About that car rental thing.

So after all my stewing and hemming and hawing,  (is that a “down East” expression?)  I ultimately ended up going with Enterprise. 
Yes, fine,  you can stop rolling your eyes now.   See,  the thing was, when we went to Toronto in May of 2010 (two trips ago)  Enterprise was still offsite,  hence the wonderful trip in the van. There were other rental places at the airport,  although in a similar fashion to here in Vienna,  as well as a few other airports we’ve been to,  the counter might be reasonably handy,  but the cars themselves are sometimes “out there”.  You start to think, “Am I going to end up just walking all the way home,  what gives?”
From what I can gather, Enterprise has moved to a location at the airport.  Note I said,  “what I can gather”.  The jury is still out. 
So yes,  in answer to one of the comments on a previous post,  the car rental places are in fact at the airport.   Most of them.  What I did discover though is,  it’s usually the pricier outfits.   Just an observation.   Which is kind of odd,  since National and Alamo are both owned by Enterprise Holdings Inc.   Even more curious is that the cars at National at least, are more expensive to rent,  and the models are pretty much the same.   I don’t understand that at all.  I know the Company that Cannot be Named once had a supposed “deal” with National once upon a time,  so maybe there’s some sort of prestige issue?   From what I gather though,  Travelling Companion was never all that pleased with that arrangement,  but that was a while back.

There was one time when we took some sort of cab or whatever home,  and then had Enterprise come to the house and fetch me the next day.  Once you figure out the prices though,  it works out to being pretty much the same,  cost wise.   Not only that,  but the rental site in Burlington doesn’t always have such a great selection of cars,  being the backwater of the rental car world that it is I suppose.
So I guess my point is,  I didn’t want to leave the impression that somehow in Toronto you have to go by dog sled out to the igloo to pick up your car.  There are cars to be had at the airport.   Bad enough that Travelling Companion used to further the myth of the “Great White North” when she was working in Horseheads, N.Y. by telling them stories about rebuilding our igloo.    Or shovelling our way out our front door in the spring time.    Honestly!   Besides,  half the time they had more snow in places like Elmira than we did anyway,  since we’re protected by Lake Ontario for the most part.   Usually by about Wednesday,  she’d turn into this “Weather Worry Wart”,  if it was her turn to drive home,  since getting past Dansville was quite often,  how shall I say this?  a concern?   I’m not quite sure what the deal was with Dansville,  but the Thruway (the 390) is somewhat elevated as you pass by,  and it would always be either snowing or foggy or something.   Each of us drove past Dansville once every other week for roughly the two and a half years that she worked in Horseheads,  and we both have vivid memories of good ole Dansville. 
My hope is that nobody actually believed any of her stories.  We’ll never really know.

*****

The whole “cleaning the whole house”  thing is going at a fairly leisurely pace.  This is mostly due to the fact that a certain amount of time yesterday (Saturday) was spent out and about in the frantic world of shopping in Vienna.   There was a computer bag type thing that needed some sort of repair,  and the shop where it was purchased is in the First District,  so that was going to be our first stop.  Well,  I naively thought it was going to be our only stop,  but after all this time,  I’m still a hapless idiot when it comes to these things. 
Did I mention we’ve know each other since 1978?  You’d think I would have figured out a couple things by now.

Long story short,  the place was closed!  And we did such a good job of finding a close enough parking garage and everything!  Turns out,  the owner of the place has retired,  and their last day of business was July 30th.  Be nice if someone could have done a little update to the website!!  Any repairs that were yet to be picked up could be had at some location out in the 13th District or something.  I don’t know, I didn’t write it down and I have to look it up on the web again,  since I offered to take the thing out there some time this week.  We’ll see how that goes since, if they’re unwilling to honour the warranty,  I’m certainly not going to pay them to fix something that I can get fixed a heck of a sight cheaper elsewhere. 


Or maybe we won’t bother getting it fixed??




 So then we wandered around in the touristy area of Vienna for a little while,  until we had both had enough of that.   (Stephansplatz is a little nuts on a Saturday.) But then having rested up on the drive back up Mariahilfer Strasse,  Travelling Companion opted to bail out along the way,  and I agreed to go pick her up a little later on.  I don’t know,  she spotted a store,  and as I mentioned last week some time,  one of her associates had a baby (well,  his wife did)  and so naturally we “have to”  buy something for the baby.  I’m pretty sure we already bought something for the baby,  but I don’t even want to go there.

 If there’s any advise I could give to a recently married fellow,  it would be that,  in certain circumstances it’s always best to just nod, and say yes.   Don’t ask why.  No no.   Bad.   AND,  count your lucky stars if you get to stay home.   Some times you do have to do the driving,  and maybe do the dropping off and picking up.  Be happy that that is all.   This will be followed by some measure of marital bliss.  For those of you who may be in other “arrangements”,  you may wish to insert “blissful cohabitation”.  
I try to be inclusive if possible.

I suppose that’s the extent of our wild and wonderful life here today in Wienerland.   I know, I know.  It’s hard to grasp just how exiting it is,  cleaning the house and all.
 
On the blogging end of things,  I’ve been having some consistent issues with Live Writer recently where I get the error message if trying to post,  but once I remove any pictures,  it seems to work just fine.   I may have to do a dump in the cookie department,  but there are a couple obscure passwords that I’ll need to write down first.
And yes,  we do have pretty cool sunsets here in Wienerland,  and if anyone saw any of the Perseid Showers recently,  enquiring minds want to know.  I stayed up past midnight last night and didn’t see a bloody thing.   Staying up much later is out of the question.

I suppose though,  I could always start my training for the inevitable jet-lagged six hour switcheroo that we’ll be facing in less than a week.

That’s right! 

Six more sleeps!


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