I have been under a lot of pressure of late. I just resigned here and have a million things to do before I fly out on the 12th. Worse of all has been my car. It was in the shop for five weeks for transmission repairs. Eight thousand rials. Plus I cannot leave on an exit-only visa while I own a car, so I have to sell the fool thing.
I even had to have the car detailed to get rid of the mechanic grease left by the repair shop.
The plan was to sell it to a buddy for the cost of repairs, then have him resell it to me if and when I return.
Pressure. I finished breakfast at Fuddrucker’s this morning and headed to the barber shop. The transmission was acting up again! I would have to return it to the darn shop! How could I get out in to weeks?
I got a haircut and fumed. One damn thing after another.
I was driving out of the parking lot and came to a stop behind a red H-2 Hummer. The little shit put it in reverse and hit me. He damaged the hood and front right quarter-panel. (Did I mention how clean it was? Looking nice.)
We did the police reports and then headed to the police station, where my lawyer met me. Pressure. Thank God, the other driver was 100% at fault. He would get points on his record.
Unless I forgave him. You got to love Islamic law.
So I sold him the car for ten thousand rivals. I just got back from the Department of Transferring Titles. About now he is finding out about the transmission.
Sometimes you get a lucky break and the tension melts away.
I’m guessing that’s pretty much what happened. My theory is that Paul in Saudi gave the gentleman in the Hummer a package deal: forgiveness and title to the car for 10,000 rials. Maybe they didn’t even need to get the insurance companies involved. If that’s what happened, sweeeeet. I agree that a legal system that provides an incentive for the evildoer to make nice to his victim by giving the victim some say in the punishment has a few bright spots.
I’m glad everything turned out OK. Otherwise I’d never be able to say the thread title led me to believe you had gas and just needed to let out a good fart.*
*There’s an ad running here in the States for Gas-X where a man is being interviewed for a job. The interviewer is reading from the man’s resume and says, “I see you’re flatulent in three languages.” That sounds like an enviable job skill to have.
What they never say is that one of those languages is Terseron (sp?) (and a virtual nickel to the first person who gets that reference)
Paul In Saudi - nice that the one stressor (out of many, I know) got resolved so tidily for you!
I’ve lost track of where you’re heading next - back to the States? some other job outside Saudi Arabia? elsewhere?
Sure. We no longer have Wendy’s however. Some sort of problem with franchise agreement I guess. Our main Fudds is in the same building as our main Harley dealership. I bet the same company has both distributorships.
