A grab-bag of things I've noticed while valeting lots of cars these past eight-and-a-half months:
• For some reason, this Oregon airport's valet operation gets more cars with Texas license plates than cars with California plates.
• I'm getting more used to Teslas. My standard comment about that make is "the car might be smarter than me."
• A surprisingly large (to me) number of people don't use the Trip Mileage on their vehicles. I was noticing how many cars had gone, say, 21,647 miles and Trip Mileage would say 1,647, and it took me a bit to realize that Trip Mileage rolls over at, say, 10,000 so the drivers simply had never touched it. (I use mine to mark how far I've driven between stops for gas. Now I wonder how else it gets used. At least for measuring how long certain trips are...)
• Recently I helped clean up the roadway near the booth. You'd be surprised how many chewed pieces of gum I found. Or maybe you wouldn't.
• Plates. Bowls. Kitchen-style open-topped glasses. Utensils. Some of this gets filthy. (I try not to look too closely at all that.)
• You know how often I see "Passenger side airbag off"? Do y'all not like your passengers?
(Edited To Add!: That last bit was me being a smartass, but I just learned that there's a reason for it. My friend Royal explained that many cars now have sensors that can tell if a passenger is in the front seat or not, so if the car is in an airbag-deploying accident, it won't deploy that airbag. As a) valet only has people in the passenger seat when someone in training is shadowing and b) WE TRY NOT TO HAVE AIRBAG-DEPLOYING ACCIDENTS, we probably will see those warnings.)
• For some reason, this Oregon airport's valet operation gets more cars with Texas license plates than cars with California plates.
• I'm getting more used to Teslas. My standard comment about that make is "the car might be smarter than me."
• A surprisingly large (to me) number of people don't use the Trip Mileage on their vehicles. I was noticing how many cars had gone, say, 21,647 miles and Trip Mileage would say 1,647, and it took me a bit to realize that Trip Mileage rolls over at, say, 10,000 so the drivers simply had never touched it. (I use mine to mark how far I've driven between stops for gas. Now I wonder how else it gets used. At least for measuring how long certain trips are...)
• Recently I helped clean up the roadway near the booth. You'd be surprised how many chewed pieces of gum I found. Or maybe you wouldn't.
• Plates. Bowls. Kitchen-style open-topped glasses. Utensils. Some of this gets filthy. (I try not to look too closely at all that.)
• You know how often I see "Passenger side airbag off"? Do y'all not like your passengers?
(Edited To Add!: That last bit was me being a smartass, but I just learned that there's a reason for it. My friend Royal explained that many cars now have sensors that can tell if a passenger is in the front seat or not, so if the car is in an airbag-deploying accident, it won't deploy that airbag. As a) valet only has people in the passenger seat when someone in training is shadowing and b) WE TRY NOT TO HAVE AIRBAG-DEPLOYING ACCIDENTS, we probably will see those warnings.)
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chris_walsh- Chris Walsh
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