No Poker Face

I have started playing the girl card.  It took a lot to get me to pull that one out, but now that I'm using it, I like it a lot.  It started when I had no car and the tow truck driver insisted on  taking me home.  He said he wouldn't do that for a guy, but there was no way he would let a woman walk home at night through a questionable neighborhood.  That was nice.

A couple days later (car still in shop), I walked to the grocery store to get a few things.  The grocery store is only about a mile away and it is a safe walk getting there....no big deal.  However, it was getting dark while I was walking there and there was a big crack in the pavement with raised edges right next to a very high curb.  I didn't see the crack and stumbled on it while I was stepping up onto the curb.  I stumbled on my right foot, but caught all my weight with my left and jammed that knee and turned my ankle.  Nothing serious, but definitely painful.  So the next day, I decided to rent a car.  It was windy and I didn't want to walk the two miles to the rental place but I had no other way of getting there.  I thought about the tow truck driver and called the rental place and asked the guy on the phone to come pick me up.  They normally don't have a shuttle service and he had to close the entire rental office down while he came to get me, but he did it and said he would happily take me home when my rental is done.  Very nice indeed.

There are other aspects of the girl card I like.  It is good to talk to girls about solving problems.  When I tell guys about my car problems, they ALL give me a lecture on the mechanics and requirements of an engine (except Tom, who taught me all of that stuff years ago).  I have told all of them that two mechanics haven't been able to figure it out, but they keep saying it shouldn't be that hard.  So I finally gave up on guys and told some gal pals that I needed advice from a girl (all the guys started to flee until I told them it was about car problems...then they all stayed).  Rather than trying to solve the problems with my car, they gave me advice about how to dispose of my current car most profitably and they told me they'd give me rides to wherever I buy my new car so I can pick it up.  All of the guys started chiming in that my car should be simple to fix and started giving me a lecture about how an engine works and I told them that was why I needed a girl to talk to.

The "girl card" is not the same as the "damsel in distress card".  I can still get stuff done.  The man repairing my -80 freezer has absolute confidence in my opinion.  He was ready to start buying parts for my freezer based on my assessment until I suggested that maybe he should come in and just make sure my assessment was right.  At the end he told me that I'd been absolutely right and he seemed a little proud of me.

Also, my friend Lynda brought her truck to my house and we loaded up all of my old furniture that I don't want anymore and took it to a women who left a violent relationship with one suitcase and then moved across the country.  It was heavy, but we did it.