the unavoidable lie

First off, on the whole, I consider myself to be a very truthful person. Honest to the point of, well sometimes being honest can backfire in your face as has happened to me. But there is one unavoidable lie that there is no way to get out of when the situation calls for it. At least no alternative way with pleasant consequences that I can think of.

Let me put this into perspective and tell you the whole story, then some. Hold on... honestly, you can't make this stuff up.

Being generally unsatisfied with my job of late and seeing where I think my company is headed (queue toilet flushing noise), last week I decided to go online to see what other potential employment awaits me. In applying to one job, I had to post a resume on monster.com.

Since then I've gotten a few emails from employers who found my resume online. One interview will be on Monday afternoon and the other one was supposed to be this morning.

To back up a bit, there's a new policy at my present employer (which makes sense and is perfectly legitimate) that requires at least two days advanced notice for time off and the requests now have to be approved by the supervisor, so that adequate staffing for the needed work can be planned for.

One company left me a message on my cell phone Monday saying they wanted me to come in on Wednesday (today) for an interview. I could not return the call on Monday because, even though I had my cell phone with me, my battery was dead and I did not have the charger with me to recharge enough battery power to make the call. Trying to make job interview arrangements on the current company's phone during working hours is a sure way to get fired if caught. So on Tuesday I brought my now fully charged cell phone back and made the call to set up the interview for today, since the man I'm supposed to interview with is a regional manager and not always in the area, it was either Wednesday or sometime next week or whenever the regional manager was back in town.

I, of course, opted for the interview today and knew that I'd need to make an excuse for not going in to work today. So I used the excuse that I'd had car problems and would not be in to have it worked out. They bought it. How fortunate for me I chose that excuse...

The job interview was set for 10 this morning. I left myself 45 minutes travel time so that I would get there five or ten minutes early.

Can you guess what happened to me on my way to the interview??

If you've read my blog at the end of June/beginning of July, you've probably guessed correctly - car problems, again. This time with the Neon.

When I got into my car this morning, I noticed a puddle of some liquid that started from under my car and leaked out into the driveable area of the parking lot. I looked under the car as far as I could, not wanting to get my nice pants dirty and couldn't see any drips or obvious problems, so I didn't think anything else about it.

While I was driving up the highway towards Manchester, I noticed that the temperature gauge on the dash was maxed out at H, which it wasn't last night. I hoped honestly that I would make it to the interview and that I'd be able to figure out the car problem after the interview.

No such luck.

I pulled over into the breakdown lane as soon as I noticed smoke coming from the back end of the car and from under the hood but without the grinding sound that accompanies a blown head-gasket.

Immediately I called ahead to my interview's contact person and told her that I'd need to reschedule and apprised her of the sitiation.

While I was on the phone finishing up leaving a message, the good old NH State Police cruiser - with lights flashing- pulls up behind me. The officer comes up to my car and asks if I'm all right. I tell him what happened and he inquires if I have a cell phone to call for a tow. I nod yes and he says that he's got to go down the highway to Nashua to check out another couple of situations but that he knew where I was and would come back around to check up on me in a while.

I said thanks to the officer, reassuring him that I'd be fine and he then went on his way. After he left I popped the hood and trunk and checked my engine oil. That had plenty. But I noticed that the coolant reserve was empty. I always carry, amongst other things, an extra five quart jug of coolant in my car's trunk for just such an emergency. The bottle had about four quarts of coolant in it so I grabbed my funnel and started filling up the reserve. Poured in all four quarts with ease but still the reserve was empty. Looking down at the ground near the car I see four quarts of coolant gushing from the underside of my car onto the pavement.

Not good.

I then called AAA and my mom to make arrangements for a tow and a ride home from the garage.

After my last road service call to AAA I doubted that I had any service calls left since I had to pay for the tow when the beast finally died. To my surprise and relief, I was not told I'd have to pay for the tow and that the flatbed would be there within the hour.

Excellent.

Apparently they track service calls from membership year to membership year - not January to December as I thought. My AAA dues are due Aug 1st and after the last incident decided not to pay them - thus letting my membership expire. So after today I guess I'll pay the dues afterall.

As a bit of background, I always carry a bookbag with me with plenty of current reading material for unexpected periods of downtime, like this one, which ensures that I'll always have something to do while waiting.

Well, old dopey me forgot the bookbag today. So I was stuck waiting on the highway for AAA tow guy with absolutely nothing to read or do. While the weather was mildly warm and very pleasant, I was also dressed business casual for the interview that I wasn't getting to, so after standing in the sun I was sweating.

Of the hundreds of cars that went speeding by me in the breakdown lane, two people stopped to see if I needed any help. The first guy was in a yellow pickup truck with markings for Manchester Airport. The second was just a regular guy in a regular car who saw me and pulled over to see if he could help. I told both of them no but thanks for stopping anyway.

Fast forward to noon. I called my mom back and she agreed to leave work early and pick me up from the garage and either drive me to get a rental car or drive me back to my apartment. She came by at 12:45.

While I was waiting I called my insurance company and found out that I do have rental car coverage for 30 days - but only can be used if I were in an accident and not because of a breakdown on the highway.

We went to Enterprise rent-a-car anyway, where I learned that I don't have enough leeway on my intentionally small limit credit card to afford a rental car and that in order to use my Visa debit card, they'd need to take the money out of my account right away.

I told the guy that would not work as I have barely enough to cover my expenses as it was and that if any more money was used I'd end op bouncing several checks and being charged $28 in fees for every one of them.

The garage that works on my car is routinely full and has no scheduled service openings until Monday of next week. But becasue my car is already there, there is a chance they could look at it before the weekend, as they have been able to do before, with other vehicles of mine. No guarantees, though.

Fortunately my brother has agreed to let me borrow his car for the next few days, as he has two company pickup trucks that he can use instead. So I'm going back down to my parent's house tonight to pick up his car. Thanks, A.

This is why I need a new vehicle. I hate breaking down on the highway. And it has happened to me way too frequently in these last few weeks. Some people can go years without breaking down on the highway.

No sir, not me.

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In case you missed it - the unavoidable lie is making an excuse to your present employer why you need time off on such short notice. Think about it - you can't tell your present company that you need time off from work to go to another job interview.

Well you could tell them, I suppose, if you weren't keen on keeping your present job until the opportune moment - until you had another job all safe and securely lined up.