Just Like Old Times!

Ah yes!  Yesterday was a real nostalgic walk down memory lane! 
Surprisingly, perhaps due to advanced age and wisdom, or because of learning from past errors, this past week went according to plan!  WOW!  Spent the week keeping up with re-pairs (THANK YOU for your trust and patronage!) Took the advice of some folks (Chip being my "Man on the inside") who have been put off slightly by the cover pic in our blog to shake things up and change it.  Seems that the "Family Photo" seemed somewhat intimidating to some people.  Personally I think it's real cool, and when the photo was taken I was originally surprised when Adam, the photographer instructed everyone NOT to smile (it took A LOT of takes to make that happen.  As you can see Rozy couldn't help it).  His desire was to capture a turn of the century feel.  look at old family photos from that era.  NO ONE smiled!  (But the that was before cable and microwave dinners so what did they have to smile about anyway!) So instead we'll have a rotating cover page of different candid shot's around here.
As the kids were off from school yesterday I took advantage and put the older boys to work with me in reorganizing and weeding out the garage.  As we have done MUCH buying over the last couple of months our garage began bulging at the seems from all that was being packed in there so we had to do something.  After pulling it all out into the driveway (and from the side of the house....and the back of the house...) we separated ALL the bikes for scrapping.  Also as a bonus we CLEANED the garage.  As the kitchen is one of the rotating chores shared by Elijah and Kaleb they have the nasty habit of just sweeping all the debris left on the floor after a day of child's play into the garage without the decency of using the dust pan and throwing it away.  That coupled with a few days of unfinished laundry leads to quite a mess.
After completing this (and hauling off three bags of garbage) we sat down in the driveway and began the task of parting out the 60 or so bikes not being rebuilt.  It was just like old time at the old garage when we would work year round intermittently between the garage and the driveway. The little ones constantly running in and out wanting to "help"!  Owen treated us to an impromptu fashion show of a lovely evening gown and a wonderful pale pink sundress.  A few folks passing buy stoped to talk and ask questions. (about the bikes...not Owen)  SEVERAL vulturesque scrap guys lingering wondering what we were going to do with all when we were done.  Much to their chagrin I had to inform them that it was already taken care of as Terry had dibs, who GLADLY came in for two runs in a FULL truck down to USA Steel on Hercules.  They'll be Tuna cans before you know it!  And of course no good day is complete without a visit from Clearwaters finest!  OH YES!  Pulling into our driveway like a misguided T.J. Hooker, one of our local "Hot Fuzz" got a call from "someone" reporting that the bikes located in our driveway "MUST BE" stolen due to the "Sheer Volume" of bikes. 
yea.
Upon hearing this "tongue in cheek" accusation harking back to bygone days of similar slander my response was shall we say....brisk?  I think it was to the tune of "well that's a bunch of bull $%@t!" and emphatically stated that we owned the local bike shop up the street...and before I could finish the officer responded "RE-Cycle?"
Now I don't know if that's a good thing, or bad?
So anyway, he grinned a knowing grin and stated "well that's an acceptable explanation" and went about his day.
The boys and I had a good laugh and proceeded to finish our chop shop!
ahHA!
Kidding!
Momma took over the reigns at the shop for the day with the intermittent help of the boys going up to do the occasional quick re-pair as we didn't finish the tear down until around four.  At which point I came up and began the task of putting away all the new parts.  WOW, what a bevy! 
So today as Kaleb puts away the remaining parts, I NEED to get back to building as the sales floor has GREATLY diminished with me being otherwise occupied.
So hope to see ya'll REAL soon!