For the last couple of years if it rained, the wind blew, the sun shined or the moon was circling the earth, my internet connection (DSL & VoIP) would go down. Sometimes my little outages would last just a couple of minutes and some days I would be without access to part of my world: the internet and the telephone. Since the phone box was installed on the house about the same time that running water was put in the house (I am not kidding) and I had run the phone wires into the house myself (yes, through the windows), I just assumed that it was my wires and my fault.

Finally last week I called my ISP for the billionth time because I couldn’t get any work done for lack of internet. The tech support guy was in India and he admitted that there was a problem with the loop (?) that was their responsibility. He had a phone tech to my house within 2 hours and everything got fixed, lickity split. The same tech called me back to close the trouble ticket and while he was running diagnostics he politely asked me what I do for a living. I told him, “I write. About cars. Online.”

I thought that the man was going to cry.

Never being out of a chance to get a good anecdote I asked him about the Tato Nano. Yes, he likes the Nano. Who wouldn’t? It is cuddly wubbly cute and cheap (my words). Then we just had to talk about Tato buying Jaguar, Rover and the subsidiaries. I asked him if he was proud that an Indian company now owned the British luxury brands and he said “Absolutely. The entire country is proud.” Pretty darn cool, in my book. He then decided to interview me:

Him: Have you ever driven a DB9?
Me: Yes.
Him: Have you ever driven a Vanquish?
Me: Yes.
Him: Were they fast?
Me: Hmm, yes- I took off so fast in the DB9 that I knocked the breath out of myself.
Him: (fits of giggles) Can I have your private IM?
Me: Why?
Him: In case I have a question about cars?
Me: Just go to Yahoo! Answers and look for Miss Mota Mouth. Ask me there.
Him: Oh. Okay. Are you sure I can’t have your IM screen name?
Me: No, you cannot.

(At this point I am thinking about the fact that not only does he have my personal email address, he knows my home phone number, my cell number and my password.)

And now he keeps calling to “follow up on my internet service”. Hm. I guess, as I have been told before, I give good phone.

That evening, while on Twitter, I had a direct message from a Follower that went like this:

Him: Thanks for the follow! How did you find me?
Me: Um, you were having a convo w/someone I admire. [ed: Do you know how many people are on Twitter these days? I digress...]
Him: Can we IM on Yahoo or AIM?
Me: That is like asking my for my phone number if I wandered thru the office looking for the copier.
Him: Nooo! I would never do anything like that ::innocent look::

Does my avatar make me look sexy? Is it the vector glasses or the hexidecimal #FF0000 lipstick I put on? Or is it that I write about cars?

There is just something strange about the car industry when women enter the picture. Granted there are a lot of really great female car sales people, dealership general managers and even owners! There is a slew of wonderful female mechanics and service department managers. I wonder if they get attention like they are holding lap markers at a dirt track in a pair of Daisy Dukes too.

Originally published here