Discount Tire

The Saturn Vue has a tire pressure sensor warning light, and mine went off this past week.  I thought it might be a response to the cold temperatures that moved in this past week, so I did not immediately get it checked out. But, I eventually went to Discount Tire, which is where I do my tire business.  They checked my tires, and the technician said I had one tire that was very low, and I should ask for a flat tire repair, which is free.  It was 5:15 PM on Friday, and they close at 6 PM, and the technician told me they had a two hour backlog.   I had hoped to get my grocery shopping done that night, so I decided to return to Discount Tire the next morning.  The technician suggested that I be in the parking lot by 7:50 AM, as they take the parking lot customers first when they open at 8 AM. I over slept, so did not get to Discount Tire until sometime after 9 AM.  The attendant who took care of my service need was very apologetic about the wait time, but saw I had a book, and I said I did not care how long I waited. It turns out he, his wife and his sons, who are in the military, are all readers.  I told him to thank his sons for their service, and said I did not care how long I waited, I had a good book.  I also told him I had had the tire checked the night before, and decided not to wait for service. He said he left at 7 PM, and the technicians were still working.

I waited less than an hour and a half. although the attendant said it could be two hours or more. I have to think the attendant was instrumental in advancing my service ticket.  He did not say it, and I did not ask, but it makes sense to me.

This is the second time I have had a tire from Discount Tire with a piece of metal in the side wall, and beyond repair, so replacement was less than $25 dollars.  I am amazed and delighted at the service.

I am not sure how they stay in business, but I am a customer for life, based on this kind of service. I also like the free air check service they offer.  I can do my own, but I will gladly wait some 40 minutes, as I did Friday night, to have it done.  It is easier on my knees and back. 

Several Random Acts of Kindness

At the Memorial Day Service today, I witnessed several acts of kindness.  I was sitting in the sun. It was warm, but not so bad.  I women whom I did not know came up and stood beside me and angled her parasol so she and I both benefited from the shade.

Part way through the ceremony, an elderly woman seemed to be overcome with the heat.  Her friend was trying to get her out of the sun, but the woman could not go very far. They sat her in the shade.  The woman with the parasol gave me her parasol to hold and went to help.  She handed me her cup and took the parasol to shade the woman.  Several of the

Veterans in the crowd moved in, and the woman  with the parasol asked for ice.  They did not have ice but brought several bottles of ice water, and cloths.  They put a bottle behind the affected woman's neck, wet the clothe to cool her face, and wet her hands. They took her shoes off and wet her feet too. 

The woman recovered sufficiently enough to sing God Bless America at the end of the ceremony. She felt well enough to drive home, and one of the Veterans went to get her car, and drove it close in to where the ceremony was.  He also left the air conditioning running in her car.

It turned out the Vet who took charge was an EMT, and the lady who asked for ice was a retired LVN.  Everyone who watched thanked them for their help and service, although we did not know the woman.

The interesting part was that the hostess of the event never seemed to notice or acknowledge what was happening in the audience.  Weird.  

Tire Pressure Indicator Light

I did not notice it until I arrived home, and drove into the garage, but the tire pressure indicator light was on.  Rather than risk a low tired in the morning, I backed out, checked all the tires for a serious flat, but there was none.  So, I drove the Vue to the Discount Tires Store  and took advantage of their free air offer. 

The technician who checked my tires said none were low, but a couple were too high in pressure. He did not think that would normally set the indicator light off, but after he checked the tires, we checked the indicator light, and it was not activated.  So, he did what needed to be done.  He also confirmed that the tread on the tires was good.  Which is reassuring to hear.

I can check the tires myself, and do sometimes, but I do appreciate the Discount Tires Store free air check service. Since I purchase tires there, I take advantage of the service. 

Lawn Care

The first two years I used a lawn care service, I was basically pleased with the service I received for the price.  This year, not so much.  The owner told me she had some new people and there was more of a learning curve than she expected.

It started off with my request to get the leaves raked.  It took 3 tries before they actually finished, leaving piles of leave on the east side of my house and under my pecan tree.  (There is actually some leaf detritus there.) I paid for 3 trips to my house to do this.  I guess that is probably okay, because if they had spent the time the first time doing this work, it would have taken them that much time. They mowed when they raked leaves, and I asked them not to mow the vinca, but they did, anyway.

Then I decided this year to get the yard scalped. It helps with weed control, but the down side is it pick up the clippings that I want to mulch into the ground. But I do not scalp every year. I asked that they not scalp the vinca in the northeast corner of the yard, because the neighbor's Bradford pear, and my grapevine on the clothesline create too much shade, and the grass does not grow there. But because they scalped the vinca, anyway, as it was not obvious to them where it was, after they had mowed it. The owner of the landscape service told me if I watered, she thought the vinca would come back, but offered to buy some for me. I went with the watering option, and the vinca has come back better and stronger than ever (this sometimes happens with plants.)

I bought some plastic pickets to mark off the vinca, and we had a successful yard care experience the next time.

But, I had put off lawn service for a couple of weeks, because the grass was not growing that quickly.  Last week, I had meant to contact the lawn service to come to mow, but forgot, on Sunday, and Monday, when I arrived home from work the front lawn was mowed, but because the gates to the back lawn were locked, the back was not done. My lawn service person did not contact me about that, but when I contacted her, said she had forgotten to text me about the schedule. No harm, it needed to be done, but the crew did not trim the tall grass near my front ivy, so I asked her to reschedule them for this week, to do the back yard, and the tall grass near the ivy. They came today, as scheduled, did not do the tall grass near the front ivy, and left part of the area under the clothesline uncut outside of the area picketed off for the vinca.

It is obvious to me that when I schedule lawn care, I need to be very specific about what needs to be done.   If I do that the next time I have yard care scheduled, and do not get what I want, I will start looking for another yard care service.