The Truck!

So another Marine who is also a member of the big truck club and runs with the diesels, hooked me up! He drained the fuel filter on the bottom underneath the driver's seat and the message disappeared.

Now I had to buy new filters. The Marine wanted me to pick them up. ug. Not my thing, ya know. Auto parts stores.

So to counter the years of torture of being sent into these kinds of stores completely clueless, I walked in like I owned the place, and said with an authoritative voice, "I need the fuel filters for an o7 F250 Diesel."

The I stared him in the eyes.

I detest going into auto parts stores. Almost as much as hardware stores. It brings back memories of my dad sending me to McCoys and a sample of a part. Usually a tiny screw, pvc piece or some bizarre nut or bolt. "Go get me EXACTLY this, and I want 57 of them."

I would go and walk into the nut aisle. I would stand, mouth ajar, perhaps scratching my head, and stare at the THOUSANDS of nuts. or tiny screws. or some weird shaped elbow pvc connecting thingy. Seriously? How many nuts could there possibly be? Apparently a lot. And dutifully held my tiny sample up against each one.

So back to the filters. They looked something up, went in the back and brought out a box. I asked if they were the ones with micro fibers. Then it happened.

Carquest man stops working, as do the other five Carquest guys all standing around at computers looking important, and just stare. I got "the look".

If you're a woman, you know what I'm talking about. I intensely dislike "the look".

The look that says "huh?".

So I said, "never mind. I am just making sure this one goes underneath in the horizontal fuel module as well as the other one that goes on top?" HA! BITE ME CARQUEST GUY! TAKE THAT. (of course that last part in capital letters was all said in my head.)

In reality I just stood there, staring back, willing myself not to blink.

All the Carquest dudes simultaneously go back to looking important standing behind their computers and quoting part numbers.

*Side thought: Don't they get tired? Does Carquest not provide stools?

It's confirmed, he pulls out the filters for my inspection. I pick them up, handle them what I assume is appropriately, and shove them back in the box.

"Very good, thank you."

So I leave Carquest and book it over to Food Lion. The Marine calls me. I tell him I've procured his filters.

He asks if I have them with me.

um no. I'm in Food Lion.

When I get back to the truck, I call him back.

"Okay, I'm in the truck with the filters. What did you want to know?"

The Marine asked me something that I can't remember now, but I used my carquest voice and state quite knowledgeably that no, these filters did not have the something I can't remember now that he asked if they had.

He said "oh, okay, that's fine."

And that was it. I did it! I didn't get "the look" (you can even feel it over the phone, or a two way radio) you always get after you've tried to explain to an auto parts guy or a home building store guy what your father/husband cruelly made you go pick up and then go home just to get "the other look" from your husband or father when you brought home a screw or a nut or a filter that was a teenie weenie bit different than what they had requested! And here you had just spent two hours holding them all up and squinting. AND they are peeved you've been gone two hours.

It is a great day for women like me everywhere!

I am going to sit here now and enjoy the glow of the moment. Because tomorrow.... tomorrow he will try to put the filters in the truck. I'm leaving before he gets up to do that. I don't want to be around in the event I get "the look".