Up in Flames
Well.... poot... Gotta love Mondays.
When I arrived at the shop this morning, I noticed a letter slid under the door. It was from Tim, the guy who had dropped off the cheque on Saturday for the door, asking me to please call him before cashing the cheque. Fortunately, I hadn't done so yet, so I gave him a ring. Turns out that he had mis-measured, and the doorway he needs isn't 10' wide, but more like 12'. Boxing it in isn't an option, because the machinery that he needs to move through that door is 11' wide. Crud... So much for my $500!!! *sigh* I was really counting on that too - so now I've got a door that I don't really need, and no money. I have some ideas that I could use the door for back on the farm, but I could have used that $500 a lot more. :/
I did get another $76 or so for an engine-repair and a spark-plug, so at least there was some income today. I also had a lady bring bring in a lawn-mower that would start, but wouldn't keep running. We took it off the back of her truck, and I tried starting it to get a better idea as to what the issue was. It started, spewed a bunch of dried-up grass-crud from underneath, then quit again. On a whim, I primed it again, restarted it, and it ran just fine! "You've got a magic touch!" the customer exclaimed, and I told her I get a lot of that! There's a rainstorm in the forecast tonight, so she said she'd take it home and get her lawn cut, and bring it back for a proper tune-up afterwards. I hope she does; The machine could use it, and I could use some paying business since I don't charge for a 2-minute magic-touch fix (unless the customer voluntarily coughs up a few bucks.)
I had a visit from the town's fire-department late this afternoon...
I got the old welder that a customer had brought in late Friday evening fixed, and was testing it to make sure it worked properly. That old twin-cylinder Onan engine spews out a lot of exhaust, faster than I had expected it would. Even though the main door was wide open, and the thing was just inside the door, the wind must have been blowing the wrong direction and blew all of the exhaust deeper inside rather than out! All I know for sure is that all of the sudden, the shop's alarm system was going off! That's when I also realized that the installer had failed to tell me how to turn it off!!!
The alarm eventually stopped going off, and a few minutes later the monitoring company called. I told them what had happened, and they sent out a cancel notice. Apparently, the Shaunavon Volunteer Fire Department's policy is that they go out anyway once an alarm has come in; The reason being that people have called back to say "false alarm" or that they put it out themselves, and didn't notice something smoldering which then erupts into a new fire later. They had a bit of a chuckle when I explained what had happened, and I grumbled something about "If I had those drop-hoses for the venting system, this wouldn't have happened." They said that they had a couple of those hoses at the fire-hall, and that they didn't need them! At least, they're pretty sure they still have them there, if they haven't been thrown out already. If the hoses are still there, they'll give them to me! At $189 a hose, that would save me a good chunk of badly-needed cash, so here's hoping!
When I arrived at the shop this morning, I noticed a letter slid under the door. It was from Tim, the guy who had dropped off the cheque on Saturday for the door, asking me to please call him before cashing the cheque. Fortunately, I hadn't done so yet, so I gave him a ring. Turns out that he had mis-measured, and the doorway he needs isn't 10' wide, but more like 12'. Boxing it in isn't an option, because the machinery that he needs to move through that door is 11' wide. Crud... So much for my $500!!! *sigh* I was really counting on that too - so now I've got a door that I don't really need, and no money. I have some ideas that I could use the door for back on the farm, but I could have used that $500 a lot more. :/
I did get another $76 or so for an engine-repair and a spark-plug, so at least there was some income today. I also had a lady bring bring in a lawn-mower that would start, but wouldn't keep running. We took it off the back of her truck, and I tried starting it to get a better idea as to what the issue was. It started, spewed a bunch of dried-up grass-crud from underneath, then quit again. On a whim, I primed it again, restarted it, and it ran just fine! "You've got a magic touch!" the customer exclaimed, and I told her I get a lot of that! There's a rainstorm in the forecast tonight, so she said she'd take it home and get her lawn cut, and bring it back for a proper tune-up afterwards. I hope she does; The machine could use it, and I could use some paying business since I don't charge for a 2-minute magic-touch fix (unless the customer voluntarily coughs up a few bucks.)
I had a visit from the town's fire-department late this afternoon...
I got the old welder that a customer had brought in late Friday evening fixed, and was testing it to make sure it worked properly. That old twin-cylinder Onan engine spews out a lot of exhaust, faster than I had expected it would. Even though the main door was wide open, and the thing was just inside the door, the wind must have been blowing the wrong direction and blew all of the exhaust deeper inside rather than out! All I know for sure is that all of the sudden, the shop's alarm system was going off! That's when I also realized that the installer had failed to tell me how to turn it off!!!
The alarm eventually stopped going off, and a few minutes later the monitoring company called. I told them what had happened, and they sent out a cancel notice. Apparently, the Shaunavon Volunteer Fire Department's policy is that they go out anyway once an alarm has come in; The reason being that people have called back to say "false alarm" or that they put it out themselves, and didn't notice something smoldering which then erupts into a new fire later. They had a bit of a chuckle when I explained what had happened, and I grumbled something about "If I had those drop-hoses for the venting system, this wouldn't have happened." They said that they had a couple of those hoses at the fire-hall, and that they didn't need them! At least, they're pretty sure they still have them there, if they haven't been thrown out already. If the hoses are still there, they'll give them to me! At $189 a hose, that would save me a good chunk of badly-needed cash, so here's hoping!