Break On Through, Too The Other Side....yea.

When the still sea conspires an armor
And her sullen and aborted
Currents breed tiny monsters
True sailing is dead

Awkward instant
And the first animal is jettisoned
Legs furiously pumping
Their stiff green gallop

And heads bob up
Poise, delicate, pause, consent
In mute nostril agony
Carefully refined and sealed over

-the Doors

Nope.  Didn't think the Gary Fisher would last that long! 
Left outta here first thing yesterday morning to one of our new regulars.  This is a HAPPY story!  Gent came in about three weeks ago, new to the area, and is lucky enough to live near the Pinellas Trail.  Quickly after moving in, he was introduced to the local bike culture, and being a younger man, in his early thirties,  saw the benefits in having two wheels to explore some of the more colorful areas abut town. SO much easier to get to them on a bicycle.  After being removed from bicycling since he was in his teen's and of course, achieving the goal of almost every young man hitting the milestone of 16, got his license, parked his bike and never looked back!  He came in and snagged up a "Cheapy Cheap" DBS in the form of a Magna dual shock MTB, just to test the waters. No sense in spending Boocoo bucks on a newbie, if you just get bored with it and shove it in the garage. 
He didn't get bored.
No, quite the contrary.  He discovered that not only was it a lot of fun for recreation, exhilarating to get off the main drag, and take "the road less traveled", but being a single gent, he could run his errands, do his chores AND get to work SO much easier...and FASTER on two wheels!  See, he's one of the smart  ones who moved to the area CLOSE to where he works!  Within a matter of a week he realized "What do I even NEED a car for?"  Well, short of a couple jaunts over to the Tampa night life...really...not much!  His only complaint, after letting the car collect dust, was that the Magna just wasn't "enough".  I do understand this, as the DBS is good for A to B banging about, but once you get serious about riding?  You need something a little more.  He happened to swing in yesterday morning, to have a pedal replaced that was trounced (plastic cheapies, big guy...go figure) and we got to talking and he relayed the above story to me.  However, as we continued to talk,  I noticed the inquisitive gleam in his eyes as they lighted upon the Zebrano. 
Offering him a road test was all it took!
Within ten minuets of zipping around the block a couple of times, we were talking trade-in value!   I'm not what you would call an advocate of the higher end market, we like to deal with the cheaper modes of transportation, BUT, we do hold true to the principle that a bike always finds its rider. And this gent was SOOOO a Gary Fisher man!  Let's face it, there is a difference between a Magna and a Gary Fisher!  I'm just happy that we could hook him up for a relatively small investment, regardless though, seeing the look in his eyes when HE recognized the difference...well....a lesser man could have milked it for a lot more! 
On the remainder of the day?  Seeing as I am all caught up, no new projects to start and everything cleaned and organized (well...except the wheel rack.  Really getting tired of having to reorganize that bloody contraption!) when we got in our standard compliment of repairs, had loads of fun doing the whole "NASCAR Pit Stop" bit! Absolutely LOVE to see the look in folks faces when they bring in a repair, fully anticipating the industry standard of "give us a few days", but instead get a "give me ten minuets and I'll have 'er done!"  OH...priceless!!
One gent brought in an older cruiser with a spent rear and fused chain, and was quite consolatory almost to the point of abject apology, that it would take me "a while" to finish up, and he'd be more then happy to pick it up next week. Next WEEK?!  Nope, go and grab a soda, and we'll have it finished when you get back.  He apparently was not convinced, so lingered a wee bit, returning an hour later.  In that hour we did his and two more fixers!  Sorry folks, yes I'm bragging, but we are proud of what we do!  Well...that...and part swapping is SOOOO easy!  The real challenge is when we rebuild them.  Yes, that takes some time!
At this point we hit the "Horse Latitudes" of midday, so it was all I could do to not snooze.  Rozy was up, so we went to the corner store, picked up a pack of playing cards, and she whooped my butt at War, and Go Fish.  Then introduced me to a new game "ten's" which was elementary, but kind of fun.  That's the one good thing about summers, as I bring one kiddo on alternating day's with me, it affords me a little time (when I'm not to busy) to reconnect.  The chaos of school years limits our interactions to dinner, baths and bed.  And whereas, bath time is relegated to just Izzy and Miranda (the other ones are WAY to big for Daddy to wash up!) and even though the school agers are here in the afternoons most days, that's our busy season so it's more "go in the back room and let Daddy work and stop taking my tools!" time. Of course, when Logan comes up, it's totally different.  He disappears into the back room as soon as we show up, turns on his cell phone and gets lost in whatever video he's watching or games he's playing.  He gets his "technotactics" from Mama.  It's bizarre, that.  Angi recently came across an old photo of herself when she was just about Logan's age, and it was incredible, they could have been TWINS!!!  The oddity in our home, is that the boys, physically take after their mother, while the girls take after me.  Yes...pity our poor girls! 
Speaking of girls.  Last night was "fresh veggie goulash" night soafter I made a trip to the local fresh market, got home,  and started dicing and slicing.  Miranda, not a fan of veggies, caught wind of this fact when she was investigating what Daddy was making for dinner, and as I was a little later then unusual, unbeknownst to anyone, she gathered up her bottle and blankie, snuck away to her room, shut off the light, pushed the side table in front of her crib climbed in and went fast to sleep!  Around 8.30 while passing through the living room I did a head count and realized she was missing. After a brief search, I found her sprawled out fast asleep in bed.  That's ONE way to avoid eating her greens!
SHEESH!
But woe to anyone who inadvertently awakes her before she is prepared to get up!
*SHUDDER*!
Yea, at this point I'm vamping folks.  One side of my brain writing, the other side trying to come up with something to occupy my time! 
Soooo, I think I will wander about the shop, aimlessly, looking for something to do!
See ya!