I tried to get our car booked in to the Toyota service people yesterday, but they were pretty busy. So instead, it’s first thing this morning. I got up at 6:00am, and was out the door by 6:25, leaving L in bed.

It takes about half an hour to get from our house to the latitude of the Sahara, but this can depend a lot on the level of traffic and the route you take. OK, maybe that’s obvious… anyway, traffic was light and I pulled up to the service bay at the Toyota dealership on 6300 W Sahara at about 6:55, and although the service department doesn’t open until 7:00, there were three cars ahead of me already.

No worries, though. When the bay doors opened, and we filed our way into the depths of the service building, I ended up half in, half out of the building, but somehow this didn’t matter ’cause they gave me a number and told me it would be ready at about 8:15.

Rather than wait in the waiting room watching morning TV, I went for a walk. The idea was to walk to a bagel cafe and get some bagels in preparation for Josh and Anna’s visit with us over the next week. I pretty soon discovered that I was further West on Sahara than I thought, and after an admittedly pleasant 20 minute walk East on Sahara, I did a 180 and came back again. Halfway back I realised that, exercise or no exercise, walking in Jandals/Thongs will give you blisters in places you don’t expect.

Also, it was already 93 degrees out, and I was wearing a black T-shirt, and feeling the heat. Argh. By the time I got back to the dealership I was sweating and limping. A drink vending machine mugged me for a dollar but I got away with a cold plastic bottle of Minutemaid Pink Lemonade. Practically inhaled it.

At precisely 8:15 the guy came back calling my name, and told me that everything was fine with the car, so no problems to worry about. Excellent. We still have brakes and everything. I paid up at the desk, and jumped into the car. Bagel Time!

As I was driving East on Sahara approaching the intersection of Valley View where Bagels-n-More are located, I realised I didn’t have my credit card slip. I remember the cashier lady offering to staple it to the invoice, and I said no, because I was going to put the slip in my wallet, as usual, but I didn’t remember doing that. So where is the slip now?

After maybe 15 seconds of internal struggle (bagels? Need credit card slip! But… bagels are right here?) I did the right thing and turned around and drove back to Toyota. Seems to be my day for doing 180 turns on Sahara…

I parked, and walked in to the retail section of the service department, and almost immediately noticed a small scrap of paper on the floor in front of the cashier’s desk. Indeed, it was the missing credit card slip.

So it all turned out okay in the end. And now the car will be all tuned up and serviced, so if Josh and Anna want to drive somewhere next week while we are working during the day, I won’t be worrying about whether the car will conk out on them.