He actually said that?

My brother Phil's got my back. He keeps the best interests of me and my business at heart.

I'll try to make this story as succinct as I can. We picked up a sewer machine from a new customer and installed a cable. Phil was to meet this guy at his car wash at 2 yesterday afternoon to return it and get paid cash; the customer picked that time himself. When Phil arrived, he wasn't there, so my dutiful sibling called the fella. "I can't be there for at least 40 minutes," the man explained, without apology.

"Then we'll have to reschedule," Phil said. He knew he had to get back to the Shop to help me finish a large order promised for first thing this morning.

"All right," the guy responded. Then he asked, "Are you going to leave the machine?"

Phil answered simply, "No." He is a man of few words.

When Phil was back at the Shop, he unloaded the machine and told me what happened. Cool, I thought, you did the right thing. We went about putting that order together.

A couple of minutes later I stopped to ask my brother, "Wait a minute. He asked if you were going to leave the machine?"

"Yep."

"He actually asked that?"

"Yep."

"The words which came out of his mouth were: are you going to leave the machine?"

"Yep."

I laughed out loud. I mean, what the hell? This guy we don't know from Adam, whom we were giving free pickup and delivery to, whom we did not charge an installation fee even though his old cable was very difficult to remove, simply expected us to leave him the repaired unit at his place without payment?

I have since been in turn astounded, angry, and amused by the chutzpah of the dude. It's confusing to me that he'd expect that, then I get mad that he would, and then I find the whole episode hilarious.

Are you going to leave the machine? I still laugh at that, all the time I'm writing this. I mean, what the hell?

Snakes and Fords

An older gentleman came in the Shop the other day, wanting to know about a switch for his snake. When I asked what he had, he stooped over and with bowed arms demonstrated that his had a large drum. I apologetically said that that didn't really help me. I needed a make and model to get him the right switch.
He went right back into the same motion, the same position, explaining, "It has a big drum, like this."
"Sir, that simply doesn't help. Drums can be cage type, spun aluminum, or plastic. Maybe something else. Even color wouldn't necessarily help me, as they might have been painted from the factory original color. And there's dozens of snakes with large drums."
He was obviously dejected at that. "So I have to bring it in to you?"
"Either that, or call me with a make and model. Even then I'd rather see it, because things can get changed over time. Maybe someone put a different motor on it."
"Well, let me see if I can get someone to help me bring it to you." I genuinely felt bad for the old gent. But what he was asking was like needing a part for your car, and describing the vehicle as having four rubber tires and lots of glass and medal. Though less complicated than cars, snakes just aren't all that simple.
But I still feel bad for the guy.

Why the surprise?

One of the fascinating things about repairing drain cables and equipment are the the laments which I hear along the way. At times I wonder if people ever actually think about what they say.

Broken cables always just break. The operator never ever put too much pressure on it. Never ever. They were simply feeding it into the drain line and it broke. One fella even claimed, I am not making this up, that he just looked at his machine and the cable snapped. Of course, he was kinda ugly...but the point is that most cable breakages supposedly occur though absolutely no fault of the operator. Right.

A favorite of mine is the question, why did my machine break? It is often asked with incredulity. My normal answer is, I think, obvious. Everything is subject to break. Nothing made by human hands lasts forever. Your equipment, your cars, your refrigerator; they all break, and sometimes we just don't know why. Why are you be shocked by that?

Then there's the equally incredulous, it was working and then it just stopped! Again, why are you surprised? Everything works until it doesn't.

Sometimes I just sigh about it. Other times I blog about it. Today is your lucky day.