Amy’s Garage

Join WAYTO Her Alibi GOVT.org in reducing 500,000 pounds (that’s Five Hundred Thousand Pounds) Train rip of Greenhouse Gas emissions!

We Challenge you: Leave your car at home from May 4-8, join the fun and be rewarded to help make a huge impact on the air pollution in Vermont!

• WALK: Help relieve traffic congestion and personal stress at the same time! To learn more about the benefits of walking: www.localmotion.com

• Car Pool: on average, by adding just 1 passenger to your commute you will be saving 31 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions for every ride shared. To learn more about carpooling in Vermont: www.connectingcommuters.org

• Take Public Transportation: For every mile you ride public transportation you use about 1/2 of the fuel consumed by the average car. The savings would add up very quickly. PLUS, every $1 invested in public transportation generateds $6 in local economic activity. To learn more about bus routes and service: www.cctaride.org or www.vpta.net,/a>/links/asp

• Bike The Craft video : A 4 mile bike commute keeps almost 15 pounds of pollutants out of the air. Commute 4 miles for 1 work week and prevent 17 lbs. of pollution. To learn more about cycling: www.localmotion.org

Pollution emitted by just 1 car:

If you would like to learn more about fuel economy go to: click on this link.

A typical Vermont car is driven 17,000 miles per year and produces:

• 13,600 pounds of carbon dioxide
• 935 pounds of carbon monoxide
• 114 pounds of hydrocarbons
• 68 pounds of nitrogen oxides

According to the AskPatty BeGreen Program, to help reduce your environmental impact when driving a car you can:

• Keep your tires properly inflated. Driving with your tires at the proper inflation can improve your efficiency by up to 3%. That’s a savings of $30 to $70 depending on how much you drive, and can reduce greenhouse gasses by 1.42% to 0.69 percent. Under-inflated tires alone cost the country more than $3.5 million gallons of gasoline each day.
• Observe the speed limit. As a general rule, assume that each On average, every one mph increase over 50 mph reduces your fuel mileage by .1 miles per gallon. That’s one mile per gallon less for every 10 mph over the speed limit you drive. Depending on your driving style and how fast you drive, you could waste 20 to 70 cents per gallon.
• Relax
  
  Fired Up film

  . Avoid hard or “jackrabbit” starts and stops. Aggressive driving can reduce your gas mileage by 33 percent on the highway and 5 percent in the city.

• Reduce excess vehicle weight. Avoid keeping unnecessary items in your trunk. Each 100 pounds can reduce your economy by 2%
• Keep your car properly tuned. A well-tuned car can run 4% more efficiently than one that is out or tune or has failed its emissions test.
• Check and replace air filters regularly. Replacing a clogged air filter can improve your fuel economy by as much as 10%
• Don’t idle. Idling for just 10 minutes per day can waste as much as 22 gallons per year. At $3.00 a gallon, that’s $66 in your pocket.

To Learn more about the Way To Go Commuter Challenge, You can sign up at www.waytogovt.org or call 802-660-4071 x 14

A workshop for women about cars

Sweeney Todd the movie ??? ??? ???? MONTPELIER: TIMES ARGUS NEWSPAPER – After Kathryn Bramman’s husband died last year, she became responsible for her vehicle’s maintenance for the first time.

??????? ???????? ?????????

On Saturday, Bramman joined about 12 other women for the first Women’s Car Care Clinic at Auto Craftsmen.

Amy Mattinat, who owns the garage on outer State Street, has wanted to put on a workshop for women for at least five years. Four men who work at the garage were at the first scheduled, two-hour clinic to help answer questions and demonstrate repairs and maintenance.

“This is great for a lady who is in charge of her own car right now and doesn’t know a lot about it,” said Bramman of Barre.

???????? ????? ????

“One of our goals in doing this is to give them a little more information so they feel empowered,” said Marc Yakubosky, service manager for the garage. “Sixty-five percent of our clientele are women and they don’t want to know the number to the tow truck by heart.”

In order to give each of the women who attended a more thorough understanding of their vehicles, they were divided into three different groups. One focused on general maintenance regarding fluids, air filter, belts and what to look for when purchasing a used vehicle. Another focused on the underbody components, such as CV – constant velocity – shafts and wheel bearings. The third station, hosted by Mattinat and Mark LaFleche, focused on tires and brakes.

“I am a huge advocate on good tires,” said Mattinat, who is a member of the national Women’s Car Care Council and the Woman Automotive Association International. “Tires number one on my list – tires first, brakes second and then everything else.”

Mattinat is also considered an expert on the website, AskPatty.com where women seek auto advice, for buying a used vehicle. Auto Craftsmen was the first repair garage in Vermont to be , Ask Patty certified according to Yakubosky.

“If you only take away two things to make your car safer and more reliable – remember to check your oil and your tire pressure,” she said to three women in her station during the last rotation of the clinic. “Checking the air pressure on a tire can be a scary thing for some people. When they hear the hissing of air as they put the gauge on the tire stem, they worry they’re letting all the air out of the tire.”

She and LaFleche demonstrated the proper technique before letting each of the women have a try. They also explained where on the car you can find the proper air pressure for your tires. Ignore the numbers on the tires, Mattinat told the group, the owners manual or the sticker on the inside of the driver’s door will provide the correct air pressure for your vehicle.

“I’ve had this very wide range of opinion of how to check my tire pressure, which unfortunately I have to do pretty often,” said Kimberly Jessup of Middlesex.

“You need to check the air pressure before you drive the car,” said Mattinat about the optimum time to take a reading.

Nightmare Detective movie full Throughout the clinic, that ran a little longer than scheduled, Mattinat and her technicians explained anti-lock brake systems, how to maneuver a steep, slippery incline, how to check the oil, what to look for with a vehicle’s fluids, how to measure tires and their treads, why jump-starting a frozen battery is dangerous, when to replace an air filter, what to check for with a dead battery and which noises to pay attention to.

“So, you should drive with your radio down all the time?” said Bramman joked after one of the technicians explained the clicking noise of a broken CV joint. “I’m learning so much.”

Unforgiven buy

Patricia LaRose had a simple explanation for why she attended the clinic. “I’m a girl, most shops are owned by guys, I don’t want to get screwed over,” she said after listening to the tire demonstration. ?????? ????? ???? ???????? ?????????

The clinic Saturday was so well received during the sign-up period that Mattinat has scheduled two more, one in March and another in April. To find out more, call Amy Mattinat at Auto Craftsmen at 229-2054, go to autocraftsmen.com or email her at amy@autocraftsmen.com

sarah.hinckley@timesargus.com.

Chocolate Sachet Gift Set for your Car
Everyone loves chocolate… even your car. This sachet will give  an alluring fragrance of chocolate to make your car smell yummy.
$9.95

www.everythingsmells.store.yahoo.net

Electric Travel Blanket
How cool is this specially if you are the passenger on a long road trip. Plugs the blanket into your car and it will keep you or your passenger roasty toasty.
$39.95
www.skymall.com
keyword: electric travel blanket

Personalized Angel Car Mat Set
Bring an angel along for the ride, and protect your carpet with these rubberized car mats.
$49.98
www.lighterside.com
item #: 62026

and my favorite
Sheepskin Seat Covers
I once once was given set of these luxuriously soft and warm seat covers for Christmas. They were one of the best presents I have ever been given. I loved them. Every time I would get into my car I would say. “ahhhhhhhh”
$129 – $279
www.autoanything.com
search word: 3 Star Semi-Custom Sheepskin Seat Cover

Maternity Seatbelt
If you know a pregnant lady, do her a huge favor and buy her a maternity seatbelt. It attaches to any vehicles lap belt and it repositions the strap to ride safe and low. Says on the hips, not on the belly.
$29.95
www.onestepahead.com
item #: 07768

Bed Line Rake
If you or a loved one owns a pick-up truck with a bed line, this is a super present. This grooved teeth rate quickly removes: mid, gravel, topsoil, sand, mulch, wood chips, snow, etc.
$9.95
www.cgets.com
product search: bed liner rake

• The Outsiders movie full

Seat Back Protector
If you have children then you need a protection for the back of your front seat’s upholstery from their dirty little feet.
Buckles around the headrest – no ties or knots and cleans easily
$9.95
www.leapsandbounds.com
item #: 11081

If you have any other great ideas… please share! Spring Breakdown movie full

While You Were Sleeping on dvd

The Clan of the Cave Bear trailer Naked Weapon psp

Spring Breakdown movie full

Two of my favorite people have the right idea when it comes to saving money on gasoline…

Don’t Spend Any!

Every year they strap on their packs and hoof-it up into the mountains. Cars don’t drive up the “Long Trail”, so they save lots of money during their vacation week.

Turistas download I give them a LOT OF CREDIT! I love to see the pictures, but don’t have the inclination to do all the leg work and back breaking packing of all the ’stuff’ it takes to survive in the mountains.

• Train film

This beautiful view is from up on “Lookout Mountain” which is 2459 ft. high, near  Bridgewater & Barnard Vermont. The arrow is pointing at Mount Washington in New Hampshire.

Thanks for the picture Harris & Cindy. You two are awesome!

OK, this is not a car… I know that. But this is the maple tree in my front yard, and it is so beautiful I wanted to share it with you.

Please Enjoy!

by Amy Mattinat

There Are Hero’s Everywhere

I was in Cincinnati for a meeting of independent auto repair shops and was scheduled to fly back to Vermont on a Sunday at 9 am. I was flying from Cinn. to Philly to Burlington. Take off from Cinn. was right on time. The trouble began when we got close to landing in Philadelphia. There were multiple thunderstorms and we circled around the airport waiting for traffic control to find a hole in the storm for us to land.

This pilot really wanted to land the plane in Philly. After flying in circles for over an hour he announced that we had about 20 more min. before we ran out of fuel, but he was certain there would be a break in the storm and we could land. Everyone in the cabin pulled out a time piece and started counting down. When we got to about 10 min. he gave up and headed to Harrisburg to re-fuel.

There was a group sigh of relief when the wheels of the plane touched the ground

I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry trailer

Employee of the Month move

They re-fueled the plane right away, and then we sat on the runway going nowhere for 7 hours. YES, seven hours and all they gave us was water and a very small overly sweet cookie that just made me really hunger.

The pilot, staff and passengers were just about to mutiny when Harrisburg finally gave they OK for the plane to pull up to a hanger and let us off. We were given less then 10 min. to buy some food and jump on a bus that drove us to Philadelphia.

If I was not starving

Man About Town movies

and had been thinking clearly, I would have never got on a bus to drive to an airport that was shut down all day with hundreds hundreds of people going nowhere.

Blade II buy

When we arrived at the airport we were led to a line that I swear was 1/2 mile long. When I finally got to the counter I was told there were no seats on any airline to Burlington for two days. Waaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

So I booked a flight to Boston, rented a car to Vermont and found a quiet corner to get some sleep along with hundreds of other folks stranded in Philly.

The next morning I washed up in a bathroom, ate breakfast and worked at my makeshift office. How did we ever travel before computers?

At 1:00 pm my flight to Boston was canceled. I was feeling pretty low until I found Tracy! She told me she was the Best of the Best airline customer service representatives in the whole airport, and she was not kidding!

Not sure how she did it, but she got me on a flight to Burlington that night at 9:45 pm and it actually took off and landed on time. Took 38 hours but I finally made it home. Tracy, you are my hero!

Yes, the slab got poured and now we are waiting for “Overhead Doors” to give us an estimate for a insulated roll up door before we can continue our project of moving the compressor.

So, while waiting for the new compressor room to get built, we have moved on to giving the outside of the shop a face lift.

This is a before picture of my shop Auto Craftsmen located in Montpelier, Vermont. Notice how plain and boring the beige and black are. Very easy to drive on by and not even notice.

The beige has been repainted and the black trim is slowly being repainted blue. The rest of the shop was not exactly thrilled with my color choice, but it’s growing on them, and we are getting great feedback from our clients.

Dive Bomber movie full The job is still in process. The front window has rotten sills and needs to be replaced and my window box is going to be painted blue, put back up and restocked ASAP.

Citizen Kane the movie

What do you think about the color blue I chose for the trim?

• I Still Know What You Did Last Summer on dvd

I can’t believe it’s been so long since I last posted. I have been so busy that I just haven’t had any extra time to sit at my computer and write. My business partner needed 2 weeks off to move to a new place of residence, so I was riding solo running our auto repair shop, Auto Craftsmen.

When the cat is away… the mice will play.

• I hired a new employee… that I have wanted for over two months
• I hired an electrician to move one of our electric meter boxes so we could build a room outside of bay 5, where we will put the compressor so bay 5 won’t be so noisy you need to were hearing protection to be in that room. Hopefully soon that bay will actually get used and make us some money!

It have been raining pretty much everyday all summer in VT. So even though it was coming down at a pretty good clip, these boys got the job done in 2 hrs.

Dive Bomber rip

I discovered a pretty big lump on my breast the other night. Lying on the couch reading in a cold room, I tucked my hand under my armpit to warm it up and found a lump floating around my breast.

Long story shot… I’m fine.

The lump turned out to be a cyst and I was told to “just live with it.”

But what really stupefied me and got my goat was the poor customer service I encountered.

On Monday I spoke with two women on the phone. I told them both I was “freaking out” and that I had discovered this lump on my breast. On Wednesday I went to my Doctor’s appointment and told the receptionist, a nurse and the doctor the same thing. The Doctor spent a whole five minutes with me and pretty much said, “Yup, you have a lump on your breast and will need an ultrasound to see if we need to be worried or not.” Not once was I given any words of comfort, encouragement or sympathy.

The Princess of Nebraska video

While I was stupefied by their lack of empathy, I kept thinking of how I give 150% better customer service to my automotive clients here at my shop. I probably calm down at least one client per week when they call “freaking out” that their check engine light is on.

No, a check engine light is not a lump on a breast… but it does cause fear in someone who knows it could be a bad thing, and doesn’t have the knowledge to know better.

Head of State the movie I always tell them right off, “Don’t Worry. No matter what is going on with your car we can help you. ” Then I ask questions and give them advice depending on what the symptoms are and how scared they are.

Halloween: 25 Years of Terror ipod

Yes, I believe that my auto repair shop is in the “Automotive Health Car” business. I give classes to other shops on How to Give Great Customer Service, maybe I need to branch out and open this up to Doctors and Health-Care professionals.

What does good customer service mean to you?

Join in the conversation!

I feel as if I have just returned from a long journey even though I did not leave town.

My Mom-in-law had a stroke Saturday Jan. third. Before her stroke she was living at an Independent Home for seniors. At 93 yrs old, she only needed a cane to get around. She slept a lot, but still was very active and enjoying life.

Because of the stroke, she lost the use of her right arm and leg, lost the ability to swallow and speak, and was not really present anymore. After various tests and realizing that she would spend her remaining days in a nursing home hooked up to machines to get food, and get rid of the food, the doctors suggested hospice.

Our local hospital has its own form of hospice. They call it palliative care. They had a special room tucked away on a corner with a big window that we were able to watch the sun rise, move across the sky all day and set in the evening. It had this state of the art bed that moved around Stella to help prevent bed sores, and has 2 comfy chairs to help keep my butt from going numb from sitting so much. Because of my husband Peter’s chemical sensitivity he could only be here for 4 hour stretches of time. Then he needed to get out! There was a pull-out couch for sleeping…and I thus moved in to be her Death Dula.

Kinda felt like I was on this meditative journey of death and dying. I learned a great deal about how one dies on hospice, and felt that assisting in Stella’s death was a real gift I could give her.

She was given no IV for fluids or food. No one says it out loud, but in reality we were starving her and gradually letting her kidneys shut down until she died. It was slow and painful at times to watch. It took 7 days for her kidneys to fail, her heart to stop and for her to take her last breath. These bodies of ours are truly amazing in many ways.

Feeling blessed and thankful that I could take the time needed to be able to witness, lend strength and advocate for her. I felt in-tune with her and understood what she needed to be able to lay peacefully with no pain. Her needs were simple: Quiet room with peaceful music. Lot’s of foot and hand rubs and she seemed to like it when I read to her. She needed to lay a certain way to be comfortable, and because she needed to be moved every 4-5 hours to prevent bed sores by a different nurse each time, it was my most important job to make them realize how she needed to be turned and what position she needed to be in to prevent her from grimacing, moaning and gasping for air.

As she was wasting away we added morphine and this drug called Adivan that helped with anxiety to her tools of pain prevention. Daily we upped the amount she was given to maintain her peace.

All this so she can sleep away her death. Why not just give her the shot we are allowed to give our beloved dogs or cats if they were in a similar situation so she would have only had a short sleep to death without all the pain and discomfort.

My life slowed down to moment to moment. It was a similar feeling to when I did a series of healing fast many years ago. When I left to run errands or go home to shower and get clean clothes the rest of the world seemed to be going way too fast and I experienced sensory overload.

On Saturday Jan. 12^th the morning she passed away, one of my favorite nurses offered to wash and turn Stella herself while I went down to the cafeteria to get a small break and to get some breakfast.

Before I left I whispered to Stella that we were all just fine. That she had live a good life, We all appreciated everything she had done for us and that it was fine for her to move on.

When I walked back into the room it felt different. Really quiet and like something was missing. I went over and sat by Stella. She looked different… smaller, emptier.
“Stella,” I called, “are you still in there?”
She gave a small moan, exhaled a deep breath and was gone.

When Stella first came to Vermont at the age of seventy-five; we took her on a hike up Owls Head Mountain. There is a road that you can drive most of the way up and then a short steep climb up stone steps. I pulled from the front, and Peter pushed from the rear. The view behind her was breath taking. Ponds, woods and mountains for as far as the eye could see. We took a bunch of pictures of her on the mountain. She looked like she was in the middle of nowhere. The pictures captured the essence of Stella. She was very quirky, ferociously independent and incredibly generous. We made copies and sent them to all her friends and relative back in Chicago labeling them, “Enjoying my retirement in Vermont. Now I have time to do some mountain climbing.”

Once she was dead, I felt a flood of emotions surging through my body: Shock, sadness, loss and relief.
My vigil was over. It was time to return home.

I come back to my world more aware of how fragile life is and a huge appreciation for all the wonderful people in my life. There is still so much I want to accomplish and experience.

Have you had a life changing experience? Please share to inspire others!