Val Tries to Get a Grip on the Handle Situation

You may recall that T-Hoe's door handle broke off in my hand last week. It was quite a traumatic experience for me. Now that I don't have The Pony riding around in the passenger seat behind me, available for opening that door from the inside, it put me in a pickle.
Hick called his on-call car repairman buddy, Mick the Mechanic, that very afternoon. Props to Hick for not waiting four-years-and-counting like he has about T-Hoe's backup beeper and tire pressure sensors. We drove T-Hoe over to Mick's shop that night, and left him. It only takes 7 minutes to get there.

As I was moving stuff into T-Hoe's console, to get it out of the way of jabbing knees in case somebody had to crawl across from the passenger side to get that door open... Mick came out. He had seen us lurking around amid the cars entrusted to him by other jalopy owners. Mick said the Tahoe is notorious for breakage of those plastic door handles.

"It's usually the back doors. Kids yank too hard on them, trying to get the door open when it's locked, or frozen in the winter."

I'm not sure what that says about my door-opening skills. But T-Hoe IS 11 years old now, and I get in and out multiple times a day. I am NOT a yanker!

While we were standing there, Mick's wife came out. You know. Because Val is such a prime specimen of old-lady-hood that she might steal away another woman's legal live-in mechanic. Sheesh! I already have one mechanical man. Why would I want another one?

Hick hangs out with Mick a lot, when he's not busy safe-eteering and inspection-eering his $5000 house. Usually, there's an issue that spurs the visit. Like earlier last week, when Hick backed SilverRedO into a pole. Of course he made it out to be MY fault. "Heh, heh. I just pulled a Val. I backed into a pole on the parking lot." We don't need to discuss his reference at this time. Anyhoo... I told Hick to get SilverRedO fixed.

"I didn't buy you a new used truck for you to drive around in a junker. Get your bumper fixed."

"Mick says he can do it. He says he might even have a part laying around. When he fixes one of those bumpers, he only uses the section that's damaged, and keeps the other parts for later."

Anyhoo... we picked up T-Hoe the following evening. Hick had stopped by to pay Mick on the way home from Hick House. That's a benefit of being buddies with your on-call mechanic. Your job gets rush treatment. Hick had laid the receipt on the kitchen counter where I tell him not to put stuff.

"I can't believe a plastic door handle for a 2008 Tahoe costs $72!"

"It's not the door handle, Val. It's the guts of it, not the handle. It comes in a kit. It's the parts that go inside the door that cost that much."

"Huh. Did he use my old door handle on the outside? It looked fine to me. I should have asked for my old door handle back!"

"I don't know if he used it, Val. Probably not."

"Then where is it? What's he doing with it? Using it on somebody ELSE'S car?"

"Mick wouldn't do that."

"You just told me that he does it with bumpers! Only uses the broken part. Then probably bills the next customer for a whole new bumper, and uses the other ones."

"I seriously doubt that, Val."

"Then why would he only use the section for the damaged part? Instead of replacing the whole thing?"

I couldn't understand Hick's next words. It seemed like more of a growl. Of course I couldn't wait to wind him up again the day after we picked up T-Hoe.

"I think your buddy and his workers must have taken T-Hoe to town for lunch. I swear I had more gas in there than when I picked it up."

"They didn't take your car anywhere, Val."

T-Hoe HAS been known to show a different level in the gas tank after being parked with his hood slanted down. Maybe that's all it was. I just don't want Hick and Mick to think I'm some patsy who doesn't know what they're up to in their secret greasy tooly manual-labor world!

"When I drove by the shop this morning, Mick was walking around the cars. He waved to me, and I waved back. We're kind like family now, you know."

Except for maybe driving my car to lunch and scamming a plastic door handle.