Diogenes was a Greek philosopher who belonged to a school known as the Cynics. Throughout his life, it was said that he searched “with a lantern in the daylight for an honest man.” He never found a righteous dude, but instead exposed the vanity and selfishness of mankind, lived a life of severe austerity (with the exception of living out the rest of his nineteen years in a hot tub) and, according to some accounts, developed a disposition to disbelieve in the sincerity or goodness of human motives and actions, and expressed it by sneers and sarcasms. Sound like anyone you know?
    I’ve had a similar experience trying to find one honest auto mechanic in my lifetime. Living on a writer’s wages can indeed force one into a life of severe austerity (in my case, sans the hot tub), which in and of itself brings on a *real need* for someone who will fix my wheels without ripping me off. It’s been a long and difficult journey, and I just figured I was born under a bad car-star and that stumbling onto someone like that was a pipe dream, probably of the exhaust variety.
    Instead of finding one right away, through the years I’ve experienced a phenomenon where I become aggressive right from the get-go with new mechanics. This is in order to convince them that even if I don’t know squat about auto repairs, I have a very astute working knowledge of how to complain to the Bureau of Automotive Repairs if they rip me off.
    Here’s how it usually works: I go into a repair shop, and explain my vehicle’s symptoms. Then, I go on to tell the service manager that *I just know* they’ll do the right thing by me, in order not to develop any bad karma for themselves. I’m thinking that they must know that ignoring the basics of good business ethics could result in heavy fines or at the very least, a bad reputation.
    I have to report, this method hasn’t worked worth a tinker’s damn. I know I’m at a disadvantage, knowing next to nothing about car parts and what they’re supposed to do. (What’s more, I confess to you here and now that I don’t particularly *want* to know the ins and outs of auto repair.) They, however, do know, and enough so that they know I don’t know. Instead, I’ve paid for countless electrical repairs which equated to replacing the vehicle part-by-part (apparently utilizing the process of elimination), an engine or two and who knows what else? At one place, their solution was to replace my warrantied distributor 13 times (each time, leaving me without wheels) until I just sold the car to fix the problem. I found myself entering their shops in a bent-over position for convenience’s sake. Then, I applied to the School of Cynics, but couldn’t afford the tuition after paying my repair bills. Between my love life, a certain book publisher and my automobiles, I was pretty sure there wasn’t one honest man left in my world.
    Then, I started doing business in Lemon Grove. I’ve had excellent results at Aamco (where they easily could have told me I needed an entire transmission, but instead charged me for a 39-cent bushing and labor to replace it), Discount Tire, Lemon Grove Radiator, and especially J. Jones Automotive,where Jerry and his wife Cheryl call
their enterprise a “Personalized Community Garage.” Now, there’s a place where you can witness some karma-conscious people at work. Jerry, like these other local business people, knows that what goes around, comes around.
    If this continues, it’ll probably ruin the premise of a perfectly good book idea and does nothing for my love life, but will no doubt be gratifying in other ways.
    Find your own gratification by sending your local news directly to me at 619-264-3153 (msg.), 264-4180 (fax), or e-mail me at cirious@cts.com. I may not always express things the way you’d like, but I'm never short on gas.