Truck
Well, it’s been 5 months and it’s time to change the oil in my car.
I remember as a teenager and later as a cash poor college student changing the oil myself. It’s not really a hard task, but I still hate to waste the time doing it especially during finals week… As a senior in college, I decided that I didn’t have the time and took my care to a Jiffy Lube. Of course, I took my Operating Systems book so I could read and prepare for an upcoming test while I waited.
Flash forward to today, right now I’m sitting at the much cheaper Walmarts Auto Department again waiting for my car to have the oil changed. Of course, I’m not just sitting in the sitting room waiting, I’m doing the following during this particular visit:
- I’m typing this blog post!
- I’m eating a salad at the same time
- I hope to read a book after I get 90% of this post done.
- I’m dumping off my oil from my lawnmower and snow thrower.
- If I have time I’m going to go shopping for some cheap but nutricional food for my diet.
- Enjoying a mediocre cup of free coffee from Walmart (lol).
Since I’m not wasting time while I get my oil changed, this experience is actually kind of relaxing and pleasant. The entire Walmart oil process cost my $30, but that’s not too bad considering I’m getting so much done.
One of my favorite thing to do anymore is maximize my time so I get easy stuff done at the same time, or maybe one complex task grouped with mindless tasks such as eating or waiting for something.
The only way it could be better would be if it were snowing or raining during the change. In the summer, I don’t mind changing oil as much because the weather is great.
Well, the Walmart employee just pulled my car in the garage to start working on it, and this blog post is done. Now onto the book that I brought!
Cheers,
MR
I always have something to read with me at all times so that I can do something while waiting at various appointments, etc. One of the dealerships where we get our oil changed has wireless so I have my laptop with and can usually get a post written as well. I hate wasting time.
Walmart didn’t have a public router, so I had to write my post in an offline editor. It worked well enough though!
Actually it was my first attempt at an offline editor, and I was very pleased with it.
Now I’m on longer contained to be at places that have a router when I want to write a post (yay)!
Thankfully,my husband takes care of all our auto maintenance. But while he does those chores, I am definitely multitasking with housework, blogging, and watching the grandson. I think my husband is getting the better deal. 🙂
If it’s a cheap service (like oil changes), I do them but if its something more expensive (like brakes), I roll up my sleeves and hop to it.
I think perhaps he does 🙂
Changing the oil is one of those things that we outsource, getting grocery shopping done in the meantime.
We do that too. When we’ve done my wife care in the past, we’ve grocery shopped and walked to a restaurant that was a football field’s length away.
Changing oil is a great task to outsource…
I agree. I don’t like to change my own oil….besides–like you proved, you can get a thousand things done in the meantime!
It’s just too easy to take it in somewhere and have the people with the proper tools do the jobs. No more jacking up the front end of the car for me!
i do the same – can’t stand wasting time. every once in a while there will be an interesting mag on the stands which will tempt me to pick it up – other than that i am doing my thing
Yeah, that makes sense. Someday, when I can afford it, I’m going to get an iPad (or iPhone), then I could just do online surfing or realtime blogging…
Cool ideas. I have been known to be the queen of multi-tasking. However I have read that you are actually more productive when you don’t multi task. At least that is what Tim Ferris says.
Depends on how complex the tasks are that you are multitasking.
But if I am learning something complex, then I’m best in a quiet room with no background noises to interrupt my studying.
I get my oil changes done at Costco and I get a free car wash for roughly same amount of money.
I wish we had a Costco in my area! We do have a Sam’s Club, but I haven’t joined yet.
I love changing my own oil. It’s a nice break from “virtual” work with computers to do some labor and get my hands dirty. Righty-tighty, lefty-loosey. It’s so basic. While waiting for the oil to drain, I check the fluids for everything else, take a long look underneath the chassis, etc… Only you know your car best.
I wonder if my car was a nicer car if I would change the oil on it personally?
If say it was a Mercedes or a Mustang! I think I just might at that!
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