Towards Freedom

It all began with rats.

Rats! They fought the dogs and killed the cats. (Prad Piper of Hamlin)

Well not really. Rats are not the horrid varmints that some people make them out to be. They’re actually resourceful and imaginative creatures who make the most with the cards they have been dealt. Few can appreciate what a hard life it can be for a rat.

My son, Kyron, who has been rescuing animals ever since he was born, has helped many a rat in our mini sanctuary. Each has its own unique personality and interests, such as this one who liked staying on his shoulder fascinated by the sound while I played the organ.

Before telling you about the role of rats, I will provide some background, as I do throughout the story here, so that you can better understand things in context. I will even provide you with links if you are inclined to research things to the utmost!

In 2018, my wife of countless decades, Ranjana, made one of her astonishingly astute acclimations, deciding we should only drive electric vehicles. After some research, we bought 2 Nissan Leafs from a fine salesman at campus Nissan named Frank Pecorelli. He worked very hard to get us the best deal possible and arrange for us to maximize the government grants that were available at that time.

One car was silver, a 2013 leaf, and the other was a dark blue, a 2018 leaf. They glowed like gemstones! So, inspired by Tolkien's silmarils, We name them Silveril and Sapphiril.

Silveril must have had magical properties because its range seemed to increase as we drove it. Once due to a miscalculation, it showed we had run out of range, but I still managed to make it home! After six years, I changed its parking location under a tree. Unfortunately, sap from the tree dripped onto it, but more seriously, a group of rats decided to make their home under the hood! We did not realize what had happened till one day when we tried to pop open the charging compartment and it wouldn't work. The rats had chewed through some of the wiring and had also utilized a part of the hood as their lavatory. In fact, we were told by our trusted Shawnigan Lake Garage that before anyone could work on the wiring, the car would have to go in for a major cleaning.

Fortunately, ICBC covered rodent damage. When I asked the assessor, Robert Lise, for a recommended merchant, he said I could take it wherever I want, but ICBC approved dealerships made the job easier because they did the paperwork for us. So I started calling around and though the first two places tried to be helpful they did not know how to proceed. The third phone call led me to Duncan Dodge, and a very nice lady named Crystal, who knew exactly what to do! She was remarkably efficient and to my surprise, she told me to bring the car in that same day! One of their service agents, Sean looked after the repair work liaising with Robert. The entire job including courtesy rides and paperwork was done in less than two days!

I was so impressed, I had Crystal hook me up with one of their salespeople, Richard, because I planned to buy our next car from this fine dealership! I told Richard that we likely wouldn't buy for awhile and that I didn’t want to waste his time, but he said I wasn’t wasting his time at all and he’d be happy to do research and send me items whenever they met the requirements I had set. Those requirements eventually lead to 2 possibilities, the Bolt and the Fiat 500e.

On Saturday, November 9th Richard told us he had a couple of Fiats available for us to look at and was willing to talk to his manager to bring in some Bolts, but we went to the Island GM dealer up the road to look at those after test driving one of the Fiats at Duncan Dodge. When we got to the GM dealership, Kyron realized he had accidentally swiped the key for the Fiat we had just driven. That made me think that this Fiat was indeed the car we were going to get, but I took the key back right away to Richard telling him that now he wouldn't have to check up on his inventory because of the enthusiasm my son had shown.

By the time I got back to the GM dealership, Kyron had already looked at one of the Bolts and we were waiting for the salesguy who didn't want to talk to Kyron till I returned for some reason. He seemed to be busy with some other clients even though we had set an appointment to meet with him. I asked Kyron what he thought of the Bolt and it wasn't much. Rather than waiting around for this salesguy, I said "Let’s just go". As we were driving out, the aforementioned salesguy came rushing out to find out why we weren't waiting around for him. I told him simply that we didn't like the Bolt and we were going to get the Fiat. He warned us that having sold both types of cars, he would never get a Fiat, and I felt like telling him that he wasn't the one getting the car so he really had nothing to worry about, but I repressed this very good consolation, since my son was in the car, and I felt I should set a good example for him.

That very Saturday evening, Richard made arrangements for us through his sales manager Jeremy, to take the Fiat on their dealership insurance and license plate until we could buy it a few days later trading in Silveril at our convenience! Though I didn't have the funds to pay for the car for a few weeks, Richard had emailed me indicating I could get it financed at no interest/down if I wanted to move on this sooner. He also added that he was on our side, and if we wanted to arm-wrestle about the price, he'd go to bat for us. I thought this sort of thing to be a rather purile way to make a deal, and told Richard that we don't do business that way. They can give us their best offer and we'd either accept it or move on. As it turned out, the offer they made us, was quite suitable, so we accepted!

Another fine fellow name Danny arranged for the background information to deal with the finances. Danny took an interest in Kyron's music career too, since he was a folk singer himself. It was agreed that we would get the car Wednesday, November 13th. They were very accommodating folks indeed!

Before continuing with this story we need to flashback to how Kyron got around to driving - because he never wanted to! (Actually, neither he not I particularly liked to drive, even though we as a project resuscitated a 1981 Eagle named Kiyreagle, thus enjoying the car without driving it.)

At the end of Grade 1, Kyron asked if he could home school till he was 20. As a homeschooler, he was able to explore and acquire expertise in numerous areas such as music, science, photography, and computer science, unburdened by the education system's mandatory curriculum. His skills in the latter field grew to the extent that a professor at Caltech was interested in having him study there.

When he was 17, I reminded him that 20 wasn't that far off and asked what was it he was planning to do when he reached that age. With a big smile he said "Home university!" - which he did! So since most of his activities were centred around the home, he rarely required transportation elsewhere that he couldn't manage on a bicycle. Driving was the furthest thing from his mind.

However, when he turned 24, he enrolled in the Victoria Conservatory of Music vocal course. To get to class, we would drive him from Shawnigan Lake to Langford. From there, he would take the bus and we would pick him up in Langford when he was finished. Often, due to his schedule, we'd have to take him all the way to downtown Victoria and pick him up from there. Additionally, Ranjana would drive him to all his concerts and performances, because she enjoyed being part of his audience. Two years later, he was accepted into the University of Victoria music program where he earned his Bachelors degree. After that, he moved to Victoria for a couple of years to do his Masters, but then returned home again when COVID hit in 2020. He started teaching at both institutions as well as performing as a high demand baritone in Victoria. Additionally, he had established a reputation of being a talented photographer and his skills were regularly sought after.

Needless to say, he had to be driven to all things or had to take public transportation after being driven to the Victoria area.

So why had he not learned to drive yet?

One reason lay with his aversion to the activity in the first place. He tended to fall asleep in a car. Also he wasn’t that keen on rubbing shoulders with some of the crazy drivers out there that he had certainly witnessed as a passenger.

The other was his mother.

Apparently, sometime after COVID when he had started working as a vocal teacher at both his former schools VCM and UVic, he had asked his mother if it was alright that he be driven for another year just so he could get organized. Ranjana however decided this was an opportunity to start an exclusive business with the very long title, The Prad and Ranjana Chauffeur Service for Kyron! My name came first because I did most of the driving - in fact, for a while (as between 2014-2024), all of the driving. Ranjana, no doubt, was doing some sort of essential administrative work for the exclusive business. Every trip to Victoria resulted in three more, one to get back, one to go down to pick him up, and one to come back. I could see there was a point to this when he was going to school because it was a big change for him, but after he started work he needed to acquire some independence.

When I brought up the point about her son doing his own driving to Ranjana, I was met with the stauchly steadfast statement, "I see nothing wrong with us driving him everywhere!"

A bit of background on Ranjana may help to alleviate your reaction to what she just said. (So will these links: Ranjana in Ottawa, Wedaches, A Far Far Better Thing, if you have the courage to follow them.)

To most, Ranjana appears to be a perfectly normal and highly intelligent person. I can certainly see why people would think that way, given that not only does she have her Bachelors, Masters, and Doctorate degrees, but she also had the brilliance to marry me. However, things are not always as they appear, for the darkness never reveals itself to most, willingly!

For instance, practically no one knows that Ranjana could easily have been a world champion race car driver! After we had attended an aikido seminar in Montreal, she decided we had to get back to Toronto quickly. She drove the entire way and completed the trip in under 3 hours. I will not go through the computations to determine how fast she was traveling but let it suffice to say that this trip would have been terrifying to not one but two provincial Departments of Transportation!

After that dashing display, I realized that an ordinary car would not stand much chance with her, and bought her a sports car, a brand new 1984 black Chrysler laser, turbocharged with the works!

Armed with this vehicle, Ranjana had opportunities to demonstrate her scintillatingly, superior skillset!

For instance, she is the only person I know, who can drive a car that actually talks to you telling that it is low on fuel, but chooses to heroically rebel against the inevitable, managing to run out of gas on more than one occasion!

Furthermore, she is the only person I know that police take a special interest in. When they set out a check point, they stop her while she's going one way, and then they stop her again when she's coming back. Perhaps they know something that even I don’t?

Admittedly, these are minor crises, so you may be wondering, how does she handle something really serious?

Once we were driving to Stratford, Ontario to Shakespeare ourselves, and were confronted with an impatient, illegally crossing the double lines to pass another car coming the other way. It would have been a certain head-on high speed crash! Without hesitation, Ranjana accelerated her powerful sports car onto the soft shoulder, preventing the accident, and leaving behind the now stunned driver of the other car, fearfully stopped in the middle of the road!

So, given the circumstances and his immediate plans, Kyron was in no hurry to learn to drive. What he was hoping to do, may have been to delay things till FSD (full self-driving) cars became available.

However, I wasn't so optimistic even though I certainly thought FSD was the way to do things. It was just too far in the future and there would likely be several complications. Kyron needed his independence and I needed to get alternate employment.

So I talked to him directly in an appropriately logical fashion. I told him that while his mother was quite happy to drive him everywhere till the end of time, his ability to do things would be greatly restricted by relying on others for transportation. He was willing to drive in order to help out at home, of course, but I told him that that wasn't the point I was conveying.

He thought about moving back to Victoria, but calculated it would be much more expensive than commuting even the way we were now with 4 trips. There would also be issues with renting a decently located place with sufficient wifi bandwidth (a problem he'd encountered while doing his Masters degree).

Then we looked into the possibility of electric bikes. Ranjana opposed obstructively objecting with "It's too dangerous", revelling with relish in her role as the over-protective mother. Kyron and I however, saw some merit in the idea despite the problems the rainy season would offer. However, considering that the cost of a decent electric bike was more than what Silveril would bring on resale, the idea was abandoned.

After considering flexibility of movement, capability of carrying equipment, accountability of expenses, it became evident that the best option was to learn to drive.

So I contacted our excellent agent Paula at Westland Insurance and told her Kyron was going to learn to drive. She was delighted and said how exciting that would be, to which I replied, "Yes. Poor baby is only 34 years old!" With typical efficiency she set Kyron up to drive Sapphiril.

Kyron took the written driving test and went out with me several times. Though hesitant at first, he quickly gained confidence and was driving like a pro within a week! It was actually quite amusing being in the car with him, because he'd make snide but accurate comments about the improper drivers he encountered, such as tailgaters, speeders, and lane ignorers. He noticed practically everything and had something to say about it. He even commented on his mother's present speeding tendencies which, while no longer like the Montreal-Toronto debacle, were under excruciating scrutiny! Ranjana came to me one day complaining that Kyron had been hassling her for driving 5 km/hr over the speed limit.

With his Learner license, Kyron could now share half the trip, so I had no issues letting Ranjana do most of the driving allowing me to moonlight into a different profession.

Kyron developed into a fine driver not showing any indication of having inherited his mother's Autoban genes. After getting his New Driver license, Kyron was happily soloing with Sapphiril to all those activities we used to have to drive him to.

While Richard had been sending me possibilities for our next car, Kyron had been telling me he saw no point in getting his own car. So I told Richard, that Kyron categorically said "No!" to getting his own car. Now, you must understand that this refusal was not because Kyron was trying to make Sapphiril his car at all. His refusal was a pattern of 'not wanting' that had been prevalent from his childhood. It was actually quite a mature attitude of non-indulgence that you can read about in The Old Man, a title given to him by his nursery school teacher.

It is true that we didn't really need another car at this point, but what Kyron hadn't taken into account was the original rationale for getting Sapphiril. This car was equipped with major safety features and conveniences that weren't available in Silveril. We had originally bought this car to facilitate Ranjana's driving because she has fairly severe arthritis.

Ranjana, always supporting her son, claimed with increasingly indignant insistence that she could drive Silveril just fine, but Kyron knew it wasn't as good for her as Sapphiril. So he changed his mind immediately agreeing to get his own car.

I emailed Richard and told him we wanted to see the Fiat bringing us to that Saturday of November 9th when Kyron found his Fiat!

However, it was not to be!

Kyron and I went up to Duncan Dodge on Wednesday, November 13 in the Fiat Dodge Duncan had kindly let us drive since Saturday. When we arrived, we learned that Richard wasn't going to be there, but Jeremy would look after us and we just needed to wait for Jen to implement the financial details. I took the opportunity to thank both Sean and Crystal, pointing out that their service was what had convinced me to get the car from here.

Then the surprises began.

When we met with Jen, she indicated the interest payments we would have to make for the car. I told her that Richard had said, we could get the car for no interest till February when we'd have the full amount. She said that wasn't correct, and that dealerships don't do financing that way. I found this turn of events to be peculiar, but Jen went and checked with Jeremy who apparently confirmed this. She said that Richard may have misunderstood the situation.

I told Jen that I wasn't thrilled by this alteration, but if that is the only way for us to get the car, then, we'd pay the full amount in a couple of days after I acquired the money. Jen seemed fine to go ahead with things, but Jeremy suddenly appeared looking very unhappy.

He apologized profusely and dropped a bombshell - we couldn't buy this car despite our agreement, despite the fact the trade-in for Silveril was done, because, believe it or not, Duncan Dodge couldn't sell it! The car was something they were showing for their sister store in Nanaimo.

He said the only way we could buy a Fiat, would be to go to Nanaimo and buy a similar Fiat through that store! He again apologized and said that he was never informed of the situation. He would completely understand if we cancelled the entire deal and took back Silveril.

I thought cancellation would be best at this point.

We had another problem in that I had terminated Sapphiril's insurance for Kyron, so now he had no car to drive! Jeremy said he could extend the insurance for this Fiat for a day, but no more.

That would not be sufficient given Kyron's busy schedule, so we simply cancelled everything, took back Silveril, and left Duncan Dodge on good terms. They had treated us well, but had some internal communication errors, so we didn't think ill of them at all despite the surprises. Besides, we had to figure out what Kyron was going to drive within a couple of hours!

So as we drove home, I told Ranjana what had happened. She immediately called Paula to see if Kyron could be reinstated on Sapphiril right away. Well, you can always count on Paula - we have for years! By the time we got home, Paula had prepared all the necessary paperwork through Docusign and I was able to do almost everything online. I just had to go in to see her, and Kyron would be all set up again!

When we arrived at Westland, Kyron received a phone call from Nanaimo Dodge. They had learned what had taken place and were willing to bring the same trim Fiat to our doorstep! We thought this was indeed very decent of them, but I told Kyron to just hold off so we can think out things a bit. Since he could drive Sapphiril again, there was no longer an urgency.

As you'll see, waiting proved to be the salvationary choice in the story!!

After Kyron left for Victoria in Sapphiril, I started to think of possibilities. I wanted to know for instance, why there seemed to be 3 ways to buy a Fiat: through the Fiat website, through a dealership, and through the Fiat dealer in Victoria.

So I phoned the latter and was greeted by someone identifying themselves as Alfa Romeo Victoria. Thinking I had the wrong number, I asked if they knew how I could contact the Fiat dealership and was surprised to learn that they were the Fiat dealership. I was transferred to one of their salespeople, Sebastian (aka Seba).

I asked him several questions and each answer impressed me with his precision and detail. Never did I sense any attempt to do a 'sales pitch', for here was someone who had such confidence in his product and service, that such gymnastics were unnecessary and undesirable! I told him how it came about that I had called his dealership, providing a brief history. I emphasized that I had nothing bad to say about Duncan Dodge and that we really had been treated very well by those nice people despite the eventual outcome.

Seba then obliquely gave me some very sound wisdom. He said they may be nice, but they need to know their product. That really struck home, because I realized at that moment that not only did Duncan Dodge not know they couldn't sell us the car, but on more than one occasion, Kyron told them something they didn't know about their own Fiat!

It was much worse than that though.

Seba was about to walk me through EV101, but I told him we'd been driving EVs for six years. He was quite pleased and said I must know about the government grants then. I said we did, and that we'd get a $5000 federal grant, and that, we were told Kyron could apply for the $4000 provincial grant after we'd bought the Fiat.

Seba was a bit shocked and told me, "No! You must apply first and then after the application comes through, then you buy the car!"

I was more than a bit shocked!

Had the sale completed at Duncan Dodge or had we followed through on Nanaimo Dodge's offer, we would have lost the $4000 grant!!

It became clear that some Fiat Angel had been looking out for us all this time! The silver lining was that the failed deal led us to Alfa Romeo, but the cloud behind it was far darker than we had realized!

I assured Seba that we weren't going to buy anything till we had a chance to meet with him!

Seba, Kyron, and I exchanged some emails that evening and in one of them Kyron outlined the entire deal Duncan Dodge was offering for the Fiat and the Silveril trade-in. We arranged to go to the dealership the very next day.

When we arrived on Thursday morning, November 14th, in Sapphiril (Silveril needed charging), we learned that Seba couldn't be there due to a previous doctor's appointment and were greeted by the salesmanager, Pietro.

After the first few minutes with him, it became clear to us that we were at a high-end dealership. They were high-end, not because they sold expensive exotic cars (the Fiat is actually the least expensive EV on the market!), but because their level of service rose right to the top! They weren't trying to sell us a car, they were doing their best to make sure we got the car that was right for us and in the right way!

This is how business really should be done by both sides. No haggling, no nickel and dime thumb twisting, where you may gain a few dollars, but at the loss of integrity of both parties. With them, we work together to achieve a mutually desirable state.

Kyron told Pietro that we would get the car from them and that the Silveril trade-in had no bearing on the sale. If we got a decent price on the trade-in, we'd accept. Otherwise, we'd give Silveril to charity. Pietro said he appreciated Kyron's transparency, but thought he could give us a better deal than Duncan Dodge. Furthermore, he encouraged us to take advantage of their $0 interest over 3 years financing! He'd have to see Silveril first of course, so we drove back to Shawnigan Lake so I could bring the car down that afternoon.

Pietro checked it out, test drove it, sat down to scribble numbers on a piece of paper, then showed me the results. I asked how he had come up with the very interesting $3173 trade-in value. What he had done was taken the Duncan Dodge offer and added the finance charge to it, so we'd be covered even for that! True to his word, he did $600 better in total than what we'd been offered before.

For the financing, he introduced me to Alex, who would do the honors including the Silveril transfer on Saturday, November 16th when everything would be ready. Finally, Pietro said, "Welcome to the family!"

Pietro was willing to send me home in a cab, but I felt that kindness would be too much since a trip from Victoria to Shawnigan Lake was over $100. So he charged up Silveril for me so I would have no concerns getting home.

While we waited we had a long chat about various topics.

I told him that Kyron had named the car Scuro, and he was surprised that an Italian name had been chosen. I explained that my son was a vocal and diction instructor at UVic and VCM, so he was familiar with various languages. In fact, he thought Pietro had a very fine singing voice! Pietro was pleased by the assessment, but thought his Italian accent was too heavy. I said singers often try to develop the correct inflections when singing in other languages, and that he had a headstart!

I learned that he had done work at the University of Calabria in hospitality and told him it showed!

He had somehow surmised that I was a teacher and we talked about my background. We also covered areas such as diet, health, and awareness. It was really quite a delightful conversation and indeed, I felt welcomed to this Alfa Romeo family!

When the charging was done for Silveril, Pietro jokingly said, "Be careful with the car, because it's my car now." I said he had nothing to worry about because I really was a very conscientious driver. He seemed reassured, till I mentioned that Ranjana was less inclined to be so, relating the Montreal-Toronto cataclysm. Then I removed my hood and after he recovered from the reflective radiance emanating from my head, I said, "Did you know that before I met my wife, I had a full head of hair?"

Noting the look of deep consternation that had suddenly come over his face, I allayed his fears, telling him that Ranjana rarely drove Silveril, causing Pietro to burst into the uncontrollable laughter of relief, still squinting from the glare.

On Saturday, November 16, Kyron and I drove down in Sapphiril to pick up Scuro, and were greeted by Seba, accompanied by his assistant in training, Matthew.

Then the surprises began.

But different ones this time!

Seba told us that since we had an unfortunate experience earlier, they had prepared something special. We followed him to a showroom and found Scuro meticulously gift-wrapped for us.

Then Matthew and Seba unwrapped Scuro!

(See the Alfa Romeo Victoria page in our businesses section for kudos to this superb dealership.)

We have never encountered a gesture such as this!

Kyron went through the first-delivery as Seba explained various points to him. Their second-delivery would take place at a later date after Kyron had a chance to drive the car for a while. Seba also assured us that anytime we had any questions about Scuro, they would be there for us. They certainly do honor to the family concept!

Then Alex showed up to handle all the finance paperwork which included various protective packages we could add on, all covered within the 3 year, no interest loan! He went over all the details, answering our questions with careful thoroughness. I was quite amazed by his smooth handling of a massive number of forms! When we did the insurance with an outside agent, he was there to make sure there was no unnecessary duplication of benefits!

Alex showed the same level of thoughtfulness and consideration that Seba and Pietro had earlier! It was quite evident that we had acquired much more than a car!

Finally, everything was done and there was nothing left but for Kyron to drive away in Scuro. Pietro appeared at that moment and with a mischievous smile told us, "This time you get to keep the car!"

And so we did!

UNDER CONSTRUCTION