Big Brother

So two months ago my wife was down with a herniated disc. I’m swamped at work. I’m traveling. My boys have to be driven ten places every day. It’s one of the busiest times in my life and my wife’s car needs to be inspected. I don’t have time to do it. Finally, I have a few free minutes. I run to the place by Walmart so I can do the grocery shopping while I wait.

So I drop off the car, go do my shopping and then carry all the food down the street to the place. I load the groceries in the car and go to pay the bill. To my surprise, I failed the inspection. It wasn’t the emissions or brakes. It wasn’t a burned out bulb on a headlight. It wasn’t a cracked windshield. What was it? Scroll down to see.

Ya, that’s right. My windshield wiper is ripped about an inch. How they even noticed it is beyond me. I suppose I shouldn’t fault them for following the law….BUT I DO! Of course they will fix it for me for $17. That doesn’t give me new wipers. It gets me a new wiper. That’s right, 1 wiper for $17. My guess is that it’s a lousy one too.

It aggravates me that our nanny state feels that they need to reach down into the bowels of our lives and start meddling. I wish they would give some thought to how such policies complicate our lives.

BTW- I drove home steaming. Dropped off the groceries, booked it back to Walmart for new wipers. Installed them and got the taxes paid. The place never even came out to see if I fixed the wiper.