I just got home.   About 1:40 PM.   Let me start this with saying the misadventure of my new eyeglasses is still continuing.  The abridged version is that after 6 weeks when they went to adjust the new lenses in the new frames the frames broke.   So two new frames and new lenses are ordered, and the second pair will be a midrange blue tinted just for my time at the computer.  They asked if I wanted a pair for that when I first ordered my new glasses and I declined as I have so many old frames taking up space around the house.  But Randy talked to me and explained how important the blue tint is for people who spend long hours on a computer like I do.   So this time I agreed.    I only had to pay for the blue tint in the second pair otherwise the doctor’s office is picking up the extra costs for the new frames and lenses other than what I paid for the first pair that went wrong.  

But that is not the misadventure I am talking about.   First I am just starting to feel well again after over a week of allergy attacks / and or a cold that had my face a swollen red hived cracked skin mess with swollen sinuses and watering eyes.    Needless to say I really did not feel well.   But I felt pretty good yesterday and today.    The universe seems to really wanted to make sure I was up for what was going to happen.  

Ron must go to Greensboro, North Carolina again.   His brother is in a nursing home up there and has dementia.   Ron has taken a trip up there every year, one year twice in that year, to first get his brother into and settled in the nursing home and to do all the legal / medical stuff involved.  Plus to see his brother.   One of Ron’s sisters has also been very involved.   She lives in both Texas and New Hampshire.    Normally she either flies into our area and stays with us then drives up to Greensboro with Ron or she flies in to the Charlotte airport.    In that case Ron drives up to Charlotte NC and gets a hotel room, next day picks up his sister and they go to Greensboro.   Then they come back to Charlotte and stay the night, sister flies out and Ron drives home.    

That is the plan this time.   Ron is leaving here on the morning of Monday Apr 11th.    Not that it matters but I have shots that morning.   So Ron called the Ford dealership to get our Ford Escape titanium that has a little over 40,000 on it serviced and the auto Butler detailing and paint coat service we bought extra with the car done.   They said bring it in this morning.  So we dropped it off around 9 AM and returned home.   At 11 AM I got a call on my phone, and when I answered it a very excited woman said “Mr. Miller, Mr. Miller, Where are you?”  I laughed and said “North Fort Myers and where are you?”   The woman replied “I am at the dealership and you need to be here right way.   You need to come back right now.” She was so hyper I got worried.    I asked what was going on and she told me I did not want to know.   Wrong answer I told her, she called me and now I want to know what Is going on.   

On the phone she wouldn’t tell me what happened except that they had damaged our car.  Bad enough that it would need to go to the body shop via a flatbed and they had no idea when it would be fixed.  She kept saying she did not know when I asked questions.   But no worries she said they had a loaner ready for us but needed me ( turns out she thought she was talking to Ron as he checked the car in and did not realize we were a same sex male couple.) to come in right away and sign some papers and take the loaner.   I informed her that my spouse was leaving for NC on Monday and if their loaners were not able to do that, we had a serious issue.   She got all flustered and said she would talk to her manager who would deal with it for us when we got there.   

When we arrived Ron said he wanted me to go in with him.  I normally handle these the car things other than dropping the car off as I let him drive the better car to the dealership and I follow him there and I take him back in the van.   The van doesn’t have all the nice electronic gadgets and gismos as the car does, which doesn’t bother me.  When we found the woman service person Ron had dropped the car off with, she basically tried to ignore me.   She told me to wait in the lobby and she would take Ron to see the car.   When I informed her it was my car also she seemed confused.   But I got a cart with only two seats she said.   Ron did not want a scene so I said fine, go take pictures and get all the information and I will wait in the lobby.   When Ron came back he was upset.   I knew it couldn’t be good.   She came back she still seemed to only want to talk with Ron.    I informed her that we jointly owned the car and if she checked the paperwork she would see we were a couple and in fact the phone she had called was mine and most likely I would be the one she and the dealership would be dealing with on the matter.    That gave her pause.    Then she said that their loaners couldn’t go out of state, I said that was her problem and not mine, but they needed to fix the situation.   She still kept saying she did not know what happened and wouldn’t tell us what all the damage was other than to say that it was totally covered by them and it needed to go to the body shop via flatbed truck.  She kept repeating it happened on the lot and not off the lot which was important because the services the car was there for were on the lot available.    There would have been no reason for anyone to take the car off the company grounds.    She went to again talk to the manager and when she returned, they had approved of us getting a rental car from a nearby Enterprise rental agency and the dealership was paying for it.   When I told her I really wanted to know what happened she said well she thought she heard something about a car carrier flatbed or other large truck but she really couldn’t tell me anything.  Remember she had been to talk to the manager several times and over an hour and half had passed between her call to me and now.    She knew what happened and the dealership did not want us to know.    Below are the three pictures Ron took.   I wished he had opened the hood and got pictures from the front but he did not think of it.   Before we left the woman asked if we had thought about buying a new vehicle or trading the escort.    The story continues after the pictures.

So we left the dealership and went down the street to the car rental place.   It is a very busy 6 lane road with 2 or more turning lanes.   We seen some signs saying entrance and so I went there, parked, and we went inside.   Turned out we were at their car sales department and after hearing why we were they tried to sell us a car.   I guess in these times I can forgive them, but they did not know my Ron and he was getting more and more upset and I needed to get this wrapped up and everything back to normal.   We got to the right building and told the nice young guy behind the desk the story and that we understood the dealership was paying for the car rental.    He agreed they were and started to set things up.   He asked Ron if he wanted me to be able to drive the car and it would be $25 dollars more a day.  Plus did he want their insurance for another $25 dollars a day.  As he talked and addressed Ron, I realized we had the same situation happening.   I told the guy we were a married couple and our insurance was joint and we preferred it.  I have to say I love how he readjusted.   It was no big deal but he got to cut out half of the spiel he had to say knowing it now applied to both of us.  I understood his position, he had assumed we were just friends and it was part of what he had to go over to gain as much profit for the company and cover them in case of issues.   Once he understood we were a married couple things went so much smoother.  This is the part of same sex marriage a lot of people cannot understand.   Marriage is about a lot of legal rights that are just assumed for male / female couples but must be insisted on and pushed for with same sex couples.

So long story shorter than it was for us.   We got home, Ron has to learn about the rental car and its features.  He has to get ready for his trip.  We had to return to the dealership to get his large maps and papers with notes from his prior trips there even though I offered to print him new ones, he wanted the ones he had his notes on.   I did not argue.  It has been 32 years of changes and adventures and understanding how we both have developed and aged is part of why we are a happy couple.   He is frustrated and upset so I asked him to just sit and chill while watching TV.  Everything can be handled in the next few days.   James has time off this weekend to teach Ron how to use the map system in the car.  It is going to be OK.  If car prices and the current issue with hyper inflated costs were not an issue I would simply trade the car.   We had planned to do so two years ago. The little car gets crap fuel milage.  That is why we bought it and it never got what we thought it would.  It is smaller than we really wanted because we thought it would be better on fuel and still have a very strong turbo driven acceleration.    I only bought the car because Ron was going on a trip to New Hampshire and he loved the car when we test drove it.  

So that is the daily misadventure that continues for us.  I thought you would want to know.   Now I have to deal with some left over laundry and house chores.    Best wishes.