Early Morning at the Car Place; High Noon at the Bird Sanctuary

First thing this morning I found myself in the car place waiting while what I thought was going to be a simple oil change and add-a-little-air-to-a tire  took place.  In the waiting room I spied a metal sunflower made of rebar and flat pieces of car body metal.  And then next to that was a really odd man trophy, with half a man wearing a light blue plastic coat and with a pinkish head.  It was actually in an office that was adjacent so I could only see it through the window, and I couldn't see the front of the trophy.  I would have loved to have seen what it was given for.

Then a guy on a bike rode up and parked right outside the door by the window.  I could see his head and arm, and when one of the desk guys walked out front the biker said "I'm just dying out here.  I need a few minutes then I'll come in."  He had a bike spandex shirt on with a black long-sleeved shirt underneath and fingerless gloves.  Eventually he came in and stood around talking with the desk guy about helping him fix his bike.  Meanwhile I drew the coat rack with all the leftover winter clothes on it-- scarves, coats.

The leaky tire turned out to have a nail in it and NOT just cold weather deflation, and on top of that, all the tires needed replacing.  The mechanic could do the job, but it would be $650; so when I recovered from the shock of that, I did a quick search around town on my phone and found out my favorite tire place could do it for half that price.  They had to get the tire from slightly out of town and wouldn't be able to do it till 2:30, so I hung around downtown rather than drive all the way home and then back downtown.  (I was so pleased at how much money I could save by going to the tire place that I went to Malaprop's a bought a load of books to celebrate this found money.)

At lunch I drew a woman holding what had to be her grand daughter.  And then I went walking at the bird sanctuary and saw turtles all over the place lounging on logs, and I also saw what I think was a yellow-bellied sapsucker, at least according to the sign with pictures of birds that live in the sanctuary.