Dear Madam of wonderful listening skills, I am here to talk to you again.

It is mid morning, I think it is a Wednesday. I have a story that was scary and of no fun, potentially serious, but true to the "body shop" world, down right hilarious! As you can imagine, working 6 days a week, owning your own business during a ression, etc, etc, can be stressful. I took my 12 hour firearms safety class on saturday and had no time to rest and wind down on Sunday. Monday AM, my estimator, Greg was out so it was just Abby and I in the front.

I was doing an estimate for an elderly gentleman for his Mercedes s series, and by the way, if you have one, be careful, the headlight oem cost was $2,200.00! So anyway, I am almost done and SUDDENLY, I am doubled over with chest paint, sweat, paint up my neck to my ears and am slurring my words. Having taken a CPR class, I knew what that meant. Abby was at the front counter doing an estimate on her computer, kinda unaware of what I was feeling. I was trying to hurry and ended up just printing his estimate and handing it to him. I went into my office and grabbed a baby asprin from my purse, (something I learned to carry after the CPR class) and took it. I paged my son, Hugh to come up front, as Abby was with a customer. I could not get the pain to stop by changing positions.

What I was not aware of, due to my sudden condition, was that the customer I was doing the estimate for had removed his clothes during the end of the estimate! Abby told me later she could not believe I had allowed that and was ignoring it. I was totally not aware!

Hugh came pretty quickly to the front, in time to see a man walking out in white boxers, black sox and no shirt on. He walked in my office, a little stunned, and asked me what was wrong. I wispered, I think I may be having a heart attack, He said, because that guy flashed you? I am what? Hugh is what?? He thought I was kidding because of the semi nude dude, I was not aware of the semi nude dude, so He was completely confused. I just said again call 911. He did and of course, we could hear sirens while he was on the phone. Even when the paramedics were there, Hugh was still confused about the boxer shorts guy and asked the parametic if that casued my problem. Medic guy said, "WHAT!" He said we have to ask your Mom that.

They hooked me up in my office and the ekg was ok, but there were some blips, do not know the name of them, at 10-15 second intervals that indicated potentially something had happened or there was stress on the heart. The paramedics promised if I went to the hosp, get checked out, I would be back to work in two hours. Well, I stayed two days. Did many tests, and my heart is as tough as my dads. (he is 86 and parties and has more fun than I do!) My mother has heart history, so that was part of why they kept me.

Having passed all tests, the verdict is I need to worry less, work less, eat better and sleep more. Oh My Lovely Lord, don't we all!!!

PS, now I have to put a sign on my door, "please do not disrobe during your estimate, Thank you, Management"

Dear What's your name.....HI, Today, October 13th, 2009 is our one year anniversary! Who'd thought a lady and her son and daughter in law could open a body shop and make it work. We knew NOTHING about what we were getting into. Here we are one year later....smarter, meaner and really good with cars. We had lunch brought in for our crew, actually, my daughter in law and her mom did it, Abby, and we celebrated and told stories about the last year. We have two employees who have been with us since day one. They had stories. Their favorite story was the day I found out from my attorney that the previous owner had screwed me out of 25 grand. That his attorney had given him the money and he ran, instead of paying his bills as stated in the agreement. I blew a gasket! I had been cleaning out the skanks office and tossing his crap in a box, like a nice girl. I was so mad, I grabbed the box, in my cowboy boots I stomped the entire length of the shop screaming obscenities about Hank the Skank and ended up at the dumpster and threw the box in it. My body guy said I screamed at him if he talked to Hank to tell him, "&@&)*^$#@%^&**&^$#@%&(*^%!!!!!" and that I threw his shit in the trash. They told me one of the techs actually dove behind a car when he saw me coming! They said two of the guys tip toed out and peeked into the dumpster to see what the heck I had thrown out. I was crying tears of anger and screaming. No wonder they ran and dove for cover. But we all laughed about it today.

Remember Washington??? First post, I think, he called today and someone stole his BMW! He wanted copies of all his repair work, probably for ins. It would be hard for the police to miss, it is covered in rhinestones.

It is late and I am sitting waiting for my painter to finish clearing a couple of cars. I have got to go to the gun shop and buy ammo as we are all going to the range Thursday to practice. I am going to say "good night" for now and go check on the progress in the paint booth. Still sane as of today, but getting hinky. God Bless, Lynn Moore

Dear Miss Diary,

No, I have not forgotten you but do forgive me. I have been overwhelmed with personal challenges, but will not bore you dear reader with such. I know the crazy shop sagas are what quench your thirst. (and mine sometimes) We have actually had mostly happy customers these last few weeks. None the less, I have some observations to share.

Back in the day, when one had an accident, one called insurance and paid the deductible and had the car repaired. Then, consumers got wiser and searched body shops to find one who charged a little less and perhaps they did not have to pay some or all of their deductible. Now, in our day, people come in and tell us the estimate is out of pocket, no insurance do they have. "I only want this fixed, not that, no cheap, not that dent....." and by the way, here is a copy of my insurance estimate. Usually dated before the date of my estimate....get it?

Now, we look at the insurance estimate and compare it to ours, and there is more repair, such as a new headlight, etc. and we ask the customer if they want us to do that. Back up...all hell will break loose! Of course they want all the work on the ins. estimate done, but they do not think they should pay one cent more than our original estimate!

Last week an insurance company called several times to see if Daisy had dropped her car yet. I said no, she kept calling and changing her apt. (That was my tip off that it was not "out of pocket". She picked up her insurance paid for rental several days before she dropped the car. The last time the insurance company called they asked me to double check as Daisy was on the other line swearing her car was here! I told her no, it was not. So Daisy dropped it the next morning. The is a doosie! I will exhale when her car is gone. She had the screaming fit over a piece of molding not on our estimate, but on her ins. estimate. I told her if she wanted it, she would have to pay for it. The screaming went on until I called the police. She promised to come back Monday AM and straighten me out with her uncle the sheriff. Folks, I prayed on Sunday that God would give her an Valium before Monday Morning. He did. She called and asked how much the part was, and said to order it and she would pay for it. Her car is not done yet, but I also pray that all goes well when she comes to get it. People, car insurance is not a profit center!!!!!!! Do not try to make money off your accident!!!! You can usually get it done quality and save some of your deductible, but do not look at as a way to make money.

Yours truly,

PS-next post the trials of Demmett Harpo