The backstory is that Dennis and I were in the Twin Cities when "Snowmageddon"--particularly, the bad visibility--pitched us into the downy embrace of Snelling Avenue's snow-filled median sometime around noon-thirty on Saturday. Then again, that's what AAA memberships, and even El Cheapo prepaid cellphones like mine live for. That, and we knew there was a motel just a bit up the road anyway. By the time the classic "Minnesota Nice" couple in the yellow SUV offered to drop us off, we already had the call in for the tow truck and a room booked.
Problem was, the 2.5 hour wait that AAA indicated, turned into something like 29 hours. (Naifish me, I'd done the whole "responsible motorist" schtick and left the flashers on when we bailed on poor little Tercel. Whoops.) Later in the afternoon, AAA called me back with the heads-up that the original towing company's trucks were all stuck, and that my call had been put in the queue with a second company, who would call me before attempting to rescue my little green one. A bit after dinnertime, the backup company called to inform me that they were pulling all their trucks off the roads and that I should start afresh with AAA on the morrow.
Which I did. And we waited. All things considers, it was a productive enough day: Dennis made a serious dent writing the final for his class; I did the majority of my Christmas shopping. One of our two very dearest friends was able to meet us for lunch. And, despite the fact that the car was finally winched from its snowy bed at around 5:30 Sunday, the conditions on I-90 pretty much mandated another night in Roseville. At one point, I'd been on the phone, nagging AAA for at least an approximate ETA on the service for which a decade's worth of dues have paid, and--as a side note--was told that the towin companies were "starting to get frustrated"--presumably with the strains on their capacity.
The last of the afore-mentioned small mercies was that, between us, the storm and I had managed to bury the car so thoroughly (and conveniently out of the way) that pulling it out wasn't exactly a top priority for the Roseville, MN constabulary. ("Oh, boy..." quoth the nice tow driver when he caught a glimpse of how his next 20 minutes would be spent.) I think I've previously mentioned that if my gentle reader wants living proof that the Powers That Be watch over fools, s/he need look no further than me. This is one of the best cases in point.
But the far more salient point, IMO, is the degree to which the mantras of "lean" organizations and the economy of "shared" goods and services alleged to be on our horizon are built on partnership, rather than ownership. If the days when Ford Motor Corporation owned the land on which grazed the sheep that provided the wool for the upholstery of its vehicles are indeed as quaint a vision as the towers of Camelot, then the only things remaining to be optimized (if not, in fact monopolized) are information and relationships. At the time of writing, neither lends itself to iron-fisted control.
From a consumer's standpoint, this is more than likely a good thing. Vertical monopolies might provide lower prices in the short run, but when companies depend upon each other, not only for materials and services, but also for reputation, it introduces a set of checks and balances that monopolies/oligopolies can't offer.
