I had a passenger side brake light go out, which I received a warning ticket from a police officer already. Went to Walmart Automotive for the brake light and an oil change. They were unable to replace the brake light for a variety of reasons. They were not able to pull the old bulb out, as the design of the vehicle prevented any easy access. And Walmart policy was not in compliance with removing any of the interior cargo area paneling. So, they suggested AutoZone, and I bought the exact bulb to take with me.
Upon entering a nice, tidy, clean store I was in line behind a Hispanic gentleman and the clerk was speaking perfect Spanish with him. Alan C. was the Parts Sales Manager and the Spanish speaker. When it was my turn in line, I explained the situation to him and off we were to the parking lot, where I had intentionally parked in the shade. Alan C. brought his tool case and immediately got busy assessing the situation. He determined that another tool would be better and went back inside the store to retrieve. That tool was the answer to a very tight operating area.
We had delightful conversation about what Bachelor degrees we both had gotten. He told me he learned Spanish on his phone, I had 4 years of college Spanish and can't speak anywhere near that level. Very intelligent guy and interesting to talk to. We discovered that we both liked doing math problems in our heads, no calculators. I like doing percentage problems or metric conversions, he likes to square 3-digit numbers and the square root of 5-digit numbers. What? Way to many numbers for me. I said, like squaring 144? He said, that would be 20,736. Super smart with numbers AND tools AND fixing issues with cars. Renaissance Man. He helped me so much and I will not forget that or the fact that he was thoroughly delightful while doing so. read more
