I don’t think people understand car ownership, sometimes. In fact, in my friend group, it’s become that thing that irks me: something that people are PROUD of not knowing. You know, that despicable internet trend where people are proud of not knowing about current events, or mathematics. I was talking to Millie the other day and she laughed when I said that she maybe needed to check out that strange rattling noise in her car. She said that it started ages ago and she just turns the music up.
Yeah, just keep feeding the female stereotype, Millie. I even tried giving her the number of the best mechanic Ringwood residents have come to count on. She just said that it seems fine as it is and that she’s due for a service in a couple of hundred miles anyway.
Sorry…’fine as it is’? The engine sounds like a pinball machine. But then, I guess that’s the lovely privilege of mostly just using your car for leisure. Millie works from home and doesn’t have kids; she and her husband don’t even NEED a second car. They just have one for convenience. Whereas here’s me, obsessively checking the oil, the brake fluid and all of the important systems every single week, because if that car goes, so does my life. Can’t pick up the kids from school, can’t do laundry deliveries, can’t go food shopping because we live deep in the suburbs and even the nearest bus is a fifteen-minute walk away. Maybe I rely on my vehicle too much, but that’s the way life is. And I’ve even had to learn about things like brake pad repair. Ringwood services are really good and varied, thankfully, because as I have mentioned…life. Car. We’re inseparable, unfortunately, so I have to take care of it. Which is why it’s so irritating when other people clearly don’t.
-Aria