False recognition

The good news is that my car (My mother's car, but I drive it most of the time), is very reliable and seldom needs repair. The bad news is that once in a while it does. Yesterday, I took it into the dealership for a pre-arranged appointment. While it was being repaired, I wondered how they would tell me when it had been repaired (the repair was expected to be short, or at least require my approval if it was going to take longer. I saw my car in the shop on a hoist, and work being done on another car next to it, and so I settled in to wait a while. Meanwhile, I had missed breakfast to make the appointment, and so I walked a block to filling station for a sandwich. During that walk I noticed how many cars looking exactly like mine were around me. When I got back, the car was still on the hoist. Even so, the clerk found me and said my car was ready!. It seems I failed to take what I said earlier to heart: the car on that hoist was somebody else's.