The battle was fought and Liberty came out dancing; the Escape gets serviced, but I don't get a Pepsi; A crime scene - scenes of Spring

While our new Escape was undergoing it's 5000 mile free service - basically, an oil change - I wandered on foot a short distance down the road to take a picture of this kid who was dancing on the side of the highway in the hope of luring customers into Liberty Tax Service before the impending deadline, just eight days hence.

He is CJ and he has been dancing out there for about five hours a day since January. He has danced when the temperature was far below zero and now he was dancing on the warmest day so far this spring - the high temperature was close to 45, although when I first set out this morning it was 26.

CJ was friendly and polite, and tried to answer my questions, but he was also dedicated to his job and was determined to not let a single vehicle pass by without dancing, waving and smiling at the occupants.

In return, many people honked and shouted back greetings. This would cause him to dance even harder and smile bigger.

"Anyone ever shout anything mean at you?" I asked.

"Yeah," he answered, "but it doesn't bother me."

I then walked back to Kendall Ford. The car was still being serviced, so I took a seat in the waiting room, where I could see through this big window into the shop. I know things are tough for the car companies, but, from this vantage point, it did not show.

There were some vending machines in the room, so I decided to get a Pepsi to make my stay a little more pleasant. They did not have Pepsi. They only had Coke.

I don't like Coke.

Some say there is no difference. But they are wrong. There is a huge difference.

I don't like Coke.

When the work was done, Brad Tidwell, Kendall Service Consultant, came in to go over the paperwork and show me all that was done. He also showed me a survey form that he said Ford will send to me.

The first question will ask how satisfied I was, starting with, "Completely Satisfied," "Very Satisfied" on down through a total of five steps to enraged dissatisfaction.

He wondered how satisfied I was. I was satisfied, I said. He said that Ford only gives him and the service staff two grades regarding that question, "A" & "F". Completely satisfied is an "A", "Very Satisfied" is an "F."

He hoped I was completely satisfied.

I didn't feel any dissatisfaction. 

I reckon I'll check "completely." I don't want the poor guy to get an "F."

I sure wish I could have got a Pepsi, though.

Brad, I'll give you a pass on that one this time, but that might be something to think about by the time I come in for my 10,000 mile service. To completely satisfy this customer, you must get Pepsi. I want a Pepsi!

Especially on a hot day like today - and it's only going to get hotter.

As I drove away in my newly serviced car, undamaged by the ash fall, CJ waved at me and smiled. I wonder if he knew it was me?

Liberty Tax used to be in another location, down the hill, near Wasilla Lake. Down there, the dancers used to not only dance beside the highway but wave signs, too. Then, one day, I came by and they were not dancing by the highway. They were standing in the parking lot, looking forlorn.

And there they stayed, for days, for weeks... in the parking lot.

I talked to the owner, Chris Cork, who graduated from Wasilla High with Caleb. He told me that a competitor who had no dancers himself and did not like the Liberty dancers had raised hell and had come up with some kind of Wasilla law from somewhere that prohibited a business in the city from putting dancers carrying signs at the side of the road.

That state of affairs persisted for a couple of years and then, all of sudden, at this new location, the dancers again began to perform at the side of the road.

But without signs.

Chris got some attorneys of his own and they raised their own hell. Turned out, if they were going to bar the Liberty dancers from the side of the road, they must also bar all the other people who dance and wave from the highway's edge - like those who jumped up and down for both Barack Obama and Sarah Palin last fall, those who shout out for Christ and the Little League and hockey players who seek to entice motorists with dirty cars to their fundraiser washes.

So the Liberty Tax dancers are back, but without signs.

Yet, the political boosters, Christians, Little Leaguers and others do carry signs.

A bit further down the road, I passed a crime scene.

I wonder what crime was committed? I have seen nothing on the news. I have looked at the Mat-Su section of the continually-updated, online edition of the Anchorage Daily News.

No information. Still, when an entire parking lot is cordoned off and two theodolites put into action, whatever it was, someone is taking it pretty seriously.

I could have called the police station, or stopped and asked to interview somebody. But I don't have time for that.

One block away from the crime scene, a girl rode a bike around a corner. Look how the snow has melted in downtown Wasilla.

Later, I ventured out again, to get coffee for Margie and me. School had just let out. Kids were walking away from Wasilla Middle School, just like my kids used to do.

You can see that the snow is melting more slowly in our neighborhood then in downtown Wasilla - if there is such a thing as downtown Wasilla. There is a street called Main Street, but the name is basically a fiction. I don't care who says otherwise. Yes, there is some wisdom on this street with the fictitious name, but there's a lot of foolishness, too.

Looks like we are going to need to do some spring cleaning. I'm a bit vexed with that water heater that we just replaced. I don't know how to get rid of it. 

We will find a way.

Comments

[LisaJ]

You probably saw in todays paper but the crime scene was a man firing a gun at a crowd of people there at Tailgaters.