So many cars in so many places……
What a week! This was the week for quarterly zone
conferences, and with zone conferences also comes the time for car inspections.
On Tuesday we (Elder and Sister Sefcik, Sister Thorley, Elder Peppinger, and I)
inspected 28 cars, then 22 on Wednesday, 16 on Thursday, and 14 on Friday. The
first two were done in the Calgary area and the last two in the southern part
of the mission which required a trip to Lethbridge, and then on to Tabor east
of Lethbridge. The visit to Tabor was our first and it proved to be a bigger
community than we had expected. Tabor is famous for its wonderful sweet corn in
the summer. We had it several times in late summer and into the fall and can
authoritatively say, “It is great!”
Rather than have the missionaries travel in marginal weather
from British Columbia, President and Sister Miles and Elder and Sister Sefcik
will make the trip there on Tuesday for the zone conference. Elder Sefcik is
the mission housing coordinator and has to go to Cranbrook anyway to close out
one of the apartments so, lucky them, they will finish the car inspections
while there. Fortunately, the weather this past week was much improved from the
bitter cold we had been experiencing. We were praying for more temperate
weather and our prayers were answered!
Car inspections are not very fun, especially in cold weather
(or hot) but are necessary to identify what needs to be done for the upkeep of
the mission cars. The inspections also hold the missionaries responsible for
the upkeep and care expected of them as car stewards. Like the apartments, the
care sometimes gets too casual and so both cars and apartments get inspected on
a regular basis. I am typically one of the presenters at each zone conference
as one of my duties is to touch on some aspect of safety and the appropriate
upkeep of the cars. After my presentation, Kathy awards Subway gift cards to
the winners of the cleanest car contest.
The actual inspections are just the start of the process for
me. After returning to the office, I have to enter the inspection findings in
to the data base for each car in the fleet. I also telephone each pair of
missionaries having a car with a problem and discuss with them where to take
the car and what needs to be done, then arranging for this at the service
facility. This includes oil changes not caught in the regular scheduling
process, new tires, body and fender repairs, etc. We take to the inspection
sites an air compressor, wiper blades, light bulbs, common small repair parts,
extra oil, windshield washer solution, antifreeze, brake fluid, and a battery
or two to make whatever repairs we can on the spot and to top off fluids.
Continued monitoring of the condition of our cars and
arranging for (or providing) timely upkeep for the mission cars is not a
mystery, particularly in Church circles. As a consequence, we have a fairly
long list of potential buyers. When cars don’t move fairly quickly, they go to
the auction where they also do quite well. I have mentioned in past blogs what
is involved with car sales and this keeps me quite busy; however, during car
inspection time I have to curtail car sales as I simply can’t be here to
facilitate the sale and there is more than once person can accomplish.
The older cars are brought to Calgary to be prepped and sold
when they get around 80,000 km (about 50,000 miles). Selling and replacing the
cars is an ongoing process and a big part of my job. We now have several
additional cars on order to replace some of the older cars and they will begin
arriving in about six weeks at which time the process of replacing cars, moving
cars around, prepping them, and putting them up for sale begins all over again.
So, that has been our week. I am so grateful for Kathy and
the others in the office for helping with the car inspections. We work in
teams; they do the inspections while I go from car to car checking all the
fluids and topping them off as needed plus the minor repairs and part
replacements. Needless to say, we are not in our suits and office attire when
we are out doing inspections. Some time ago Kathy and I bought a shopping cart
to help with transporting groceries from our car up to our 12th
floor apartment. This cart also gets used at inspection time to transport the
jugs of oil, antifreeze, and other fluids from car to car. The cart has proved
to be a great investment.
We have one more quarterly car inspection and then it will
be time to return home (late May).
Have a great week, and may your car problems be few!
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