to keep our neighbors happy with us. As I've mentioned before, parking spots are guarded with a territoriality that I find partly amusing, partly disgusting. I have personally witnessed one of our neighbors out on the street screaming at someone who had the nerve to park in front of her house. On a public street.
Anyway, summer season is winding down, which is good for any number of reasons. Not the least of which is that my blood pressure while driving should now stay at a normal level. Tourists drive me UP the wall. God bless them for wanting to see Newport. I think it's a wonderful place to visit and I feel blessed to have lived here not once, but twice. But if you want to sightsee, do ya think maybe you could just park your car and walk around to take a look, instead of driving 12 mph and stopping in the middle of the road to take pictures of the mansions? OK, thanks. And those "walk" signs, well, I know it's a nuisance to wait for them to flash white and OK you to actually walk, but do you think that you could just maybe wait instead of bolting out into oncoming traffic? OK, thanks. And if you're lost, do you think maybe you could stop and consult someone instead of simply pulling over, impeding traffic? That would be great.
Had my rant. Anyway, the gist of this post is that street parking is now legal (in the neighborly judicial system). Joyfully, I commenced parking Frau Mathilde out on the street, just across from the house. No more running outside in my PJs, thinking no one will see me, only to have every resident of the area suddenly appear and see me in my skimpy tank top and boxers, hair wild and no makeup. Ugh.
One day a couple of weeks ago, I noticed that the tree I had been parking under had dropped a bunch of acorn-type things all over the hood of my car. So, I did a quick swipe and removed them. They were sorta sticky little buggers, but I figured they'd come off in the carwash. It seemed like such a nice little tree. The acorns, however, are pure evil. They left little brown splotches all over my hood, quarter panels, and part of my roof. They didn't come off in the carwash. They didn't come off after using two different types of sap remover.
Now most of you who know me think that I would have been foaming at the mouth about now, however, I calmly took the car to a bodyshop and got an estimate to repair one little ding and clean up the sap.
$1,000.00
WHATTTTTT? The very nice body shop guys told me that the sap had been "baked" into my clearcoat and it would take a process that included stripping all the clearcoat down to the finish, removing the sap and then putting on a new clearcoat.
I was ready to go across the street with an axe and start chopping down that tree. Hans calmly suggested a second opinion, so today I took it to the VW dealership in Warwick. The even nicer body shop guy there said $225 for the dent, then proceeded to take a rubbing compound and remove some of the sap in front of my eyes. $75 to take off all the sap and compound and buff out my entire car. Grand total = $300.
I still want to chop down the tree, though.
Anyway, summer season is winding down, which is good for any number of reasons. Not the least of which is that my blood pressure while driving should now stay at a normal level. Tourists drive me UP the wall. God bless them for wanting to see Newport. I think it's a wonderful place to visit and I feel blessed to have lived here not once, but twice. But if you want to sightsee, do ya think maybe you could just park your car and walk around to take a look, instead of driving 12 mph and stopping in the middle of the road to take pictures of the mansions? OK, thanks. And those "walk" signs, well, I know it's a nuisance to wait for them to flash white and OK you to actually walk, but do you think that you could just maybe wait instead of bolting out into oncoming traffic? OK, thanks. And if you're lost, do you think maybe you could stop and consult someone instead of simply pulling over, impeding traffic? That would be great.
Had my rant. Anyway, the gist of this post is that street parking is now legal (in the neighborly judicial system). Joyfully, I commenced parking Frau Mathilde out on the street, just across from the house. No more running outside in my PJs, thinking no one will see me, only to have every resident of the area suddenly appear and see me in my skimpy tank top and boxers, hair wild and no makeup. Ugh.
One day a couple of weeks ago, I noticed that the tree I had been parking under had dropped a bunch of acorn-type things all over the hood of my car. So, I did a quick swipe and removed them. They were sorta sticky little buggers, but I figured they'd come off in the carwash. It seemed like such a nice little tree. The acorns, however, are pure evil. They left little brown splotches all over my hood, quarter panels, and part of my roof. They didn't come off in the carwash. They didn't come off after using two different types of sap remover.
Now most of you who know me think that I would have been foaming at the mouth about now, however, I calmly took the car to a bodyshop and got an estimate to repair one little ding and clean up the sap.
$1,000.00
WHATTTTTT? The very nice body shop guys told me that the sap had been "baked" into my clearcoat and it would take a process that included stripping all the clearcoat down to the finish, removing the sap and then putting on a new clearcoat.
I was ready to go across the street with an axe and start chopping down that tree. Hans calmly suggested a second opinion, so today I took it to the VW dealership in Warwick. The even nicer body shop guy there said $225 for the dent, then proceeded to take a rubbing compound and remove some of the sap in front of my eyes. $75 to take off all the sap and compound and buff out my entire car. Grand total = $300.
I still want to chop down the tree, though.
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