SeaCat
Hey, my Halo is smoking
- Joined
- Sep 23, 2003
- Posts
- 15,378
Last week I dropped my carbs off at a local shop to have them gone over. The owner told me they would be done on Tuesday. well Tuesday rolled around and there was no call about the carbs. Yesterday morning the wife and I were out running errands and decided to go to the shop and find out what was going on.
When we walked inside the front of the shop I could tell something wasn't right. There were a couple of Sport Bikers standing at the counter yelling at the owners wife because their bikes weren't being worked on right then. When they saw me they decided to take their business elsewhere.
It was only after they had left that I found out what was going on. The owner had been hit by a drunk driver Friday Evening and was in the hospital. That meant he hadn't been able to work on any of the bikes or bike parts all weekend. The shop was backed up and because they ran on a shoestring they were looking at losing it. (The owner is the mechanic and his wife does the books and answers the phone.)
When I heard this I looked at my wife then told the lady to hang onto her sanity, I would be back.
About an hour later I backed my car up to the garage doors and shut down. The owners wife poked her head out to watch my wife and I climb out of the car and open up the back. She didn't understand at first as my wife grabbed a coffee pot and I grabbed both of my Tool Boxes. It was only when we carried this stuff into the garage that she started to get the idea. She really got the idea when I asked her to show me the work orders and started sorting them as to difficulty of work. My wife meanwhile set up the coffee pot and started it brewing.
Most of the jobs were fairly simple ones. Change a headlight bulb on this bike. Change the oil on that one and adjust the chain on yet another. A couple of the bikes needed their carbs synchronized which I did. (It's not hard if you have the right tools.) Only two of the bikes needed serious work, I left them to the side.
About 1500 the wife received a call from her husband and said she needed to leave for a bit. My wife stepped out to the counter and I kept working.
By 1600 I had cleared the majority of the backlog and decided to take a break. I poured yet another cup of coffee and stepped out back to have a cigar. I was sitting there on the bumper of my car when the owner hobbled out of the shop on crutches and joined me. He was shaking his head as my wife came out with a cup of coffee for him. We didn't say anything.
When I was done with my cigar we went back inside and he inspected my work. (I didn't mind, it's his shop after all.) That was when he asked me why I was doing this. I just shrugged and told him I didn't have anything else planned for the day. He wanted to pay me and I laughed him off telling him he couldn't afford my rates. Besides I didn't need the money that badly. (Hey I can always use a bit more scratch but not that way.) I went to work cleaning up the place as he went into the front to talk with his wife and mine.
We left there at about 1800. His work had been caught up and he wasn't staring down the gun any longer. Before we left he did insist on one thing. He wanted his wife to take a picture of me and him so he could hang it on the wall. I agreed to this although I warned them the camera might break. So now there is a picture on the wall of him standing next to a little guy in greasy jeans, a battered shirt and a worn leather vest.
Oh I did tell him I wasn't going to pick up my carbs until next week and I expected to be charged the full rate for them.
What the hell, I have a good feeling about what I did and that's all I can ask for.
Cat
When we walked inside the front of the shop I could tell something wasn't right. There were a couple of Sport Bikers standing at the counter yelling at the owners wife because their bikes weren't being worked on right then. When they saw me they decided to take their business elsewhere.
It was only after they had left that I found out what was going on. The owner had been hit by a drunk driver Friday Evening and was in the hospital. That meant he hadn't been able to work on any of the bikes or bike parts all weekend. The shop was backed up and because they ran on a shoestring they were looking at losing it. (The owner is the mechanic and his wife does the books and answers the phone.)
When I heard this I looked at my wife then told the lady to hang onto her sanity, I would be back.
About an hour later I backed my car up to the garage doors and shut down. The owners wife poked her head out to watch my wife and I climb out of the car and open up the back. She didn't understand at first as my wife grabbed a coffee pot and I grabbed both of my Tool Boxes. It was only when we carried this stuff into the garage that she started to get the idea. She really got the idea when I asked her to show me the work orders and started sorting them as to difficulty of work. My wife meanwhile set up the coffee pot and started it brewing.
Most of the jobs were fairly simple ones. Change a headlight bulb on this bike. Change the oil on that one and adjust the chain on yet another. A couple of the bikes needed their carbs synchronized which I did. (It's not hard if you have the right tools.) Only two of the bikes needed serious work, I left them to the side.
About 1500 the wife received a call from her husband and said she needed to leave for a bit. My wife stepped out to the counter and I kept working.
By 1600 I had cleared the majority of the backlog and decided to take a break. I poured yet another cup of coffee and stepped out back to have a cigar. I was sitting there on the bumper of my car when the owner hobbled out of the shop on crutches and joined me. He was shaking his head as my wife came out with a cup of coffee for him. We didn't say anything.
When I was done with my cigar we went back inside and he inspected my work. (I didn't mind, it's his shop after all.) That was when he asked me why I was doing this. I just shrugged and told him I didn't have anything else planned for the day. He wanted to pay me and I laughed him off telling him he couldn't afford my rates. Besides I didn't need the money that badly. (Hey I can always use a bit more scratch but not that way.) I went to work cleaning up the place as he went into the front to talk with his wife and mine.
We left there at about 1800. His work had been caught up and he wasn't staring down the gun any longer. Before we left he did insist on one thing. He wanted his wife to take a picture of me and him so he could hang it on the wall. I agreed to this although I warned them the camera might break. So now there is a picture on the wall of him standing next to a little guy in greasy jeans, a battered shirt and a worn leather vest.
Oh I did tell him I wasn't going to pick up my carbs until next week and I expected to be charged the full rate for them.
What the hell, I have a good feeling about what I did and that's all I can ask for.
Cat
(I commented that it might chase away customers.)
