The sun came out today — first as a faint orb in the gray sky and then in all its sunburning glory. Now, all of us summer people can go back to our pools and the beach and not swarm the already overwhelmed (and wildly expensive) sea-side towns.
One thing I did learn was that when booking a house, one has to parse every single word of the ad. For example if it says, “ocean view”, that could mean that one bathroom in the house has a slight view of the water. In our case, there is some water on the horizon out of our second floor bedroom. If the add says, “water view”, it could mean the pool or your neighbor’s pool. Or for those really wanting to stretch (and break) the bounds of truth in advertising, water view can mean this:
A view of the Montauk water tower. Yes, we have a lovely view of the water tower from almost every window. But no matter. We are close enough to the beach and we have a pool and the sun — hooray, the sun — is out today. But really, the water tower?
The other excitement of the day concerned our rental car. I got this huge, gas guzzling Mercedes. Why? The rental place had no Volvos (the safest family car) and no Mercedes had ever been recalled (and the rental place didn’t have just a family sedan) but it had more Toyotas than you might think possible in such a small rental place in a small (geographically speaking) city like Manhattan. Toyotas — cars with brakes that don’t work; accelerators that have minds of their own? Are you kidding me? Nope. nope, nope. No hybrids available either. The place did have Chryslers and GMs but until ones come are assembled by non-disgruntled workers, I will take the car with the track record and pay through the nose for it.
The problem with the mammoth Mercedes is that I can’t tell my car from the other mammoth Mercedes (plural) in any parking lot out here. Also, the air in tires needed rebalancing and the low beam light was weak, so I had to get it fixed. As I rolled into the mechanic’s place with my mammoth car and asked about a light change and a rebalance of the air of my tires, there were enough smirks to go around that I figured, “this is going to be expensive.” I know, I know. It’s a rental car. But having a blown left low beam can be dangerous as can unbalanced air pressure in the tires (I read that this “safe” care has a roll-over risk — awesome).
I hang out and talk to the guys while they are fixing it. It takes a lot of unscrewing parts to get to the headlights. Maybe easier in the assembly line, but not so much when trying to change a light bulb in the left low beam. They keep teasing me about the cost. And I tell them it is a rental car, to boot. They look at me as if I am on drugs. I say, “I am not asking you to fix my cruise control or stereo system! These are matters of safety for my family and others!” One guy says he is impressed that I am not freaking out and calling my boyfriend. If he only knew. We continue talking about life, what matters, and what Montauk is like when the summer people aren’t here, etc. He is married (I tell him I am, too, which I am in spirit if not in paper) and I could tell he is flirting with me. But it was a sweet flirting, in the way that someone appreciates that you are passing the time while he is at work and not talking on the phone while you wait for a “service person” to handle your problem. He shows me pictures of old Montauk and it was a perfectly lovely way to pass an hour (plus he only charged me for 30 minutes). And he did a great job and now I know that I have taken all precautions to be a safe driver and that lets me sleep at night. (And, I am going to present the receipt to the car rental place.)
Anyway, all is good and I am slowing disengaging from my Blackberry.
