In the waiting room with Alice

It was foggy. Again. For the third consecutive day. And freezing cold. I wished it would start raining, and get rid of the damn fog.

Fog or rain or sun, a man has got to do what a man has got to do.

The man had to get the oil changed in the car.

I drove to the dealership, handed them the keys, and sat down in the waiting room with the New Yorker in hand.

To go with the foggy day, even the New Yorker's pieces were blah.

An elderly couple walked in one door as the supervisor came in from the shop.

"Are you Alice?

"Yes, I am."

"Is our key ready?"

"Lemme check."

"Can you also help me with the settings for the phone's black tooth in the car?"

"For a black tooth, you have to get to a dentist. I can help with the bluetooth" she replied with a smile.

The couple laughed, and so did I.

The woman continued to explain the problem. "Now when I say "call Bob" it doesn't work."

"No wonder my phone rings all the time" I said.  I mean, come on, how long can a man sit there without being funny when he is being presented with punchline after punchline!

We all laughed.

The supervisor went to check on the vehicle, while the couple and I chatted. "It is difficult to keep up with the technology and the problems" she said. I agreed.

"The other day, I called up the cable company to complain that my email isn't working. The computer was saying something about Java script and cookies."

No, I didn't wisecrack about her baking cookies. That would be a bad joke on the person. Decency requires that the jokes be about myself or about stuff in general.

"She then says that it is all fixed and that I will get an email from her. But, I had called to tell her that I can't access my email!"  We chuckled at the irony.

"Who knows if even that person was for real" chimed in the elderly man, who was rolling a toothprick between his teeth.

The supervisor returned and updated about their status. "Did you know you have a recall notice on your vehicle?  Only a software update?"

Now, was another chance for me. "They probably sent you an email" I told them.

The couple laughed. "Why let a funny line die, right?" the man said.

He paused for a while. And then said, "this is a comedy show right here. We should call it 'In the Waiting Room with Alice'"

Thanks for watching the first episode! ;)