Did Tim Burton Write Yesterday's Script?

SO...just gonna write off yesterday like it never happened.
AS IF I COULD!
What a WEIRD day!
(Yea...this is one of those time when I witch..so skip over a few paragraphs if you're not inclined to share.)
First thing to stick a HUGE chip in my craw was having to contend with our credit card processors.  Oh are THESE people a REAL piece of work!  As many who have come in know, we have not been able to take credit cards for a few months now.  Trust me, it aint been from a lack of trying!  We switched our service back in December, as the previous company we worked with kept jacking up their rates until we were paying 21% on every purchase.  We went with the Square, with their promise that the whole set up would take three days to complete.
That was on December, 21 2015!
Lest me just say, if you own your own business and the "Elliot Management Group" tries to convince you to use their service? Run away screaming! 
Now, not only did they not deliver on ONE promise, but it took them until Feb 29, 2016 to deliver the equipment. Unfortunately, the equipment was NO good unless it was set up on the phone, something they had to send a tech rep out to do....which didn't happen until YESTERDAY!
Now, the biggest problem was, that no sooner did we get the equipment, did the "Service Charges" begin!  Mind you, when we signed up, it was clearly stated "NO MONTHLY SERVICE CHARGES!!!"   OKAY, so that was OUR fault for not reading the fine print!  The processing company only charges per transaction, but it's the credit card companies themselves that charge the fees!  Trouble was, we were charged for a full month when we only had the equipment for a day!  Well, we got that fee refunded, but still, no rep to set it up.  So when the next month rolled around, and we still had no service, and they charged us again, I called them out on it.  They again, agreed to refund the amount, but in some odd maneuvering (I guess someone changed their mind) ten minuets after they refunded the original amount, they charged our bank account AGAIN, plus a thirty dollar fee on top of it!
YEESH!!
Needless to say, I spent the better part of the day contending with these people. 
During that time, things took a turn for the worse! 
Elijah and Kaleb were both up at the shop.  Kaleb working, and Elijah hanging out.  As it turned out, because of the frakas with the bank, we needed to get the light bill paid, and Elijah offered to pay off the shortfall until I could straighten things out. 2.30 rolled around and I was still in "On Hold" limbo, so I asked Elijah if he could go get the girls from school.  He headed out a few minuets later, only to call me shortly thereafter to inform me that he had just been hit on his bike at the corner!!
We all took off running!  He was going through the intersection of Patricia and Beltrees, just at the end of the Plaza , and with the crossing signal on, and ushered across by the school crossing guard ANOTHER idiot car driver barreled into the intersection, taking a hard right and mowed him down.  Well, actually, threw him OVER their car!  He's okay, thank God!  But, I insisted he go with the paramedics to get thoroughly checked out, and in the end, no broken bones or head injury, but enough contusions and stiffness to warrant morphine at the hospital and a prescription for hydrocodone. 
This intersection is one of the WORST in Florida.  Not that it's a blind corner or anything, but the fact that the cross signal is in conjunction with a solid green.  The road is two lanes, and heavily trafficked.  so folks tend NOT to slow down when taking the turn, to hell with whoever may be in the crosswalk.  What makes it even more serious is the fact that it's the same road the schools are on so more than half the "walking" students use that stretch of road, on that particular side, to get home!  And, as both left and right turning traffic compete to make the light, anyone in that crosswalk is in CROSSHAIRS!!
Izabella was almost run down by a ditzy blonde in a Mercedes two weeks ago, and I was a mere four feet in front of her waiting in the middle of the intersection for her to cross when this twit cut a hard right ON HER CELL PHONE and almost mowed her down!!!  What made THAT experience all the more tragic, was a scant few moments later, a police officer pulled us over a half mile up the road!  At first I thought perhaps the incident was reported by the crossing guard, and he was there to check up on us and take a statement.  Oh...no.  The lady that took the freaking turn called the cops and reported negligence!! ON OUR PART!!! I was dumbfounded!  Even Izzy and Rozy exclaimed that the lady almost hit US!  But, in true police fashion, they always take the side of the car driver and merely chastised US to be more careful!?!?!
UM....don't the police KNOW the law?  The CAR is supposed to yield to pedestrians!!  When Angi heard of this, she went ballistic and called the police to ask for them to investigate, to which she got the patented brush off of "What would you like US to do about it!?"
Yea...the local police REALLY need to change the moto on their cars to read "To serve and protect...anyone in a car"
Now...if THAT wasn't enough to make our collective hair gray even more...after we got Elijah sent off to the hospital, Kaleb and I returned to the shop, me carrying Elijahs now defunct bike (the REAL irony of that was, Elijah had JUST replaced his wheelset with a nice set of deep dish single speed he picked up, which were now toast!) when Kaleb hooked up with a friend to go and grab lunch.  But, as they were backing out of the parking spot, the driver struck a parked car! 
Okay....now it was just getting "sadfunny"!
More cops later....
and I just wanted to curl up into the fetal position and mumble incoherently!
Well, on the bright side, I think Elijah has a REAL good lawsuit in his future!
So, needless to say, with all the excitement, nothing of any significance got done!  We did manage to get a bunch more goodies, though, so at least I have a lot to keep me busy today. 
So, with that. I am going to click my heels together, sprinkle a little fairy dust and "think good thoughts" and hope for a better day today!
See y'all soon!

AUNTIE EM! IT'S A TWISTER, IT'S A TWISTER!!!

...been a few days.

Okay, first things first, weird freaking weather yesterday morning!

Came home from the plant the usual time, about 3 am and sat on the porch for before bed chill time.  The weather was pleasent with not a cloud in the sky.  When I turned my phone on my weather app flashed with the three day forecast declaring clear sunny skies across the board.  Complete with pleasant temps.  NICE!  So...imagine my surprise a scant three hours later to find Angela running through the house frantically waking everyone up to get to the center of the house as all our cell phones went into klaxon mode, flashing bright red letters "TORNADO ALERT!! IMMINENT DANGER!! SEEK SHELTER IMMEDIATELY!!" 

To tell the truth , if the bloody thing touched down in our neighborhood...I'd be dead.  I never woke up I was so out of it!  I didn't even know what happened until Angela came out later for morning coffee.  Apparently a twister hit less than a mile away (three more struck surrounding areas) and she described how when she came outside earlier she could see failed funnels starting to churn all over head and the wind was so bad the stop sign on our corner was hobby horsing it back and forth.  Oddly enough, none of our outside stuff was disturbed at all!  Yea, I'd hate anything to happen to our collection of vintage bike lawn art!  Oh yea, one trip down our street and you KNOW where the bike people live!  Don't try and snag 'em though...none are rideable!  Heh. Heh!

It's just freaking odd how there was so little warning of even a storm coming in?  Bizzare.

So, things at the shop have been rather quiet the last couple days, thoigh.  Where did everybody go?  Npt even the usual slew of daily repairs.  So, nothing exciting to report there.  

Did have another visit from Uncle Chippie.  He's sweet, checking up to see if I'm being a good boy.  Yes, purifying my diet....tough, but I'm just thankfulI like veggies.  Hard to give up bloody rare steak though!  Damn! But...there's always samon.  The good thing is...I can eat ALL the garlic I want!  YUMMMY!!!  You want the best snack?  Pick up a jar of smoked pickled garlic cloves!  TO DIE FOR!!!

Just warn your significant other, or carry a pack of Trident.  And DON'T get on a crowded elevator....they'll KNOW it was you!  Sound travels!

So...this week, after my overnight in the hospital last week, I slept in and had Kaleb open, but next week I'll be back on point.  He's just not ready for busy mornings alone.  Plus, I gotta keep banging out newbies as stock got low again.  He can rough them out but I just don't trust anyone to give our rides the full Recycle treatment.  But he'll get it eventually.

Whoops. Went off on a tangent.  So yea. I'm cutting down on the bad and hopefully will start juicing this weekend when I have time to make the concoction.  Kale, green apples,lime..etc.  Don't know WHAT that's gonna taste like.  

Oh it's all about me day!

Anywho. Tomorrow is gonna be busy.  Miranda finally starts school tomorrow and we have to be up by six AM to take her for the first morning.  I have NO idea how THAT'S going to go.  She is SOOOO attached to Angi...could be MAJOR separation anexity!  

But...at least I'll be up to hit the shop early...and take a nap!

So. I'd best go get a couple hours..

See y'all tomorrow...blurry eyes and all!

Still kicking!

Man. What DID I do today?
Hmmmmm?
Well....I know cleaning was involved! 
Ummmm? There was...ah YES! Now I remember!  Oodles of repairs! That's always fun and we picked up a PLETHORA of newbie material that if Kaleb values his tush will have had torn down for me this afternoon to get on first thing in the AM tomorrow.  Also sent the Raleigh mtb and the IZip to new homes as well! 
Thanks to Chip for swinging by today and giving me a stern talking too about my health. Yes. I am on my way to a severe diet change and kicking the smoke.  Heh...they said ELIMINATE stress!  And thanks to the anonymous gent for popping in and giving us a GREAT compliment today!  Oddest thing, I was talking to a couple folks early in the day and out of no where a past customer just burst through the door exclaiming he LOVED this place and we were fantastic people, then walked out .  
Wow.  
So awesome!
Yea, out of the new goodies the real gem is a classic all chrome Diamondback I'm looking forward to digging into first thing.
Returning to the warehouse was surreal. Apparently, word gets round real quick and everyone there was quick to inquire how I was doing, and no sooner did I explain did the all in food jest jokes come.  The funniest had to be the lead foreman threatening to hug me cause I "just needed more loving" and my bosses ribbing about a rectal exam!  Ah men...we all understand each other.  Than Bill, the night foreman kept coming around my department inquiring"are you dead yet?" 
Ah yes, a factory filled with guys with sick senses of humor. Could there be anything more heart warming?
I did take some time to research recipes to help reduce cholesterol and got a good juice idea. Not only that but one of the best things is oats and barley to help eliminate bad cholesterol so....YAY BEER!!!!
Heh heh heh!
All in moderation folks!
But...maybe they mean Cheerios?
Hmmmm. Oscar Madison got it right...beer ON Cheerios!
Okay....I'll stop.
Allright. Best get to bed.
See y'all soon!

Dare to take a Risk, MAN!

Oh, what a wonderful Sunday!
Yea, somewhat banal opening, but it fits! 
After last week, I needed, very simply, some chill time.  I was allowed to sleep until almost noon, then upon waking, went out to my morning coffee to discover a marvelous day!  Blue skies, nice breeze and mild temps, and I became inspired to make it an "outside day".  Sure, we did a wee bit of the traditional Sunday cleaning chores, but mostly, we all (well...most everyone, the older boys find it incredibly difficult to separate themselves from their bloody cell phones) played and relaxed outside for the afternoon, then cleaning up the Barbeque, made a simple flame broiled dinner.  Having set up the outside dining table, the kids were thrilled to have a "picnic".  As an added bonus, when some of the kids and I went to the store, one of our neighbors was just putting out a wrought iron table and four chairs (made in 1967!) for trash pickup.  A couple trips back to the house, later, and we had NEW (to us) patio furniture!  Perfect for in the grilling area.  As I cooked, Izzy and I played some Uno, then we fed.  After clean up, Elijah set up the outside movie theatre Angi was inspired to create for the party, and we all lounged in the back yard, closing out the evening watching "Finding Neverland".  Bed time was easy, as all of the youngins passed out (except Miranda of course) then, to close out the evening Angi and I enjoyed some much needed peace and quiet in front of the fire pit. 
It was a pleasant reprieve from the weather of Saturday, I assure you.  Rainy, the majority of the day, it was a tad bit slow, even though we did send two more rides to new homes, but the repairs were obviously slow.  Not too much of a problem, though, as I had PLENTY to keep busy with.  After some much needed cleaning and reorganizing, set about the FULL refurb of the SAH-WEET Hunter "BIG BOSS" Cruiser!  Oh...she came out even better then I could have hoped for!  Check out the pic below.
Once we finished that up, it was time to head out.  Thankfully, the rain had ended mid afternoon, so it was a dry ride, but once I got home, the harassment began! HA, HA! 
Elijah had been pleading with me for the last week to go and see "Superman V Batman".  Angi and I never got out last week, as planned, to view it, and even though I was hesitant to see it without her, she said no worries.  Quite frankly, she had reservations about seeing it (not a big Affleck fan) but it was only after seeing it, then relaying my impressions to her later that evening, did she reveal that was "why" she wasn't going to bother.
That, my friends, is a lead in to another "MOVIE REVIEW!"
****************SPOILER ALERTS A PLENTY!!!!**********************************
My dire predictions of the path of DC movies was, unfortunately, proven accurate!  As much as I wanted to love this movie....I just couldn't.  To be honest, I really didn't even like it.  And for a myriad of reasons, here to fore revealed, in no certain order.  The biggest problem is, that in an attempt to capitalize on the popularity of Marvel Movies, not to mention the WHOPING numbers pumped out by Avengers, DC came to terms with the fact they NEED a Justice League movie.  But, they rushed it BIG TIME!  Unlike the subtle nods to other DC stalwart's in the first Superman Movie (remember, the first Supes movie was the "beginning" of the "NEW" DC universe, Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy with Christian Bale, doesn't count) such as Batman, Cyborg, Zantana, Green Lantern etc, etc (just google Superman "Easter Eggs" for the full skinny)  which are acceptable previews, this New Superman Movie was nothing more than a two plus hour set up for the upcoming JLA film! 
ARRGH!!!
Here's why I say this.  First, the script for the full film was completely unoriginal. Instead of taking a chance and creating something wholly unique, all the writers did was take the popular elements of classic comic book stories such as Frank Millers "The Dark Knight Returns" and blended it with the pivotal "Death of Superman" and "Doomsday" story lines.  That's....IT!  Of course, like in EVERY bloody Batman story to DATE, they felt the incessant need to waste valuable screen time on YET AGAIN rehashing WHY Batman became who he was!  OH FER CRIMENELY!!  I think the WHOLE world KNOWS Bruce's folks got shot by a mugger, he set to avenge them, saw a bat...and there ya go! We DON'T need to waste fifteen minutes rehashing it!  The ONLY thing I liked about the "flashback" (SLOW MOTION?  REALLY!?!) was the fact that the part of Bruce's father was played by a cameo from Jeffrey Dean Morgan.  Okay, follow me on this one, Jeffrey played the Comedian in "The Watchmen" a much maligned but, by far, WAY BETTER movie!  The subtle nod being, that in the opening credits of the Watchmen movie (yes, a DC property) the character "The Nightowl" is shown punching out a would be mugger, behind a movie theatre featuring the Zorro film.  In the background can be seen an obviously affluent couple clutching their young son.  An obvious reference to the thwarting of Batman's origin.  I found that "seven steps to Kevin Bacon" moment, priceless!

 But I digress!
The new film is choppy, and has moments where you are introduced to Wonder Woman, first in her alter ego form, then in costume later on, but her place there, is not conducive to the story.  Then, as Batman has gained access to Lex Luthor's "secret files" he stumbles upon the "Meta Human", oddly enough, featuring footage of "Wonder Woman", "Cyborg", "Flash" and "Aquaman" (Um....how come no files on Supes or Bats?  Because, the viewing public doesn't NEED to be introduced to those characters....DUH'!) Yea, there files were complete with each copy written insignia!  Batman then recognizes the Diana (aka "Wonder Woman" (keep up folks)) whom he ran into, conveniently, at Lex Luthor's Party, and see's an old WW1 (?) photo of her, in costume, along with a crew including Steve Trevor (film still, anyone) SO, he emails the files to her, and in the middle of the film, she plops down at her laptop, and then she (and the viewing audience) are treated to short "Preview" snippets of the upcoming Films (along with the appearance of a "Mother Box" in the Cyborg snippet, leading to the obvious conclusion, along with the following "Flash Forward" scene, that the villainous Darkseid will surely be the one to beat in the JLA film! The Flash Forward scene comes as Batman is pondering the intentions of the Kryptonian, and has a visitation from the Flash (via a speed force induced Time Tunnel (oh, yea, gotta dig deep in the DC Mythos for this one folks) who informs him he is correct in his mistrust of Superman.  We are then treated to a "vision" of our near future, as Superman Lords of the Earth with an Iron Fist, teamed up with a cadre of jack booted armed thug, with the aerial support of Para-Demons (another gift from Darkseid) who demolish a Batman led uprising, then as Bat's is strung up in chains, Superman LITERALLY rips his heart out. 
This is SOOOO not a subtle "Sneak Peek" at upcoming events. 
Look, I am a fan (obviously) of both the comics and the movies, and I ADORE the fact that the new wave of Superhero movies pays loving homage to their "in Print" forbearers, but in- jokes and Easter eggs aside, WHY couldn't we have had an ORIGINAL storyline?  I mean, come on!  THIS is probably the MOST pivotal story to tell in the history of Super Hero's.  Two of the OLDEST costumed crime fighters (Superman, arguably being THE original Super Hero) who have LONG had a rivalry, and uneasy working relationship, coming together, for the first time on film, and Hollywood uses it as nothing more than a sidebar to promote another series of films?  Truly, I feel slighted, insulted and marginalized as a fan. 
Oh, there are many more issues with this film, such as the incessant need of DC to turn EVERY bad guy into a psychopath.  WHY?!  Lex Luthor, in this film, pathetically portrayed by the ANNOYING actor Jesse Eisenberg (LORD, I can't stand this guy) as a fast talking, riddled with pathos, and SEVERE Daddy issues, comes off as nothing more than a used car salesman!  ARRGH!!  Sorry, but Lex Luthor was cold, calculative, manipulative and possessed a total disregard for anything save his own personal interests, but he was NOT a salivating lunatic prone to bouts of dysfunctional, disjointed mannerisms!  Seriously!  NO ONE that disconnected from reality would have ever been able to run a multi billion dollar enterprise (Donald Trump not withstanding!)
In the end, sadly for Elijah, our resident DC fan, he was visibly disappointed that I didn't get the thrill he was hoping I would, but in the camps of Marvel VS DC (I tend to veer towards Marvel, obviously) I can only say that by weight and measure, Marvel has hit the right button with each and every film they have put out (after they finally got the point with Blade), but I really thought DC was on the right track.  I just hope they can learn from this debacle and get it fixed with the upcoming films, but it is a tragedy that squandered this moment in a big, big way!
ALRIGHTY!
I best get to some REAL work now!
See y'all soon!!

Dateline: UPDATE!

So today was filled with labors of love!
Right off the bat we got a visit from one of our regulars who had snagged a classic 90's Schwinn "Big Boss" style cruiser at a local yard sale, but didn't realize the level of work that she needed to get her up to snuff!  SOOOOOOO, the sweet Trek 700 we HAD caught his eye, and he traded up!  WELL, we MORE than welcomed the gem!  He wasn't even out of the shop 30 seconds before she went under the knife and got the FULL work up, complete with NEW cruiser tread!  I LOVE these old boss frames!  Check her out below!
Once he was done, I pulled a classic Schwinn Mountain Bike (one of the rides I spoke of earlier) and put her through a FULL tear down.  MAN!  Was that  task!  30 year old aluminum seat post in a cromoly frame?!  WHAT A CHORE!!!  Anyone who has ever had to UNSTICK one of these puppies KNOWS what I'm talking about!  I was a good boy, though!  I kept the Daddy language to a minimum, sparing my blood pressure!  Heh, heh!  Once out (an hour later) I did the full clean up, and with only a few replacement parts (and a nice set of Bonterrager tread) we got ourselves an excellent example of when Schwinn made a real strong effort to compete with the upper class rides of the day!  Granted, the paint has seen better days, but the action on this ride is CHERRY! 
At this point, I was pushing seven PM (making up for time lost) and put the Hunter Big Boy Boss Cruiser under the gun!  She's all stripped and waiting for the treatment that she'll get tomorrow, as I need another set of NEW tread for her!  That, and I REALLY need to head home and get a bloody shower! I stink! 
SOOOO, tomorrow I'll be all fresh smelling and spiffy clean (well....at least for the first ten minuets) and I'll see ya then!

The Flutterfly Effect

Do we even HAVE bikes!?
Yea...sorry.
Anyone checking on the blog for the last week to see what new goodies we may have, if they looked to the left, they would have seen an empty column where the "What's New" is listed.  Again, dreadfully sorry, it's been rather chaotic this week, and I all but forgot to update it! WHOOPS!  I rectified it this morning, so you can see all the goodies we have left, and there are some GEMS!  My personal favorite of the newbies, is the way cool looking KHS Brentwood, which I would have to call, for lack of a better term, a Sport Cruiser.  It has the classic cantilever frame style, but with a low head set profile, 21 speed with integrated shifters, thinner road tread and very lightweight for the style.  If it were a tad bit bigger, I would have claimed it for myself!  But, we have other sweets too!  Check out the classic Trek 700 (EXTRA CLEAN!) and the BIG BOY GT we built up from scratch!  Not to mention the highly coveted low slung ladies comfort cruiser! That girl is only about three weeks old! SAH-WEEEET!  And, we finally got in some more lower priced BMXer's!  The parents should be thrilled about that! 
Today, we have two old school Schwinn MTB's (back when they actually made an effort to compete with the big boys) and a CLASSIC Hunter BIG BOY!  Got that one in after being much loved for thirty years, but the gent was all but done with riding but didn't want to just chuck his old faithful steed!  NO WORRIES!!!  We are well into bringing it back to life!  I LOVE those old Boss frames!
So yea, been a crazy week!  In a dual attempt to not only give myself a wee bit of a break from the long hours and to give Kaleb something to do I'd had him coming in, in the morning so I could try and get a couple extra hours of Z's.  This proved....problematic.  I will admit, though, it wasn't all, really his own fault.  Sometimes, as with ANY business, you occasionally have folks with....issues come in too visit.  Thing is, I've been doing customer service for over 30 years, and know how to deal with this, while remaining firm on our principals.  Kaleb...does not.  And like a Dog smelling fear, some folks will jump on that weakness.  SOOOOO, almost every day last week I was coming in to put out fires, rather than do what really needed to be done.  See, some times, a few folks can just be outrageously unreasonable.  We had one gent come in too sell a couple bikes, and even though it is posted on our door WHEN we do buying (when I am here) he became QUITE irate that Kaleb wasn't just going to hand him money for the bikes he was looking to sell.  Kaleb called me, and I could hear the man ranting in the background about the fact that we had posted on the window that we buy bikes, so somehow he equated that with, we bought bikes each and every time for exactly the price the customer was asking?
Um....no....it doesn't work that way.  It's not that the gent was asking an unreasonable price, quite the contrary, it was a really good deal, BUT, I was trying to explain to him that I was the only one, currently on staff, that did any buying.  Half way through trying to calm him, he tossed the phone back at Kaleb, striding out of the store surly and annoyed.  It worked out in the end, he returned, calmer and the transaction went off without a hitch.  Things like this continued all week and Kaleb was a tad bit frustrated as the week progressed.  It didn't help any when in the later half of the week, I ended up having to check myself into the hospital.  What I had thought was a case of food poisoning turned out to be a "mild cardiac event"?  UGH.  Doctor speak for "we have no idea".  All they COULD tell me after several tests was my heart was as strong as an ox, I passed the EKG and stress test with flying colors, but for some reason my heart has "developed another beat"?  What the HELL does THAT mean!?  The cardiac doctor told me it's no problem and nothing to worry about, but that it relates to stress.  "Do I have any stressors in my life?" 
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!
Once I picked myself up off the floor from laughing so hard, I concurred that; "Yea...a bit!" Quite frankly, nowadays, Who doesn't? Plus, my cholesterol levels are elevated.  SOOOO, with all the "risk factors" I have (and yea, I know, smoking is a BIG one!) I'm going to have to implement some life changes.  
Ugh.
ANYWHO!
Now, I just gotta get used to the fluttering in my chest, and try and relax.  Uhn.....hunh.  That'll be interesting! 
I'm thinking.....Tai Chi.
S'okay....Now, I'm going to endeavor to....peacefully...rebuild some rides, and not to fall sway to fits of Daddy Language.
Oh....this is going to be interesting!
See y'all soon!

And THAT'S how you fit a square peg in a round hole!

Okay, WHOOPS!
Since when did Easter hit so early?!
Oy!
Well, as I just was informed yesterday, don't think the Bunny is hitting this weekend!  Unless Angi pulls a miracle, but given the fact that she's working a booth at Tampa Pride today, and I gotta work AND tonight has been planned for over two years (actually, if you think about it more like 40 years, when I first read Justice League of America) to go and see the realization of every Fanboys dream, the knock down coupling of the celluloid Supes and Bats!  Yes, when I first learned Ben Affleck was doning the cape and cowl I cringed...loudly.
But...
After viewing the trailer some months back? It became apparent that as the older "Frank Miller " inspired Dark Knight, he just may pull it off. They DEFINATELY got the right Superman...and Wonder Woman don't look to shabby either! Elijah, a HUGE Bat man fan went opening night and apparently afterwards called mommy in tears, sobbing "EPIC!!" SO, no, not gonna miss out tonight!
And, as Easter is low on the totem pole of Holidays around here, we'll just put it off until next weekend. Heck, all the left over Easter stuff will go on sale Monday, anyway!  BONUS!
Yesterday saw some torrential rain, so we were pretty much DOA, BUT got in a fresh batch of newbies and we pounded out a total of seven!  SAH-WEEEET!  One already sold, a GMC Denali, five minutes out of the gate, but got some real nice, priced right goodies left!
As I am up WAY to early this AM , (Had to run to store at six AM "UGH" because we were out of coffee, and Angi can't motivate without) gonna hit the shop earlier as I have a special order to put out, then back on rebuilds. Kaleb tore down five yesterday and, parts willing, gonna get them all together.
So, check out your future ride below, and I'm gonna get going!
See ya soon!

MEN'S 26" MOUNTAIN BIKE
ONLY $85.00!!!

LADIES 24" MOUNTAIN BIKE
ONLY $65.00!!

LADIES 26" COMFORT BIKE
ONLY $95.00!!!

LADIES 26" MOUNTAIN BIKE
ONLY $90.00!!!

7 SPEED COMFORT HYBRID
ONLY $120.00!!!

LADIES 26" DUAL SHOCK MOUNTAIN BIKE
ONLY $90.00!!!

HEY. Dr. Fate! Take this day and SIT ON IT!

Okay. That was a thing.
Woof.
Wendsday morning coming home from work I came to find, whilst a few minutes into relaxing and posting before night, night time that all the girls had different plans!  A scant few moments after finalizing my post and heaving my kiester into an upright position, Miranda awoke. Wide awoke!  Took me an hour to get her settled down, and no sooner had she drifted off, did Izzy wake up and wanted to tell me about het day.  Who can resist that angelic little face and baby blues?  So once she was content with the length of Daddy time, she took a shot of milk and drifted off,  Finally thinking I had it made I went into take a shower, only to discover Rozy was occupying my spot in bed! As she has gotten to grown for this old back to carry to bed I had to undertake the arduous task of trying to get her to move to her room.  NOT an easy task for such a heavy sleeper!  Delirious and still sleeping she kept flopping back towards our room and I had to forcefully steer her to her bunk. Finally, with all females in some approximation of proper sleep quarters, I headed to the shower...
Around six AM!

OY!
Needless to say...Kaleb opened up!
Fate not done toying with me, I crawled in around 12.30 in JUST enough time to waste an hour on the phone with the Succubuss's at the Department of revenue.  Oh yes, the bimonthly playful romp with these morons who have NOOOO concept of KEEPING NOTES!
Sheesh!
Once it was determined that the "encrypted" email they sent was inaccessible (he had to prove it to himself by sending one to himself only to declare in a completely dry, unapologetic tone "hmm, there's no way to access this link"  DUH!!!) And do what I HAD ORIGINALLY ASKED HIM TO DO. and send the bloody info snail mail!!
ARRGH!
Could have had the whole thing taken care of last week if they just listened!
Somebody just slap me!
Anyway...
With an hour left to my vices I tried to get on repairs only to find the parts I had ordered turned out to be the wrong ones, well, they sent me the wrong ones, so with a deluge of Daddy language, I set it aside for tomorrow and just cleaned for the remainder of my short time.
Then, to top off the day of fun and frivolity...
I got to the warehouse this afternoon, WAY burnt out, frustrated and exhausted and was not...coordinated.  none to coherent, I took my work list and ambled about for a few minutes, until the floor manager came over, took me aside and in a compassionate tone let me know that someone expressed the concern that...
 I was under the influence!?
OH MY...FREAKING GOD!!
After relaying the state of affairs of the last twelve hours of my life, he just shook his head and stated "no, I think you're cognizant "
NO $#!+!!  PAINFULLY SO!
Sometimes, a group of burly shop workers are worse than a bloody sewing circle!
You can quote me!
So..it goes without saying, I didn't get SQUAT done today, sadly, but hope to rectify that later this morning.
And to top it off...I cannot say with conviction if I ever GOT a shower last night!
Ugh.
Hopefully the chipper me will be the one to wake up tomorrow.
Night y'all.

find my other boot...and I'll join you!

Another beautiful day under our belts!  I say beautiful, not only because the weather was excellent mild riding weather, but because I got to SLEEP IN THIS MORNING!!!  WOW!!!
Kaleb took point (um...yea...he's back in the fold.  DON'T JUDGE ME!!) He's earning his keep at the shop while he looks for permanent work (BWAHAHAHA!!) He can effectively turn a wrench, and is good with the customers, but I have to beat his lay about mooching friends away with a crow bar!  Hey...keeps my batting arm in practice!
Yea, pooped to the tenth power I incoherently passed him the keys from beneath the duvet with one crusty eye cracked open and muttered "I'll be up soon" non commitedly, and passed out.  But, I did manage to drag my carcass in around noon time and bang out a few repairs and a couple newbies before I needed to head to the other job.
Also gotta give a shout out to Dave Foot for the bountiful donations of cookies and pastries!  Left overs from a gathering at their retirement community.  Also to the lady with the food donations as they were headed back up north.  Hey, I. Aint so proud I'm gonna pass up free food!  These kids eat butter out of the tub, so they ain't against ANYTHING edible!
We also picked up a couple new goodies we already tore down and are working on, hopefully out tomorrow.  One is a cool looking Schwinn comfort bike, with a real unique frame!
And as always, thanks ever so much  for ALL the continuing referrals folks happily give out!  Lots of looky loos and repairs, not to mention special orders from folks who were told NOT to go ANYWHERE ELSE!!
That's the beauty of good solid friends; they'll NEVER steer you wrong!  And we know by coming to see us, you'll be so thrilled it will strengthen that bond of friendship!
One such new comer came in this afternoon for a noise in the crank, upon study, we found the chain ring was sharked out, and the chain stretched.  This was enough info to inspire the gent to snag up a new ride, in the way of a sharp Raleigh we'd just put out, and he rode off a very happy Snowbird!
That made the day fun!
Okay friends, I gotta shower and hit the silk, so until next time..
Your friend and mine,
Me.

LADIES 26" CRUISER
ONLY $65.00!!!

RALEIGH MOUNTAIN BIKE
ONLY $110.00!!!

Another Perfect Sunday!

So apparently Angi has a direct link with Mother Nature, and has her on speed dial!  For the last couple months Angi has been painstakingly planning a big party for all the kids.  It was a combination "All Hands Birthday Party", and Apology.  Last year was so bad financially we ended up having to skip everyone's celebration.  Oh she did cupcakes to mark the day, but couldn't swing gifts or cake or decorations, and she felt pretty sad about it.  The kids took it in stride, but she never forgot.  With great time and effort she planned out a real humdinger of a celebration, setting it for the first day of Spring Break (well, the first day I wasn't working) and had everything done, all ducks in a row (except the food, which needed getting the day before (leave any snacks in the house for more than twelve hours and they would have all been gone before the party!)) She had all the gifts got, rented a jumpy house, tables and chairs, some way cool inflatable outside furniture NOT to mention, an awesome DVD projector, to set up a really neato outside movie theatre, plenty of outside games, decorations galore and plenty of barbeque!
THEN.....
Two days before the party a cold front was coming in, preceded by two days of rain!
ARRGH!!!
We'd been watching the weather report diligently since mid week, and each day the projected  chance there would be rain on Sunday continued to climb!  By Saturday, having already rained most of the day, the outlook was bleak with a 50% chance we would be rained out.  I started making plans to regrettably move the celebration indoors, but in a very calm and collected voice Angi reassured me "It's not going to rain".  Very matter of fact, as if she had the inside poop contradicting the weathermen.  Well, I wasn't going to question (but the back of my brain was still calculating an indoor retreat) and went on with finalizing errands Saturday Evening.  Finally finishing all the prep (and wrapping) we hit the sack at 3.30 am only to be woken by a phone call at 7.30 that the rental company was outside the house with the HUGE jumpy house. 
Ugh...
SO, our morning of prep began, and the whole while I had one eye on the clouds, worried at any point the skies would open up, but Angi went happily about her decorating without a worry in the world.  To my surprise, around ten AM the clouds had all but drifted away, leaving only sunny blue skies, warm air but accented with an almost constant light breeze.  You could NOT have asked for a more perfect day!  The kids and their friends had a BLAST!  It was an all day affair that went off without a hitch (SO NOT like what usually happens!) and aside from a slight altercation between Izzy and Miranda regarding who's gifts were who's (and Owen insistently trying to annoy everyone) it was wonderful!  I even had my OWN treat, by midafternoon, having gorged myself on barbeque, and as Angi sat out front socializing with the parents I snuck into the back yard and took a nap on the big inflatable loveseat!
Hee, hee!
Then, as the sun started to set, the cold front drifted in, and it was just enough to warrant lighting the fire pit outside, and we sat about chatting up the day.  At this point, I asked Angi how she knew it would not rain, she just smiled a peaceful smile and stated "I had a word with God.  We came to an understanding" as if that was all I needed to know. 
Once dark, we drifted out back and with the kiddos snuggled up with blankets and watched the new "Peanuts" movie and brought the day to a close.  After an hour of clean up, we hung outside with the boys and their friends until we ran out of firewood and then hit the sack.
Sure enough, once finished and settling down to bed, the REAL cold moved in accented with rain!
WOW!
God listened!
SO, on to work!
Saturday, as stated, was rainy, so aside from a few repairs we were quiet, but we did manage to bang out a few kiddo bikes, and a couple adult rides.  A real clean ladies MTB and a mechanically sound (but somewhat scratched up) Fuji road bike, but that one is priced accordingly!
Today, gotta git to the repairs and hopefully a couple more newbies as we are sadly understocked at the moment!  With that, I best git!
See ya soon!

VINTAGE FUJI ROAD BIKE
ONLY $110.00!!

LADIES 26" MTB
ONLY $75.00!!

Yet Another Monday

Well, another weekend come and gone and FAR to quickly I might add!  This weekend we worked a little later on Friday and Saturday to get some more newbies out, well Friday ended up in finishing up repairs, going into Saturday with a clean docket so I could rip right into the newbies.  We managed to put out five, with one finding a new home almost immediately.  What we have left of the new batch is a sweet older Tandem, a LIKE NEW Mongoose MTB, a NOW gorgeous K2 2.3 Zed MTB with a full set of disc brakes and a lightweight alloy frame, and a SAH-WEEEEET 1973 Ladies Schwinn Suburban.  The last one was a BEAR, but only in the sense that it needed quite a bit of rustication (all surface rust from sitting in a garage for twenty years!) and threading the cables for the gearing was quite the task!  I have NO idea who designed these things, but betting the new cable in through a u clip and eyelet was maddening!  With my eyesight?  OY!  Finally got it done, though, and she rides like a champ!
Once the day was ended we entered into our one day off with the pleading hope there would not be much house work to do On Sunday and allow us the time to just chill and take it easy!
Enh.  Not so much!  At some point in the night some punks came on the property and made off with three of our bikes.  Mine, the truck and Logan's.  The only fortunate thing was they abandoned them a couple of streets up.  My only hope is that the idiot little scumbags were unprepared for the fact that the truck is a fixed gear (HEE, HEE!) and perhaps with the unexpected weight of the thing on top of that, when they went to coast I hope they were unprepared, it threw them off and they got crushed by a passing motorist!  HEY, I can dream, can't I!  Not only that, but Greedo has been in desperate need of a major overhaul.  The rear axle recently broke, and if you try and ride it too hard, the chain slips.  The hope there is...the assailant was standing up on the bike when it occurred (as we found the chain off and kinked up around the bike) and he now has NO hope of ever having children! 
One of our neighbors discovered them and let us know, so we were able to retrieve all of them! 
Karma, dudes....karma!
Well, the remainder of the day, while busy, was still slow paced.  We decided to clean out the shed, with the caveat that NOW all bikes MUST be kept put away, and we got rid of a lot of unnecessary garbage to boot!
Then, we just chilled.  One success of the later afternoon was Izzy, who loves to sit in the tree in our front yard, finally was able to make the climb up, unaided!  I was very proud of the little monkeys accomplishment, as she was thrilled too!
Well, other than that, we kept it mellow for the remainder of the day, bringing us into today.
For today, still have plenty to work on, and I'm getting on it now!
Hope to see y'all soon!

Time Keeps on Slippin', Slippin', Slippin'.....

WHOA!
Where did the week go?
Seriously, if it were not for Angi reminding me, I would totally lose track of the day's of the week! 
And it's been an energetic week, to say the least!  The season in full swing, we have been working primarily on repairs, and BOY HOWDY have there been a LOT!  Thank you SOOOOO much for all your trust, not to mention some AWESOME compliments along the way!  And one surprisingly common statement has been bandied about from several Snowbirds making the trek South.  This is the fact that several visitors have actually waited to have their bikes serviced until they get here.  And I don't mean just to Florida but specifically HERE!!
WOZERS!!
I mean, how bad is the service at your local bike shop that you'll drive 2000 miles for a tune up?
HA, HA, HA!
No, I'm not THAT vain!  I know they're coming down here for other things!  My charming personality and rapier wit! Really, the Florida Tourist Commission would really amp up their revenue if they adopted the slogan "Come to Florida and visit Steven!" Oh, I can see the dollar signs now!
So, we did manage to put out several newbies amongst the repairs, but of course, I will only be picturing the one's left, which aint much!  It would appear that more and more folk are taking the ten minute rule seriously, and NOT letting them go once they see them!  Had one yesterday that was a Ten Minute Rule in the minus column!  Had a gent looking at a sweet GT MTB we had.  He took it for a ride, loved it, but then was pondering the purchase when another gent came in specifically to check it out, and I watched the unspoken exchange between the two gentlemen.  The funny thing was, as the first guy was thinking, the second man paused, then moved to pull the bike out to take a closer look when the first guy, without so much as an upward glance, place his hands back on the bike and said to me "I'll take it!"  Heh, heh!  Good call sir! 
Today, I have another ladies MTB that seems more hybridish than Mountain, in my rack, then, time allowing, will go on to a vintage Schwinn ten speed we picked up last week.  Although, don't hope to much on that one, as I have five folks waiting for it to be finished. 
The house has gotten interesting...
Miranda finally has her school assignment, and we went to take her on a tour and meet the staff on Tuesday.  The biggest hurtle is going to be separation from Angi.  Normally, a trial for most children, it is doubly traumatic for a child with autism.  While we were there, and Angi spoke with the teachers as I wandered about the classroom following her, she kept glancing back at Mommy, at times annoyed that Mommy was paying attention to someone other than her.  The school is six miles away from the house, and even though they supply a bus for her, if there are any problems, it's going to take a few minuets to get there on a bicycle. 
Kaleb has, for an undetermined amount of time, come back to the house.  The temp agency he was (or still is?) working for seem somewhat flighty.  Not sure where this is all going, but so far he has been on his best behavior, and you can bet Angi has him under a microscope! 
Of course, this week we have been contending with another bout of kiddie colds, so there strewn about the couches, moaning.  Last night, when I got home all the girls were still up and poor Angi was sprawled on the edge of the couch, half on half off, as if she had just dropped "mid-tending" to their needs.  I had to help her to bed as she kept ricocheting off the walls on the way to bed.
I stayed up until the last girl gave up the ghost and passed out myself.
Bringing us too today!
SO, now I best get a move on as I got some heavy chores to do!
See ya soon!

OK...That's SPOOKY!

First things first!
Saturday was STELLAR!!!  We SOLD OUT!!  Well, almost, we have ONE adult size bike left, but I am pumping out more today, so no worries.  It was a fast one after another going out the door all morning!  The funniest one was a gent who came in with an MTB for a tube change, saw the vintage Raleigh we had, fell in love (his friend had a similar Raleigh, so it just fit) and traded in the MTB towards it.  Also, another HILARIOUS moment in the day...about mid morning, I saw a police car pull in front of the shop and stop.  Of course, at this moment I was doing a mental check to figure out if I had done anything "questionable" lately, and as I nervously pondered this a mini van with three retirees pulled behind him and into a parking spot.  As the ladies got out of the van they exchanged waves with the officer and he drove off.
!?!?!?
It turns out, they were looking for our shop, couldn't locate it, so the officer gave them an escort right to our door!
COOL!  But...not sure if a cop knowing where we are is a good thing...or a bad thing...
ANYWHO! 
They ended up picking out a ladies cruiser from Bone Row to have built for one of them visiting.  There reception once it was done was most appreciative because we really brought it back from the dead. 
Of course, as always, thank you to all the folks for the traditional flood of weekend repairs and for being quick to return and pick them up! 
NOW....on to the spooky!
Depending on your thoughts regarding the supernatural, you're either going to be entertained and curious or think I'm a loon, but the following story has happened far to much recently!  Either I am going senile, or something else is going on!
Over the last few months, in conjunction with some odd goings on at the house (witnessed by far to many members of the family AND Suzanne) I have been plagued with a weird string of "where did I put that" occurrences.  Things like keys, lighters, tools (at the house, shop and warehouse) that I would then search for, to no avail only to find them some time later in a blatantly obvious spot that I KNEW I had searched through repeatedly.  Sure, I am getting older and will write a lot off as just not paying attention or being tired, what have you, but the following happened on Saturday and is just WAY to obvious to be ignored.  I have a lot of clutter behind the counter, but do my best to keep it organized, and the most important part of office necessity I have is my notebooks.  Currently I have two going and it's where I write down all the customer information regarding repairs, consignments and one is for things folks are looking for.  Whatever notebook I am working in ALWAYS stays behind the counter in easy access.
Until Saturday.
I had finished a string of repairs and went to call the customers only to discover both notebooks gone.  Rozy and Owen were here that day and I though they may have taken them to doodle in, but neither had them.  What followed was an exhaustive search of the whole shop, and a thorough cleaning of the counter area (best way to find something is clean as you go) but found NOTHING! 
Somewhat frustrated, I consoled myself to the fact that perhaps Izzy had grabbed them on Friday and took them home, and prayed that the customers would call when they curious about their bikes.  Mind you, when we left Saturday evening, I was the last one out, and gave a cursory glance to the counter area for good measure, but nothing was there, just a clean organized area.  And, as it turned out, they weren't at the house either.
Then I came in to the shop this morning...
NO ONE else has a key to the shop, there is only one.  NO ONE (at least corporeal) was at the shop since we left Saturday but lo and behold, what do I find neatly stacked on top of each other DEAD CENTER of a clean desk top!?! It was like whoever or whatever was saying "HA HA!  HERE YA GO!"
Either I am losing my mind, or we got ourselves a spiritual hitch hiker!
As long as the sucker is just mischievous and not malevolent...we'll be okay!
So, as long as I can keep track of my tools, it's off to bang out some rides!
Hope to see y'all soon!  (bring sage, salt and a crucifix)

Boomerang!

Middle of the week wrap up! 
It's been a blustery blur so far, and I completely lost track of the days!  Realizing this morning I hadn't even had time to post the few newbies I had enough time eked out to allow me to build them.  Well, as it turns out, was needless anyway, as they didn't stick around long enough anywho!  For the most part it has been repairs, repairs and for good measure...repairs all week long!  Thank you SOOOO much to all the wonderful folks and their faith, trust and most importantly REFERALS!!  Heh, Heh!  I'm blessed, in the fact that at just the right moment someone comes in to compliment us on our efforts!  Thank you for fueling a Leo's ego!  "EGO MY LEO!" 
SO, no...I don't have anything new to show (and I best remember to edit the "What's Still Here" listings!) as yesterday was spent primarily weeding through the stuff out back.  Yea, it's to the point now that there is NO getting past the pile in the back.  Surprisingly, no one in the plaza has complained yet...but I KNOW they will!  Most of today will probably be spent working on that, but I do have a couple lined up I'd LIKE to get to if time allows!
No worries though, we still have some gems left looking for new homes.
On the home front...
Sheesh...
Kaleb had a minor set back, the place he was working for (through a temp agency) filled their quota apparently, and no longer had use for temps.  SOOOOO, he showed up at our doorstep a couple days ago, having lost his living arrangements. *sigh*.  To my surprise, Angi took him back in, I think for the reason that, to his credit, he hit the "Internet Bricks" and started looking for another job right away.  AND, for the time being, he has been very respectful and helpful, so perhaps humility has settled in.
Time will tell.
Miranda has been testing Mama's stamina, quite a bit to be precise.  Her nocturnal schedual has persisted, and even though Angi gets her up each morning with the other kiddos, and limits her nap time, she STILL won't go to bed much before 2 am.   Next week she starts school, so fingers crossed that will help!
OKAY, now, I gotta jump!  New batches of repairs starting to come in so I gotta get to work!
See y'all soon!

Dedication!

Yep...This is the kind of dedication you should expect from us at RE-CYCLE!! 
Here it is, our one day off and I am sitting in the shop waiting on a customer who NEEDS a bike for their ne job they start tomorrow.  They weren't able to get in yesterday, but gave us a ring desperate for a ride!  They have patronized us before, and in their words: "won't go anywhere else for a bike"!  Hey, with a tag line like that how could I say no!  SO, taking time off from the families one day together, here I sit...waiting.  Gent is coming three hours to grab a ride, so it's the least I could do! I do hope he hurries up though, as the boys and I have plans this evening!
Okay.  It's Monday now. The gent did make almost on time, and walked away with the Pure Fix Mixie we have had for...like.....EVER!!!  What's really great is, that this weekend we were fortunate enough to find homes for BOTH of the two rides that have been taking up semi-permanent residency here.  The Bickerton folding bike went with a gent intent on restoring it fully and making it a museum piece!  SWEET!!  Although, truth be told, I do hope he gives it some road time to show it off. 
Saturday was a humdinger of a hootenanny!  Honestly, it tested my undiagnosed brain freezes as I completely lost track of what left!  WOOF!!  That and all the wonderful folks bringing in repairs!  WOWZERS!   Those kept me hopping from open till about close.  What was really sad was coming in this morning, there were two left that hadn't been picked up, and for the life of me, I couldn't remember what work I did on them!  ARRGH!  I had to actually consult my list!  THAT'S how busy it got! 
We also picked up a couple goodies on trade too, and as soon as I clean up the mess from a busy bee day, I'll be jumping on them!  Got me lot's of holes to fill (insert giddy giggles here).
That evening, Angi and I took a bit of time to hit the store and get a few more trinkets for the party later this month, and I needed to grab a new pair of boots. The pair I bought less then a month ago all but died.  Probably the acetone from my other job, as the adhesive holding the soles on was all but dissolved!  Ugh.
So, later that evening as we sat and enjoyed the relative quite of the evening, I had the brainstorm of taking the boys out Sunday evening.  I've been trying to put aside time for spending with the kiddo's but it can be a bit of a challenge.  Not only the scarcity of time we DO have, but the fact that their ranges in age are, not to mention varied differences in tastes, make doing something ALL together, aint all that easy.  I opted to take the boys on a ride, meet up with Elijah and go see "Deadpool".
Only ONE slight miscalculation though...it REALLY was an "R" rated movie!  Yea...a wee bit of "sudden" full frontal, that I should have seen coming, but didn't react quickly enough.  Logan, the shy one, averted his eyes, but Owen's eyes got REAL wide!  Other than that, though, the movie was HILAROUS!!!  Not to mention BRILLIANT!!  There is so many "in-jokes", fan faves, and cameos.  OK (SLIGHT SPOILER ALERTS)  speaking of cameos, a couple of the X-Men show up, one of them being Colossus!  Always a mutant fave of mine, I didn't think the original run of X-Men did him justice!  This one though?  PERFECT!  Not only was he the proper "hulking" size in transformation size but he spoke with the correct THICK Russian accent!  AND, a personal favorite style of film making, "breaking the fourth wall" was used to hysterical depths!  The fact that Deadpool's love interest was portrayed by Morena Baccarin (Inara from Firefly!) was an excellent bonus!  And the ending snippet?  OH MY GOD!!!  FREAKING FAN-TAB-U-LOUSLY FUNNY!!!  But the one thing that I really found exciting was the fact that this movie tied ALL the Marvel Franchises together in harmonious spoofing!  And THAT is quite a feat, as (and this get's confusing, so bear with me because I haven't even figured out "why") the rights to produce Marvel properties are split.  Marvel owns the Avengers, Sony owns Spiderman and Fox owns X-men (and all mutant films) but here, you see ALL of them!  Well, maybe not all the characters, but there are visual clues of the Avengers, such as a derelict S.H.I.E.L.D Hover carrier, not to mention a nod to "Sam Jackson" with an eye patch and leathers, The X-Men of course, not to mention SEVERAL mentions of Wolverine, a Spiderman spoof occurs in the closing credits, and there is even a line dedicated to "Blade" (although Ryan Reynolds refers deliberately to "Blade 2" which is kind of weird, as he played the part of Hannibal King in "Blade Trinity)  as well as a lampooning of not only his stint on "Green Lantern" but a joking reference to his ORIGINAL origins in X-Men Origins; Wolverine.  He even goes as far as to pan himself as an actor!  Oh, the list goes on and on!  Definitely a prominent one to buy as soon as it hits Blue Ray!
Well, I best get a move on, though, as the repairs are starting to flow in again!  Not to mention, I have a lot of other work to bang out!
See y'all soon!

Further Proof Of the Existance of a Benevolent God

The greatest gifts are those you never thought to ask for! 
Early this morning, while on break at the warehouse I was poking about on the web, randomly having chosen to check and see what Joel Hodgson and Mike Nelson (the two Gizmonic Institutes employees stranded on the Satellite of Love on  "Mystery Science Theatre 3000") had been up too lately.  Earlier yesterday, whilst having lunch, I poked about on you tube and discovered that some of the talent from the cult classic had gone on into other similar projects (movie riffing).  I was aware of Joel's hilarious troop of MST3K alumni doing "Cinematic Titanic" and Mike's work (with the gents who voiced Tom Servo and Crow) on the equally HILL-AIR-E-OS "Riff Trax" (oh...if you get a chance, You Tube their decimation of Twilight!  OH...My....GAWD!!!  Angi did NOT appreciate it, but I was in stiches!!) but as I was poking about the listings, I discovered they had also produced a similar Riffing premise under the guise of "the Film Crew".  This is what predicated me poking about later that evening to see if there was something else the S.O.L crew had done that I may have missed.
What I discovered was ALMOST as awe inspiring as a new season of Firefly, and WHOLLY unexpected!

 
UN-FREAKING-BELIEVABLE!!!!
MST3K...IS GETTING A REBOOT!!! 
Here's the rub!  At the tail end of last year Joel got back the rights to the show, and quickly set out on a "Kickstart" campaign to raise funds to produce another NEW four episodes, with a goal in mind of two million to do so.  What happened?  Well, in short, their fundraiser became the HIGHEST GROSSING FAN FUNDED FUND RAISER......OF ALL TIME!!!! (check out the Guinness Book Of World Records if you don't believe me!) Far surpassing their initial goal...they raised over SIX MILLION!!!  Seems I am NOT the only slightly askew "Mystey" out there!  In the end, they have slated FOURTEEN new episodes in total.  And MAN, have they already got some talent on board!  Not only the creative staff (although, sadly, aside from Joel helming the project, none of the original cast has signed on, yet...but I'm holding out hope they won't disappoint the fans) but guest stars such as Mark Hamill and Jerry Seinfeld are already on board!  Not to mention Patton Oswald playing the son of TV's Frank! 
OKAY...at this point some (most) of you are scratching your heads wondering what the heck I'm going on about, but really, if your curiosity has not been peaked by ALL the times I ramble on about this little slice of comedic history, and you haven't at least Googled MST3K once, well...you must just not like laughing!  And I can't help you. 
Now, I'm not sure when or WHERE the new episodes will air...but I'll find out!
SOOOOOKAY!
On to work!  Had several looky loo's, curiosity seekers and visitors come and see us.  Picked up a few new goodies, but regrettably, having spent my allotment for the day, had to pass up on two CHOICE rides!  ARRGH!  I'm kicking myself on THAT one!  Two barely road Giant hybrids...I was just tapped out and forgot the bank card at home!  Anyway...*sad face*...
One ride I HAD to pass on because the poor gent had his monetary expectations set, artificially, WAY to high!  I'll explain: He rode in on a, admittedly, sharp looking GT hybrid.  About twelve years old, it was in decent shape with newer tires and seat, but he was looking to get $125.00 Out of it.  I had to gently explain that we have had several of that particular bike in our history, and we only sell them for between $95.00 and $115.00.  He was visibly taken aback by this, and at first I though his look of consternation was breed by incredulity, but I came to find out, that having been down here on vacation, he had picked this up at another  bike shop (North of here...I ranted about this joint a few months back) and paid.....$250.00!?!?!   No JOKE!  He showed me the receipt!  I couldn't help myself when I blurted out that I was pretty sure that was more then they sold for new!  I asked him why he didn't just sell it back to them.  Turns out, they don't buy used bikes, they only take them in as trades. 
Well, I didn't get anywhere near as much done as I had hoped, a by product of visiting and wrenching rusty parts off the stubborn Kent road bike.  I have already replaced far more then I had anticipated, but it's cool!  It's a real cute smaller framed ride, so I aint complaining!  Ended up putting out only one new ride, but that's a pretty sharp looking ladies comfort cruiser complete with a WAY comfy Cloud 9 seat upgrade! 
But I promise, today is a full work day!  Gonna bang out some heavy newbies (he says with mock assurance!)
All right, best get at it!

LADIES 26" COMFORT CRUISER!!!
ONLY $105.00!!!

SEE YA SOON!

God Bless the Beast and the Children (after all...they're one and the same!)

Ugh!
Yesterday was a weird day, yet again!  First, winter did a loop-de-loop and swung back around, hitting us with a dip in temps.  Not to mention, the harbinger of returning winter, rain, hit early in the day causing Florida folks to hibernate.  It goes with out saying (that's a weird statement, don't you think?  I mean, people say "It goes without saying"...but then they say it!)  visitations were at a minimum.  We had one gent come in and grab his repairs, and a couple looky loos (more to get warm and dry than anything else) but other than that, nuttin'!  Ah well, gave me time to bang out some more goodies!  Than, about mid afternoon...ever get that feeling that you know you're about to get sick?  I don't mean "Hey!  I get to see what happens to my lunch, mid-digestion" no, I'm talking about the sudden realization that some sort of "Ick" is about to over take your body.  Yea...within short order, started feeling the "malaise" of nasty.  I tried to ignore it, and just keep plugging, but by around one PM I knew, there weren't no going to the night job....and surviving!  So, after a few phone calls, tracking the right people down, I finished out the day here, than headed home.  At that point, the eerie delirium started setting in, and before I knew it, didn't know what I ate for dinner, whether or not I took a shower or how, in fact I ever made it to bed, or fell asleep!
SHEESH!
The only vague memories I have was a REAL heated (not BAD heated, just REALLY intensely opinionated) discussion with Angela regarding government, humanity and "Anonymous".  Yea, our stances on these institutions and groups "askew" at certain points.  Hey...makes for some thoroughly vibrant conversations!
That, and at some point in the evening, apparently my snoring was interfering with Miranda's TV time in Mom and Dad's room, so I got punched!
We were also paid a visit by Kaleb.  I gotta say, I'm "optimistically, reservedly" proud of the boy.  Angi was right, after all, "tough love" was going to be the only thing to get this boy to get his $#!+ together. Here's the irony though, Kaleb had his "teenage" bout with "mood altering substances" which he has, seemingly, effectively walked away from.  So where should he find a job?
A pharmaceutical company! BWA-HA-HA!!!
NO JOKE!!
The real kicker is, after Elijah left the nest a couple weeks back, the two of them, in conjunction with another young man, are going to be renting a trailer together, apparently this weekend.
Hmmmmm?
No, I'm not puttin' in the Kibosh on this arrangement...but it's going to be INTERESTING!!
Oh...there are going to be some "sticking" points.  I won't doom the whole thing, and have tongue firmly clenched between teeth.  BUT...when they BOTH have stated that there are going to be "RULES"....and those "rules" don't seem to be the same....
oh boy.
Not to mention Elijah's statement that he was the "eldest"?  Heh...
I wonder just how long it will be before Angi or I will have to become mediators.
Then again, they could just surprise us.  Heaven knows, they haven't failed to do that over the last couple months!
Thing is...I am really looking forward to be able to go to THEIR home and visit.
First....I'm gonna eat their food without asking, use their toilet and not flush, change the TV channel and sit on their couch with my dirty shoes propped up! 
KIDDING!!! 
....well, not much anyway!
ANYWHO!
As I was saying, put out three newbies yesterday.  A full rebuild on a 24" Diamondback MTB (and just why I put that much effort and work into it I have NO clue!) A sharp looking Schwinn 7 speed hybrid commuter, and another "DAILY BANGER SPECIAL!!"  Check them out below! 
Today, I have that old Kent road bike I'm going to redo, than start trying to weed through ALL the stuff out back! 
Yea...it's getting REALLY full out there, to the point of not being able to walk around the rows!  So, before I get complaints from the neighbors, I best start stripping!
(heh...if I really went out back "stripping" I would DEFINATELY get complaints from the neighbors!)
ALL RIGHTY!
NOW, back to work!
See y'all soon!

24" DIAMONDBACK MTB
NEW TIRES!!!
ONLY $65.00!!!

7 SPEED SCHWINN COMMUTER!!
ONLY $110.00!!

26" "DAILY BANGER SPECIAL!!"
ONLY $40.00!!!


AND HERE ARE SOME OF THE PIC'S FROM MOMMY AND DADDY'S WONDERFUL NIGHT OUT!

I want EVERY weekend to be like THIS!!

Ahhh!  Another week has begun, and I can embrace it with a little more zeal after a GREAT weekend!  Saturday was Angi and my anniversary, and for the first time in some time I ACTUALY planned ahead!  Swallowing my own fears of being on the water, I took her on an adventure she has always wanted to undergo.  We spent the earlier part of the evening on The Starlite Dinner Cruise at Clearwater Beach. Angi, upon seeing some of the other passengers being decked out in flashy splendor, commented on her concerns of being "underdressed" But, I was of the opinion she looked, as always, radiant and beautiful, whilst at the same time being properly dressed for the remainder of the evening meandering about.   Of course, I had to overcome an additional moment of hesitation when I realized it was a "...three hour tour...a three hour tour!"  Well, thankfully the "weather didn't start getting rough and the tiny ship was NOT tossed"  and we enjoyed an incredible dinner, quite a bit of time on the top deck enjoying the almost full moon and stars, and even got to watch Angi partake in some dance floor time.  Perhaps, in retrospect I should have joined her, but my self consciousness and two left feet in right sided shoes, prohibited me from ruining her fun!  Our server Brett, made it an extra special time, and it was so wonderful to see Angi BEAMING with delight upon entering her element.  She's very much a water spirit, whereas I am more Mountain, and the solitude that inspires.  Seeing the normal daily stresses drain from her face replacing it with a content almost excited, giddy smile was all I could have hoped for!  After docking, and not wanting the evening to end, we wandered out onto the Boardwalk.  Turning South, we noticed above us, on the top of the Pier 60 building, there appeared to be some sort of goings on, on the open roof top, so, infused with the courage of previously imbibed spirits, we opted to enter and find our way to the top.  Turns out, it was a roof top club, so we were not in fact crashing anything.  However, our stay was short lived as we soon discovered the service there was less than friendly and altogether disappointing.  So after finishing one drink, left to wander again.  From there, we hit the Hyatt, where the service was by far better, and enjoyed another drink on the open patio looking out over the beach, and I got to enjoy a very nice Churchill from their humidor.  Angi tried the multi-rum punch they had, and sat listening to the waves crash the shore (when there were no annoying cars blaring God awful rap music rolling past).  After finishing, we crossed the street and removing her shoes, touched souls with the ocean water, as I watched, passively enjoying the shared moment. 
Once she had her fill of soaking her toes in the salt water, we wandered again, in search of an Irish coffee.  We ended up at Crabby Bills, again, looking out over the water.  As fate would have it, there Coffee maker was non functioning, but Angi informed the bartender how to create a reasonable facsimile with Baileys Irish cream, cream and Irish Whiskey!  It was SPOT ON! 
Surprisingly, even having eaten just a couple hours earlier, we went ahead and ordered a round of garlic mussels, stuffed clams and shark skewers, thinking we could always bring home the leftovers for the next day.
There WERE no left overs!  WOOF!  I even used the supplied grilled toast wedges to scoop up every piece of sautéed garlic!  Heh! At this point, the restaurant closing, and in fact most of the beach apparently doing the same, we called our cab and enjoyed the last few moments of wave sounds, snuggling up on the outside bench.
All in all it was a FANTASTIC time spent away from all the chaos and trials of daily life, and we are both SOOO looking forward to when we can do it again!
Sunday, was one of recovery and leisure, or at least a reasonable attempt!  Although we had not hit the sheets much before three am, we were STILL up before eight o'clock, as the realities of home life burst through our blissful sleep!  Suzanne, having apparently ONCE AGAIN gotten into something that didn't agree with her stomach....well, suffice to say, the rug at the end of our bed needed a hosing off, and straight into the washing machine.  Once that was done...I was regrettably awake, and Angi was soon to follow, once she heard that my shuffling about and subsequent grumblings in "Daddy Language" had risen the girls, who promptly plopped on the couch and indifferent to others still asleep cranked the TV.
But, after coffee (a lot...) we slowly went about our traditional Sunday chores, but at a much more relaxed pace then normal!  I even snuck in an afternoon nap with Miranda. 
We closed out the evening watching a couple episodes of our newest "controversial" show, "Lucifer".  This show creates a humorous and almost sympathetic "likeable" image of Old Scratch, but perhaps that's why the religious right is up in arms about it!  HA!
ANYWHO!
Saturday, during the work day, was quite busy as well, taking in the usual flood of repairs and sending a couple to new homes!  YAY!  Thanks to all for your continued support! TODAY, I got a couple more fixers to bang out, than I am back on new builds, the one in my rack being another electric E-Zip being converted into a simple six speed hybrid.  GORGEOUS bike, but al the electric guts were fried.  From there...it's anyone's guess! 
SO, time to crank up the Mysties and get to work!
See ya soon!!

Hey! You Can't Park That Animal There!!

Oh my Heavens!  What a PURR-FECT day for riding!  WOOF!  Almost cloudless sky, perfect temp with the slightest breeze!  This is your weather on the nines, reporting!
Yesterday was awesome!  Thanks so much for all the folks who helped make it a success, and for the bevy of repairs in dire need of our gentle touch (well...as gentle as you can be with a five pound sledge hammer!  Yep...not kidding. That's what it took on one stubborn seat post!) and for finding new homes for a few of the rides!  Oh, and we got in even MORE goodies!  Oh I was happier than a swarm of maggots on fresh road kill!  Ick...that didn't sound good!  My apologies for putting you off your Post Toasties!  One of them was one of our faves! A gent came in with a SAH-WEET trade and knew EXACTLY what he was looking for.  Without hesitation, he snagged up the gorgeous Diamondback we'd just put out and presented us with a three day old Men's 26" cruiser (a BEAUT!) in trade!  Seems he wanted something with gears as the cruiser proved to be just a little too slow for him!  HEY!  No problem!  I'm sure we'll find a home for this gem!  And, that one made the fourth newbie we put out as well!  She joined the ranks along with a Honkin' BIG BOY Raleigh 7 speed Hybrid, a real sharp looking PRE-Wal-Mart Mongoose MTB, and a rare 24" ladies Jamis hybrid! 
And yesterday was also NOT without some early morning excitement!  Of the unfortunate kind!  And, in no small way, was somewhat spooky!  Due to my work schedule and Miranda now being of the nocturnal nature, neither Angi or I are getting much sleep.  The end result of this, is sometimes we are dragging in the morning, and subsequently, I'm late to open.  Yesterday was such a day as I didn't get here until almost 9:30.  As it turns out, a young gent had been here, first thing, interested in selling a bike.  After a few minuets of waiting, he opted to go down to the corner Quicki Mart and get a drink while he waited.  Unfortunately for them, he drove his truck to their end, rather than walk.  Apparently....he's been having transmission trouble.  As he pulled in, and put it in park, before he could shut it down, the thing slipped out of park and lurch forward!  Instant drive through!!

UGH!  We feel terrible for them, they are real nice folks, but there is that self serving little voice in the back of my head expelling a heavy sigh of relief that it could have been us!  Thankfully, and surprisingly, the frame work of their store front was completely salvageable, and they had it all put back together by late afternoon!  And, at no point did they actually close!  That's the Capitalist spirit! 
So, today, I have a plethora of repairs to pound out, then hopefully squeeze out a rebuild or two, as today I will be leaving a wee bit early.  Today is Angi and my 23rd anniversary and I have a special night planned for her!  We will be open until five though, as Logan will be up to help out!
So...I'm OFF (well....you all knew THAT, but I mean I gotta go!)

7 SPEED RALEIGH HYBRID!
ONLY $160.00!!

26" MONGOOSE MTB!
ONLY $95.00!!!

LADIES 24" HYBRID!!
ONLY $125.00!!

NEW!!!! NEW!!!! NEW!!!!
MEN'S 26" CRUISER!
ONLY $80.00!!!