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Dylan’s car was 20 years old, but the faded paint made it look even older.
His friend Joe told him no girl would ever go out in a car that looked like
that. So Dylan took the car to a paint shop and got it painted dark blue for
only $200. He was very pleased with the new look. The car stereo did not work.
Joe told him that no girl wanted to be in a car without a good sound system. So
Dylan bought a nice stereo and installed it himself.
Months went by. One day, Dylan told Joe that no girl had ridden in his
“new” car yet. “That’s because there are other problems,” Joe told him. “Like
what?” “Well, you don’t exactly have the world’s best personality,” Joe said.
“That’s a little more important than a paint job.” So Dylan told Joe he would
ask a psychologist to give him a new personality.
Recently, Dylan had a new problem—gasoline. He smelled gas after he started
his car; he smelled it while driving the car. Was he driving a bomb? What if
someone tossed out a cigarette near his car? Would it explode into a thousand
pieces—pieces that included Dylan?
That night, he opened his car manual. It was a well-thumbed book. He had a
car problem at least once a month, and he was always looking up ways to fix the
problems. He thought this might be a carburetor problem.
The next day, he took his toolbox out to his car. He opened the hood. He
started up the car and looked all around the carburetor for a gas leak. He could
smell the gas, but he couldn’t find a liquid trail. After a few minutes,
however, he found the source of the problem. It was the fuel line.
“All right!” he thought. “All I have to do is buy a new line and install
it.” But it wasn’t long before he realized that this was a job for a mechanic.
So he got into his car, opened all the windows, and drove to the closest
mechanic. The mechanic quoted Dylan a price of only $50. He told Dylan to come
back in an hour.
Dylan walked down the street to the coffee shop and bought himself a cup of
coffee. He read the paper, drank the coffee, and then walked back to the
shop.
“We couldn’t fix it,” said the mechanic. “The fuel line wasn’t the problem;
you need a new fuel pump.”
“A new fuel pump? How much is that?” Dylan asked.
“Parts and labor? I think it’ll be about $200. We’ll have to special-order
the pump. This car is so old that they might not even make pumps for it any
more. Do you want me to try to order it for you? You’ll have to put the money up
first, of course.”
“Let me think about it. Here’s the $50 I owe you. I’ll give you a call when
I decide what to do.”
But Dylan had already decided what to do. He had bought his car for only
$1,100, but had put over $3,000 into it since then. When he got home, he called
the Car Donation Corporation. They would take the car off his hands for free.
Enough was enough. It was time to let go. |
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发表于 2016-7-10 09:21:18