Are all auto mechanics male shovenists?

It was past time to take the car in for an oil change. Since we traveled to Urban Center today, we decided to have the Wal-Mart lube guy do it.

This sparked my memory of the last time we did that. j. went into the store while I handled the work order. We were supposed to be paged in store when it was done, but after an hour or so without hearing anything, I headed back to the desk to inquire. The man informed me that they hadn't started yet because they wanted to tell me that there was no oil in the car when they started. I signed the form and told them to hop to it. Near another hour must have passed when we checked again and they were almost finished. Mr. Mechanic informed me that the tires were dangerously bald, and I should have them changed as well. j. showed up at this juncture and told Mr. Mechanic that we didn't want new tires.

Now our car is leased, low miles, and less than two years old. It has very sophisticated warning systems that would certainly go off in the absence of oil. Not only that, but I can change the oil quite capably myself, I just prefer not to.

So today, I asked j. to take care of the details while I shopped. Don't you know, everything was fine? Those same old tires that we had before grew new tread apparently, cause they aren't even bald anymore.

It sort of riles me up that I can't do something simple like get the oil changed without being preyed upon by opportunists who see women as easy targets. I suppose that guy hits his wife, if he managed to get one somehow.

R.C.