Every other time I fill up the car with gas, I get someone to check the oil for me.  Now this is something I should have learned to do for myself 100 years ago, but to me, looking under the hood of a car is a menacing prospect. Metal and wires and belts and thingamajigs--eek! I might as well be looking at the innards of a giant metal monster with fangs in it.
So I fill up with gas and record the transaction ( I keep a notebook where I record date, time, gas purchase, price, how much mileage I got from last fillup etc. I also record when oil is changed, and any other info.) Meanwhile I'm looking for a likely prospect to walk by so I can ask if they'll check the oil for me.
I don't ask men walking out of the convenience store with cases of beer to do it. They have beer on their mind--don't bother them. I don't ask anyone with kids hanging on their arms whining for snacks. Too distracted. I don't ask tourists who stop to refuel and are in a hurry--because they're in a hurry. But within a minute or two a prospect will walk by, and I ask if he will check the oil for me.
Yesterday a prospect walked out of the convenience store wearing a Corps of Engineers shirt, and had a bottle of water in his hand--bingo! I asked if he'd check the oil and he said sure. He showed me how to move the latch under the hood to open it up so you can lift the thing, how to put the prop stick thing in to hold up the hood, and where the oil dipstick was, and showed me where the lines were to tell if the level was low.
He said he was from Denver, but I detected an underlying accent. I asked if he was from the Middle East. He said no, maybe because that's not something anyone would want to admit to nowadays. He said he was from India. I asked why India renamed Bombay "Mumbai" and he said the British had named Bombay (I like the way Bombay sounds) and India, getting away from British imperialism, had renamed it after some sort of Indian goddess.
I still think that guy was from the Middle East, but he was very kind and after checking the oil bade goodbye. I'm good for another 1,000 miles or so now.      susil