Big Red Taco

Well I guess it's apparent that I'm serious about buying a new truck. It's legroom, a back seat, side curtain airbags, bed track liner system, and a rear view camera that won me over. Plus it's red, a manual 5-speed and a 2010. I'm more anxious every day that I'll have the money to pay for it. I don't think it's a problem, but I've got about a month of waiting before it arrives. I like the feeling of having something to work for. No kids, no mortgage (yet), not a lot of debt, and I already own a 2001 model, so I can save on insurance by making this one a recreational vehicle. I have to say that I didn't get a lot of encouragement initially from friends and family. That is until I reminded them that life is for the living and the points from two sentences back.

Think?

I don't know why I slip away from Zen from time to time. I'm leaving the shop the other day and see a bar patron outside of the bar, on the cell, and with her drink glass on my truck. To elicit a response, I say, "Get your drink off my bar". She exits her call, turns, and becomes defensive. No sense of humor. I'm met with lots of, "Do you think I'm...". Oh, you want to know what I think. I think you wouldn't be amused if I showed up with my drink on your car. I think you have no respect for anything in the area, like everything around her is part of some alcohol playground. I think you're only here to be able to say where you are to people on the cell who aren't here. I think... crap... I say, "I think you're a pretentious bitch. I think you don't care and should go back to drinking". Not very nice and absent Zen.
LCDTV took a header biking out in Baton Rouge. Blown up wrist and cracked helmet and many impact abrasions. Man down! Warrior is out for a week starting a day before I get back from my second break of the year. I doubt I'll take anymore strings of days off until Winter. Phantom has his helmet cam back in action. I like the videos, very realistic. Red dog got a new collar.
Today a client comes in with her 50 lb. trike loaded down with 60+ lbs. of art type stuff. She has a flat and before exploring common occurrences like punctures, she is convinced that we installed the wrong size tube the last time we changed her tube. There is no vocal reply that would be effective, this is only resolved though demonstration. Funny when I show her the little piece of wire poking through the tire. No slight of hand, and a guarantee that she will be charged if we're not at fault, she is cornered and ought to pay extra for the immediate service. I feel that the flat occurred during a period which within some grace from the original repair and charge her only for the tube. If I had been thinking, I would have weighed the option for ending commerce with this person and saving future drama as is likely to happen with this client. Command performances with great explanation are tiring and unprofitable. The catch-22 of doing business in NOLA. xx% of the people here are poor. You can choose to price them out of your store or slide your scale to provide them with help they really could use. The downside is they open cans of worms on you and return too frequently and take time you could spend on people with money. If only those of little means could have little expectations or maybe some patience? I try to respect everyone as individuals. Reality is different in a business. Most clients are appreciative and respectful. It's hard not to toss out the fringe clients when they abandon their bikes, steal your time without ever intending to buy something, and otherwise assume we're the reason their bikes don't work or that we're rich. I think that everyone is prejudiced about everyone else and in some way, play out their position regardless of reality. Well almost everyone. I guess this is my prejudice. It's just a supposition.

Back to the front

It's easy to lose track of what's important when you're tired. We have a special kind of bicycle shop. We want the clientèle to believe in us and trust our advice. We go to great lengths to choose products we feel are high quality and great value. Well, most of the products at least. We extensively assemble each bicycle from the least expensive to the full custom, top of the line, dream machines. We often do a little lagniappe on the bikes we take in for repair. You know, something extra at no charge. You wouldn't get it if you asked for it, but extra love for good customers and those we would like to impress as well as a few just plain charitable acts for someone down on their luck are the norm. It's not something written into our corporate charter, but a natural offering in the spirit of generosity.
It has become more difficult to be generous lately as time constraints often has us tearing through repairs and moving along sales. As the staff diminishes, I think we will retract some of our instantaneous promises and look to provide a stable line of jobs that we can do our best on. Each bike presents a unique set of problems that keep you from truly knowing how long the repair will take. Especially if you aren't going to do the work.
It would be nice to divide the day into segments where from x:xx to y:yy we do this and so forth. Cleaning, repairs, organization, and more cleaning. It never works out the way I plan it no matter how hard I try. So, my goal will be starting from the front, where the money walks in, returning to the attitudes which make the shop a great place to shop and get your bike worked on.

Future Noir

It's seems like everyone is dizzy with the price of petrol. Gas passes the lips regularly in our daily discussions. Reality of cheap fuel has left us for the moment and panic rushes into our patriotically vacant souls. The price of anything that must be moved long distances or involves petroleum in its manufacture is going up. Period. Once offsets in wages catch up, another price hike will have already hit, leaving those without wage increases with even less. Fuel and the time to burn it increase in cost and those who make a buck speculating take that buck, we're in for an inflation ride for a good while. Even if politics turns your head, you're affected. The robber barons are back with a vengeance. 2009 has already seen the biggest price spike in memory and we're not even there yet. The global economy has us tethered to our creditors in a death grip and we so tangled, even if we eked back to our previous manufacturing glory, it wouldn't find a market.
So what now, a service oriented economy, with pharmaceuticals and education as our major exports? We'll teach you how to sell and use drugs, the right ones. Big thoughts for a lowly mechanic who's main goal is to be a homeowner before his untimely death by lack of health insurance and malpractice. What else is there but buying a space to slowly die in so when you can no longer work, at least you don't have to worry about rent while you're sitting in the dark. Maybe someone to share the misery, I mean, memories with. The future may be black, but so what. We need answers that solve the simple problems like radio spectrum allocation and honey bee colony collapse. Without solid science, we're blissfully ignorant. Pass the bliss when you're done with it.

There is no whip.

I am self motivating. I have a deep curiosity about the nature of things. Sometimes my hands hurt. These points are a general guide to my work ethic. I often say no first, and then do it anyway. I don't like feeling as if I'm being taken advantage of, but I like seeing the surprise of someone when they find something they wanted done - done. I don't know exactly what motivates others to perform, probably money or a sense of satisfaction. We all need money to pay for life. I want to do stuff I like to do, interesting stuff. Money is a bonus and it's taken me a long time to realize my worth in this department. I like finding ways to convince others that they want to do something or challenge themselves and their comfort level.
It is a challenge to me to both earn my keep as an employee and provide support for the staff. The Wizard shot an arrow at me today and I get the feeling he doesn't approve of some of my style of mechanics. He seeks an absolute solution and sees little room for shades of gray. I have very high standards of mechanics and aesthetics when I work an a bicycle. I don't like inelegant solutions, but I'm willing to arrive at a conclusion that my not be the best, but the better. Some work requires lowering standards to come to a cost effective completion. The gold dipped turd still stinks so save some money and don't shine shit. I've read repair tags that stated how many hours he spent on a bike and thought, "Was that necessary?".
We can all work smarter. As a simple start, we must strive to communicate with the clients and each other to make the most truthful, efficient path to the end goal. We can minimize mistakes and waste by not getting in over our heads and using the tremendous talent of the combined group to our advantage. There is no reason to be a soothsayer because being forthright and obvious will bring a better end. If someone doesn't like our honest suggestion, it is better we not serve them. It always comes back to bite us on the ass. On the other side, there is a natural progression we can follow to help the client arrive at a conclusion as we do. Being condescending doesn't work as well and being authoritative. Present the facts and don't be afraid to say, "I don't know".
I am not disappointed with the staff, quite the contrary. I am only disappointed that we are too busy to spend much time learning new things. It's not hard to learn to fix a bike, but it is hard to learn to fix all bicycles. The great thing about our demographic is the wide diversity of vehicles they provide to learn about. Our charge is actually service these bikes expertly. "To ask together" is at the heart of the word competition. By learning constancy, we have no competition.