LILLY LODGE Blog

Last week I had the opportunity to be part of a new service my favorite ( and, ONLY) automobile repair shop has started: a Ladies’ Car Care Clinic.  If you live almost anywhere within 50 miles of Easton, Maryland, you really should check out Harrison’s Tranmissions.  They began just servicing both off-road (read “racing”) and on-road transmissions thirteen (13) years ago, but now, because of people like me, they have gradually become a complete car care service garage.  Believe me, these guys really know their stuff and are really tenacious when you present them with a “mystery” problem.  Believe me, I know!!  So did a number of the other women in the workshop.  You see, these guys are not only really skilled craftsman, but they are very honest and actually focused on customer service!  For example, they do not charge extra to do a diagnostic of your car’s computer the way many shops do.  They even have WiFi available so that, if you bring your laptop and your work with you if you want to wait, you can actually work so it is not a lost part of a day.  But I digress.

The car care clinic was run by Dino Regino- the owner, EJ- service manager, and the guys who actually work on your car. Now I have actually been to another car care clinic a few years ago, but these guys were more thorough.  Among other things, they explained about the various car fluids; how and why they are all color coded; what they do; where and how to check the levels; what they look like clean and dirty, and much more.  And yes, we each had our own pair of protective gloves and our own oil rag and got to check fluids under the watchful eye of the experts.   We saw the machine that extracts and replaces the car’s coolant in action; saw a transmission in pieces to help us understand how the mechanics work; received a tour of the underside of a car; checked tire pressure and changed a tire (if we hadn’t had the pleasure before); and learned what to look for when we buy new tires (no, Harrison’s doesn’t sell tires). 

There were lots of questions, but the bottom line is: Car knowledge is consumer power.  We all now have a good idea of what questions to ask and what to look for  in checking things ourselves and, more importantly, how to ask the right questions when we take our car to  a shop for diagnostics or repair.

So, if you are a woman who is not totally conversant in “car care” and you live within 50 miles or so of Easton, Marland, call my buddies at Harrison’s Transmissions (8977 Mistletoe Drive, Easton, MD 21601) and ask about their next scheduled free ladies car care clinic.  This is great for High School girls, college girls, Moms, Grandmoms, and women of all ages.  Get some friends together and have an automobile party there.  I knew something about car basics before I went, but I learned so much more.  If you are part of a club, group, or school, consider this as a really valuable activity for your group, as well.  You can contact Dino and EJ at 410-822-3899.

We left also after a light supper, and a bag of goodies that included our own tire pressure gage and free oil change.  No more car shop rip-offs for me!

Until next time, keep smiling….it makes people wonder what you’ve been up to!

Love,

Lilly

I am working on a book for my daughter who is expecting her first child in mid-February.  THe working title is, “Things the psycologist experts won’t tell you about raising a happy, well adjusted child.”  There are a lot of things that worked really well when my husband and I were raising her and her two older brothers.  I do share things with the “boys” from time to time, but I think, in a two parent family, the mother (unless it’s a stay-at-home-Dad) really plays a bigger in how the children are handled, nurtured and ultimately raised.

Anyway, I am sure I might forget to address a lot of situations she and her husband might eperience with their children, so I’d like to ask for your help.  What are areas you’d addressed with raising your kids.  Or, what are some cool or novell things you you have done to that hae worked out well.  For example, one of the things I learned along the way involved the need for kids to pick up toys at the end of the day.  One problem we ran into with the “toy pick-up game” was that when toys went into the toy box, everything was all mixed up and the next day there was diffuculty (real or perceived) that pieces of things were missing.  That led to shelves for putting toys away.  And these were just inexpensive metal storage shelves that would stand up to kids.  The kids helped figure out what should go where, given that the shelves were of different distances apart and the more played-with items needed to be down low enough for them to safely reach.  Once there was consensus, I label the shelf beneath each toy with its name so it could be returned to the same place each time.  For play “sets” with many parts, we set up shelves with canvas “boxes” or wire baskets so all the items that went together could “live” together.

However, I also remembered from my childhood that it is good to sometimes have a play place where you can close the door or leave the room undisturbed until the next day.  My younger son called this the to-be-continued play.  We who have reat imaginations tend to build things as children and essentially pretend what an adult can understand as an entire movie scenario in our heads with our toys.  Yiou have to build the stage, the houses, the mountains or cities - usually with blocks or lego or toys like that - then you have your play figures to add in to act out - or “live” - the adventure.   So, sometimes, as long as he was set up in a corner or, later, in his room or a room not used much during family time, we would leave the adventure are intact for and extra day or two.  If your child wants to do something like this, ask at the end of the first day or the next morning what the adventure is about that is being continued, and you will probably be amazed at the excitement and level of detail they will explain to you.  When our younger was in the midst of one of these adventures, you would see him building things, moving his people and small vehicles around, making gestures and sounds.  My husband said it was like watching a computer disc drive light;  you could see it binking and doing things, but exactly what was a mystery.  Such is the wonderful place called Imagination.

Anyway, that will be one of my inclusions for her - and you. So what else would YOU like to have addressed? What would you like more information about handling so that you can keep your sanity while raising happy, caring and responsible adults?  Just post you comments or go to website and e-mail me directly from the website: http://www.liveintheseason.com/contact2.html.

Until next time, keep smiling…it will make people wonder what you’ve been up to.  And a lot of people could use a smile and a hug these days.