25 March 2009
 
A-1 Towing

(A-1 Towing- “Your Choice in Arlington for efficient vehicle removal!”)
 
It is one minute past the deadline for the residents of Big Pink to move their damned cars, or have them moved by force by the skilled professionals of A-1 Towing. This is day two of the Main Event, the resurfacing by the Hermanos paving concerns of all the black-top in the vast parking area of the park-like campus.
 
The intricate ballet of the milling down requires a barren lot, and with a third of it “under construction” on the three days of scheduled replacement, you can well imagine that there is pandemonium in the parking lot.
 
I drove up in the Bluesmobile in the brilliant afternoon to find the entrances coned-off; full two thirds of the spaces, working clockwise from the initial carving, was either being prepped for milling or still cooling from the application.
 
I have to tell you, it is pretty darned good-looking, and the Hermanos brothers have done a fine job with the gigantic tyrannosaurus milling machine, and the little Bobcat scrapers, and the dozens of impassive-faced workmen from Central America with their shovels.
 
In only one more day this project will be done, the new concrete curbs will gleam white against the fresh black pavement, and all the hundreds of cars will have been moved from their traditional parking places to accommodate progress.
 
Even the ones whose owners did not get the word about the construction.
 
Naturally, we have all sorts of people in Big Pink. We have young executives who travel a lot, and old people who have forgotten where their cars might be. We have newly arrived people to whom English is a second language on a good day, and so that is where A-1 Towing comes in, with their fast and efficient vehicle removal service.
 
The work must get done in the speediest manner. It is not fair for the few to inconvenience the many. Notice has been posted for days, and fair warning given that the Towman Doth Cometh, starting at 0700 on the days indicated.
 
Most people got the word, and the Bluesmobile is parked happily in the lot of the Assembly of God across the street with the carnival equipment. Some did not, and their vehicles will sleep with those in the impound lot down on Ball Street, near the airport.
 
I shudder when I think of the way I used to travel; gone for weeks at a time. I could have been coming back from Beijing or Seoul to find that I was liable for the Towing/Administration Fee of $90, plus a daily charge for storage of $45 per day, which is about the same as valet parking at the airport. Which it is, in a way.
 
You can imagine how surprised you would be if you were off closing down an airbase in Kyrgyzstan or something and returned to find your car among the missing, and a thousand dollar tab with the guy smoking the cigar at A-1.
 
Anyhow, I got the queasy feeling that I was one of the people who did not get the word when I watched the President’s press conference last night.
 
The Visiting Dog was perched on my lap, a zesty cocktail on the end-table next to me, and a Lucky Strike smoldering in the ash tray. I was mesmerized, along with a lot of other people who have their cars parked in the lot he is trying to re-pave. He was talking past the journalists in the audience, right to us in television land.
 
I was impressed. This was not the humorous President who appeared on the Leno Show, joking. This was not the inspirational speaker from the later parts of the campaign, or the soaring orator of the election.
 
This was professor Obama, answering questions from the dolts who have parked in the faculty lot and not bothered to read the signs, clearly posted. He seemed a little unhappy with us as he reminded us, point by point, of the key points in the lectures he has been giving over the last few months.
 
Many of his answers started with the words: “As I told you before….” I scrambled to find my lecture notes and identify the points I have been hi-lighting along the way to get ready for the mid-terms.
 
 “We’re beginning to see signs of progress.” The markets did jump a bit the other day, though they slid again. I checked it off.
 
 “We have renewed confidence that a better day will come.” Yep. Got that one. I am sometimes filled with a giddy sense that Happy Days are Here Again, almost.
 
The President said that compromise on a middle-class tax cut and cap-and-trade on carbon emissions could be negotiable, since some people are starting to panic at the numbers in the budget. But compromise is only for the short term. I made a note in the margins to check back on that.
 
The President was cool as he re-stated the obvious. His four top priorities remain, unaltered: health care, energy, education and serious efforts to reduce the budget deficit. Check, check, check, check.
 
The thing I don’t get is that the budget- and hence the economy- is the last one on the list. I had listened in disbelief this week when some of the nattering classes claimed that what is in the proposed budget will amass more debt than the 43 previous presidents combined.
 
That is on top of what Mr. Bush bequeathed Mr. Obama, which is an annual deficit of $1.3 trillion dollars. Somebody has to pay for this, and I thought that maybe I should have paid more attention to the definitions. I don’t think I missed a notice someplace, but the President was nothing if not fair about giving warning: the rich- whoever they are- are going to pay.
 
I have a feeling that the definition of whose those bastards are may be a little more inclusive than we thought previously, but I resolved to check my notes before the final exam, when we are committed to doing everything at once and have to make some hard choices about what we stop doing.
 
I would hate to get downstairs and see all that wonderful new smooth asphalt, ready to roar off to work, and discover that the Bluesmobile had been towed.

Copyright 2009 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com