Sunday morning bliss.

 

 

 

Yes I know.  It’s Monday.  Blogging has been somewhat hit and miss over the last few days.  It’s going to be a struggle.  The more time I have on my hands,  the more likely it seems that I have something to mutter on about. 

The Super Bowl game was certainly interesting.  Surprised there were no odds on whether or not there would be a power outage,  but who would have thought of that?  There’s always next year.

It was fun to see the gang.  The game was basically an excuse to get together.  There’s the possibility of a Flamboro Downs outing later in the month.  Bet on football?  Bet on horses?  The odds of me winning something in either event are about the same.  I think I had better odds when it came to the game however,  as Travelling Companion and I ended up doubling our money.   That was still in the fifty dollar range,  so don’t get too excited.  You pick some squares.  You give up some money.  You might win something.  Totally random.

 

So I was going to mention a couple things about my Enterprise Rental Car experience.  It was all good,  really. 

Saturday morning I figured I had better see about having a set of wheels handy,  since there was the Super Bowl party and such,  and I had very little desire to drive Daughter Number Two to work and pick her up again.  Gets old after about…once.

The car that belongs to Daughter Number One that we used at Christmas time is in need of a starter,  so it was out of the equation as well.   So that left renting something for at least a day or two.  Not that you care,  and not that I should have to explain.

But then I had this thought.  I have an Austria driver’s licence.  Is that going to be a problem?

Well silly me.  I called Enterprise here in Burlington just a few minutes before they opened,  and after waiting on line for the appropriate annoying length of time,  was connected with a person of questionable abilities somewhere off in another country.  This person was speaking English,  albeit with a slight southern accent,  and when she said,  “Up there,  you have the CAA”,  I began to suspect that she was in the States, which turned out to be the case. I suppose that was better than being in Mumbai or wherever. 

In between the dog barking in the background,  I was able to make out that, unless the licence was written in English,  they wouldn’t be able to rent me a car.   Really?  The suggestion was to go to CAA and get a translation,  or even the Ministry of Transport.   Um ya,  not a member of the first one, and the other one is closed Saturdays.  Not really viable options.

Now see,  here’s the thing.   First of all,  there’s both English and French in our little ole country,  and that minor oversight led me to think that just maybe this person didn’t know if her ass was bored or punched. Plus, there was that whole thing with the dog barking in the background.  I mean, if you do work from home,  wouldn’t ya think it might be an idea to sequester the yappy dog in another room?  Just a thought,  really.

I finished our conversation by saying, “Well thank-you SO much.”  in the way that southern folk speak to you in that condescending way.   Idiot.

After taking Travelling Companion to her hair appointment,  I thought maybe I’d just stop by Enterprise on the way home and get it from the horse’s mouth,  so to speak.  The answer?  “Oh ya,  no problem.  We just need to see your passport to know that you’ve been in the country less than thirty days.”    Ya.  See,  people visit North America all the time and rent cars.  Unfortunately nobody bothered to mention that to yappy dog lady. 

I think Enterprise needs to set the standards a little higher when it comes to their ‘after hours service’.  It’s not really yappy dog lady’s fault,  really.  She’s probably just making up shit.  Good for her.  Not that good for business though.  I might have gone elsewhere.

The thing that quite often draws me back to Enterprise though is,  they are willing to pick you up.   It’s kind of a big help.  Really.  Just one less thing to coordinate.

Come to find out,  they also have some “Week-end deals”,  and for a mere $14.99 a day,  we ended up with this:

 

 

I could have gone cheaper at $9.99 a day,  but that car (and they only had the one) had a Quebec license plate,  and I have a slight problem with that.  I’m funny that way. 

And you know,  it wasn’t bad.  I won’t go so far as to say it was wonderful.  It sure as heck wasn’t a three series BMW,  or an Audi A4,  but definitely a good effort on the part of Chrysler.  I mean, one can’t really expect much. Kind of like when your five year old brings you a finger painting of a kitty that looks more like an iguana.

They used to make half way decent trucks.  I’ve had a couple of their vans,  they served me well.  Their cars?   Meh, not impressed. Never have been.  We rented a Chrysler 300 once upon a time on a trip to Vegas.  Oy, what an abortion that thing was.  It was actually almost functional in a straight line,  but cornering was out of the question. 

 

I took the car back this morning,  right after dropping Travelling Companion at her office.  Rumour has it that she’ll use one of the “pool cars” for as long as she’d like.  We *think* she’ll be driving a car home after work.  I’m sure it’ll all work out.

Other than that,  today has consisted of mostly expropriating some much needed closet space,  and then I should probably devote some time to hunting down a set of wheels to purchase.  Not really a job that thrills me too much.  It could take a while.   Thankfully I can start with the internet before having to go out and actually kick tires.

 

I’ll leave you with this parting shot.

 

And no,  I have no idea what they’re up to.  We do think the cat thinks he’s a dog, but really?

 

Thanks for stopping by.

 

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