I own a 2004 red Toyota Corolla. I love my car and even indulged myself in a vanity license plate for it. (ISTARI which means wizards in Elvish in the Tolkien trilogy.)
When Jay and I were researching cars, we both had a favorite in mind. His was a PT Cruiser (cute). Mine was a Volkswagen beetle (cuter).
I wanted a bug so bad. We test drove one and it handled like a dream. But we hesitated because cars are a big purchase and we wanted to get ti right.
Now my brother-in-law Terry is an ace mechanic. (That's Terry and I in a picture my sister took of us on South Cape Beach in early September.)
We often joke in this house that all Terry has to do is let his hands hover over a car's engine and it is healed. (I'm sure he wishes it was that easy.)
My sister Heidi runs the office of their business, Mr. T's Auto Repair, down on Cape Cod in Mashpee, Massachusetts. While Heidi doesn't do major repairs (she has been known to do oil changes), she's sure savvy about cars, what works, what doesn't, the price of parts, common problems, etc.
I respect both of their opinions in everything automotive enormously. When I asked what they recommended for cars, the first word out of their mouths was "Toyota." The second word was "Honda."
Why? Terry and Heidi have an up-close and personal view of how the cars and trucks we drive are engineered, how they are made, not just how they look which is, of course, what we all get sold.
I was still clinging to my VW dream when my sister told me how Terry has to drop the whole engine in a VW bug in order to change the headlight bulb on the driver's side. The whole engine. I'll let you imagine how expensive that can be.
Talk about dumb engineering.
I bring this up because yesterday, I had to bring my main Pfaff sewing machine to be repaired. I broke a needle off in its bobbin case and after one visit to a repair shop, it would sew but the stitching was totally off. My once favorite sewing partner had become a major hindrance.
Through the recommendation of a friend, I drove 75 miles round-trip to Newport, NH to seek out the skills of one Michael Jarvis. He is absolutely the kind of business person that we should all be.
He spent an hour of his time with me, walking me through my machine to show me how it should operate and what, probably, was wrong. In that hour, I learned more about my machine, about thread, and about needles than anyone else—including top-end books—has ever taught me.
It was so worth the drive. And believe me, if I ever decide I need another sewing machine, you know whose recommendation I will seek.
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