March 31 – “Inspection”

I finally took our truck in for its yearly inspection the other day.  I figured I was cutting it pretty close since it was due, well, by today.  I took it to the one place on the island that everyone in the fire department recommends.  It’s been around for a long time.  It’s also one of the few places that can do inspections on trucks as old as mine.  1992 GMC.  By my count that makes it 24 years old.  One year shy of being considered a classic.  I understand at 25 just about anybody can do the inspections.  Guess they don’t do all the new emissions stuff anymore on the oldies.

The fellow who did the inspection was a funny old guy.  Proud to be a VietNam vet.  Did some name-dropping of fire fighters he knew.  And he had am extremely foul mouth.  That is until he asked me what I did for a living.  I had my Fire Department uniform on, so I told him I was the chaplain.  Instant change.  Not a single cuss word from that point on.  He even told me he went to midnight mass at Easter even though he isn’t a Catholic (OK, as far as I know they don’t have midnight mass at Easter.  Maybe he meant Christmas Eve).  Then he said he was good friends with Father Frank so he went to mass to hear what he had to say (Father Frank used to be the priest, but he has been gone for a long time now.  So I’m not sure what year he was talking about, either).  He was very proud of himself, though.  Said he tells everybody about that little excursion.  Well, good for him.  Doesn’t do him much good eternally, though. 

Oh, the truck passed with flying colors.  Apparently the numbers were well beyond what they needed to be.  Enough for the old guy to be impressed, anyway.  He warned me that I might get rejected by the state if I tried to do it online since it was the last week of the month.  I paid him and thanked him and headed back home.  After a quick lunch I picked up the “official” paperwork and went to get the sticker in person.  No issues at all there other than the wait in line.  The state computer had the test information already, so it was just a matter of paying the fee and sticking it on the windshield.  Done for another year.

Revelation 21:6 says, “He said to me: ‘It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life’”

Father, thank you for the vehicles you have provided us with.  Help us find ways use them for you.  And help that old fellow find you somewhere other than the one mass he went to.  Amen.