Seriously...you take a phone book and hit them with THAT! It doesn't leave a mark!

Chock it up to the rigors of old age, and the resultant effects on the memory, but it dawned on me yesterday evening, as the shop was a flutter with activity from visitors, that dead days and busy evenings are not an anomaly this time of the year, but settle quite predictably into the summer months! 
'DUH! 
Most vacationers gone, local Floridians know, the best time to do anything is in the early hours before the sun is too high overhead, and in the evening as it has begun it's decent into the West.  Yesterday was no exception!  Sent two rides too new homes first thing, then lots of time to catch up on repairs (with a side trip to our supplier) then right back on the truck.  Yes, she's dragging on a bit, but almost done with the detail on the Box, and hope to have it in stain later today.  But FIRST, I have got to get on to some new builds!!  We've accumulated a lot of goodies over the last three days, and due to my propensity for obsessiveness, have focused all my time on said project!  This, coupled with the fact that it has been a busy two days of sending home rides, we have a very depleted stock!  ARRGH!  Never a middle ground I'll tell you!  But PLEASE don't write that off s b!+@#!ng, it's all a very good problem to have!  Thanks so very much to all the real sweet folks who think well enough of us to refer us to their buds and neighbors!  Most everyone coming in yesterday did so at the behest of some "will-remain-nameless" friend or relatives!  SAH-WEET! 
But yes, on the subject of newbies.  We just have a plethora of new fodder for the forge, and a couple (a classic Raleigh MTB, a sweet GT MTB and a vintage Ladies Schwinn 3-speed) are really choice!  Then, of course is about a dozen more DBS stock!  Oh, those are fan favorites!  Actually, it's funny, had a gent in last night, ended up test riding everything we had left, then noticed the Huffy we had just got in.   Simple, old school 15 speed, but has a good body height (he's tall) and an extended neck with raised bars.  As I was puttering in my bay, and he had ridden everything else, he sat on that one, and declared it was perfect!  Originally I looked upon it as a parts bike.  Some goodies on it, nice gell seat, but had enough accumulated defects (plus a WAY screwed up crank) that I didn't feel it warranted a full rebuild, given the fact it wouldn't fetch enough to cover the expense and time.  BUT, he kept trying to convince me to let him buy it then and there.  It took some coaxing, but I convinced him, it wasn't even rideable at this point.  Needless to say it won't be going to the scrap pile! 
Oh, and this next story is PRICELESS!  It's like the Cosmos it's self stepped in to make our point for us yesterday.  Around 5.30 a gent came in looking for a "cheap" ride.  No worries, we had them.  He was looking at a couple of the 26" MTB DBS's we had, and at $80.00 a pop, pretty good deal considering the work that went into them.  Of course, like a scant few will occasionally do, he scoffed at the price, a bit, asking if we had something around $40.00.  I went into the brief explanation that, given the amount of work we put into each bike, $65.00 is about as cheap as we can go.  Still looking at the two rides, he commented that it must be difficult to sell them for "so much" and I assured him, we had no troubles.  He chuckled a "yea RIGHT!" kind of chuckle, then begrudgingly asked if he could test ride one of the two.  "Sure, no-problem"  then he set off around the block to give it a run.
in that ten minuets....
Three more folks (separate and in pairs) came in, and snagged up the one remaining MTB, and two ladies bikes, greatly diminishing our stock, AND there were three other folks meandering through the store looking in bone row.  Then the gentleman came back, and believe me, I know the look.  He came in, fully intending to try and talk me WAY down on the price of the ride he had just taken out, but as he turned to look at the Line, he did a double take.  Incredulously he turned back to me asking where was the other MTB's?  I just smiled and said, "just sold them"  Then, looking at one of the other folks who were perusing bone row, said in regards to the bike the first gent was still propping up "We also have this last remaining MTB if you wanted to take a turn on test riding it"  He didn't hesitate, and almost panicky said "Oh no, I'm going to pick this one up!
OH...Good times, GOOD times!
WOW!  I CAN be petty...can't I!
ANYWHO!
On the HOME FRONT!  Another exciting adventure of "The Stomach Turns!"
Either an example of how forgiving Angi can be, or how clueless Elijah is, went home to find him back in the house as if nothing ever happened.  I bit my tongue, remaining Sweden, and just went about my evening rituals.  Come to find out, though, that after arriving home from school yesterday, Kaleb dropped off his backpack, turned around, and left again, without a word.  Seems he hadn't said where he was going, just took off and no one had heard from him, by eight when we got back.  SOOOO, as we have discovered in the past (his older sister pulled this a couple times, as has Elijah) that in order to cover our butt's, by nine PM had to call it in to the Police and file a report.  As I stated to them, this was a case of teenager with chip firmly in place, attempting to flex his will. 
Now, as of this morning, I found him past out on the couch in his room (how he got into the house, I have no clue, but one can assume he met up with Elijah when he left work, and he let him in.  Once discovering him (and under no ignorance as to what he was most likely DOING last night) I could only assume he was probably quite tired, and more then likely a little hung over, and glancing to the bureau in there room, I noticed that Miranda's current favorite "noise maker" one of our Big metal stew pots, with accompanying metal ladle was perched there (a crude attempt to rest it from her hands, probably, as she serenaded the boys) I was SOOOOOOOOOOOOO tempted to gently place it over his head and do my own rendition of "the Bells of Saint Mary"!!!
Buuuuuuut, I was already running a tad bit late to go to work, so, reluctantly, I passed on the opportunity.
Yea...I'm still regretting the loss of such a CHOICE shot at parental revenge!!
....kicking myself....
Live and learn.
OKEY DOKEY!  I need to get a move on, and hopefully have some new goodies to show off!
See ya!!