need a good car repair shop?

I had a great experience Tuesday night. My headlight has been out for weeks now, and though Q can usually fix these sort of things, he had a ton of trouble with it. Apparently my particular model of car is difficult. Shocking. I turned to the local tire/auto store, a few blocks away from our house. We'd been there a few times before and hadn't had a bad experience yet, which is hard to find in the big city. I called the shop and asked if someone there could put in the light if I brought my car up after work one day. He asked what kind of car it was, and I told him, and he chuckled. Seems they have trouble with that model also (much to Q's satisfaction). Sure, they'd do it, no problem.

I drove it up there and the familiar faces were working that night - a big old fat guy and the owner, who is always there, but was on his way out the door. There's something heartening about the owner of a shop actually working. The big man told me it'd be ten minutes or so until the mechanic could do it, that he was replacing a battery at the moment. No problem. I sat back to wait, watching Brian Williams on TV. Without warning the owner opened the door and stuck his hand out in my direction. I assumed he wanted the part, which I handed over. He did. He walked to my car and without saying a word changed out the bulb. The big guy went to check on him, and a few minutes later, walked in and said 'You're all done.' I asked how much I owed, and he smiled and said 'nothing'. I asked if he was sure, and he said he was. I thanked him twice then went outside to thank the owner, but he'd already driven off in his truck.

How great is that? How many places would do that? It's nice to have a place right around the corner that we can totally trust, especially a car place - that's hard to find in the city. That place, by the way, is Bayless Tire & Auto, on the corner of Morganford and Weber. Check them out if you live nearby.

That's my story for the week. Without that happening this week would be totally useless and crappy.