Yesterday early afternoon a gent came in for a tube change. Simple enough, I've literally done thousands. As we stood and chatted I outfitted his wheel with a new tube in just a couple minutes. Keep in mind, he was watching me the whole time as I worked. One of the iron clad rules of changing a tube is, whenever possible, never use a tool to put the NEW tube in! Helps resist "snake bites". Second rule of thumb is, using your finger tips, run both hand slowly through the entirety of the inside of the tire to make sure nothing is stuck IN the tire, that would pop the new tube. That all being done, and new tube in, he toddled off. A couple hours later the same gent returned, annoyed, stating I "did something wrong" and damaged the tube when I put it in, because after only an hour of riding, it "popped". I said no problem, let me check it out. He removed the wheel from the bike and handed it to me, and without so much as removing the tire, I took one look and said "here's your problem" and pointed to a 3/4 inch staple buried DEEP in the tread.
THIS is where it got annoying. He began to shake his head, and in a very smug tone stated "That couldn't be it. It's to small. There's NO way THAT could pop my tire! YOU had to have damaged it when you put it in"
And so began a ten minute ordeal where I removed the tire, showed him the hole in the tube, in perfect alignment with the staple, THEN turned that section of the tire inside out and showed him where the prongs of the staple were poking INSIDE the tire. Steadfastly, he denied that such a small thing could have done it, as he has "never" seen such a thing when he has changed a tube (???) and it must be a defective tube, or I put it in wrong, or the staple was there before, or I PUT the staple in.
JEEZ!! Finally, at the interest of just being done with it, I put a new tube in and ushered him out the door.
I think my Chi is worth more then ten bucks!
ANYWHO! Hopefully, nothing like that will happen today, knock on wood (I'm imagining I am tapping on the guys head)
That event not withstanding, yesterday was another fun filled day, and I had MANY pleasant experiences and conversations with all the other folks that came in! Managed to put out three newbies with a fourth ( that SAH-WEET Diamondback cross!!!) in my rack and stripped! I want to say I sent a ride home yesterday but I'll be damned if I CANNOT remember!! I know I was WAY busy with repairs (thank you, thank you, thank you!) But I just have the sneaking suspicion that something sold....OH wait...I remember! Sent a Dyno VFR home with one of our new found enthusiasts, who will be doing the rebuild himself AND the Cannondale SM400 went out with one of our long time regulars from WAY back in the day of the garage! JEEZ! How could I forget that?! I think because it was at the tail end of the day and I was POOPED!
BUT, the luxury of rest was NOT to be until WAY later in the witching hour. Upon arriving at home, settling in for the evening we got a call from our landlord. Now don't get me wrong, our landlords are beautiful people (and NO I'm not saying that because I know they read the blog!) they truly are. When things were tough through this summer they WAY had our back! They're in town for a few days and wanted to know if it was OK to come by today and visit with Angi and the kids, then stop by the shop and say hi. Sure! No problem. I let Angela know, and in traditional (no offense to my readers of the gentler persuasion) female fashion she stated "but the house is a WRECK!!" Bless her heart, the house wasn't at all bad for one that housed seven kids, BUT I knew by the look in her eyes, that if all hands didn't pony up and do some fluff and stuff, she was going to stay up all night doing it herself. Given her condition, that would NOT have been a good idea! And you know what they say, you don't know how dirty something is until you start to clean! I'm speaking of under couches, bed's and closets to be precise. WOW! The shear improbability of the physics of mass versus volume capacity is WELL tested in our house! Just the amount of debris taken from beneath a couch was equal to the couches mass, only compressed! I'm calling Einstein out on this one!
ANYWHO!
Oh, one more "cute" thing. I always thought the image of a dog burying a bone was just some construct created for Saturday morning cartoons, but NOPE, it's real! The store at the corner is now carrying a selection of dog treats, and they have some large rawhides and traditional bones there that Suzanne loves. And I thought she was gnawing them up right quick, as she would go out back and in a couple of hours return empty handed. Needless to say, every other day I was getting her a new one. Then yesterday, after giving her a VERY healthy looking "met still on" leg bone, she headed off with her whole rear end wagging, trotting out back. A few minuets later, I went out to retrieve another ride to work on, and lo and behold, I saw her stashing her new found goodie, in a freshly dug whole, right along side three others! The look she gave me was PRICELESS as if to say "don't you DARE tell anyone where they are!"
Good times. Good times.
OK! I have blathered enough! I gotta get to work!
See ya soon!
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