Manic Monday

Gentle readers and Miss Diary,

Some Mondays you just seem to know you should not have been born. But, it is too late for that so one just keeps hoping it gets better, save us someone! Monday AM, open shop, employees arrive, car broken into in parking lot. OH NO, it belongs to my best employee! I feel so bad, they broke his trunk and yanked off and stole his spoiler. A SPOILER!. We called they local Leo's and the officer just seemed more interested in being sure my employee had a current drivers license and registration. He filled out a report and that was it. Just a report. Later I found out that three cars next door were broken into. It was a bad day. Monday afternoon, major computer crash on Abby's computer....the server.....we had the blue screen of death! I called my middle son, a computer guy and he whispered he was in meeting and to try to reboot. I did not have a chance to tell him we had the blue screen of death.

I tracked down a guy, who for beau-coup bucks would come and get it and repair it asap. I said anything! So, we had nothing and were writing estimates on paper. It was really stressful for all of us as everything we do is computerized and we knew we would be entering everything we wrote. So at 5:30, like Greg said, we played like shepherds and got the flock out of there.

When we got the computer back, we found we, lost everything for the last two months. It has taken two weeks to correct the problems. All credit goes to Abby.

In the meantime, a customer, an older guy named Jyms Buttrubb, came into pick up his car. When he brought the car, it had junkyard doors, bumper and two fenders, all beat up. He was a friend of a friend, he got a huge discount and was strongly urged to chemically strip the 5, yes, 5, layers of old paint off his car before putting new on. He said, I do not want to spend anymore on this car. It so happened that an officer of the law was in my shop to solicit a donation. We hear Mr. Buttrubb screaming from the parking lot and we went to investigate. His apparent girlfriend was right beside him screaming, "I'm a witness, I'm a witness" every 10 seconds. I cannot think of/use words strong enough to describe the lack of any kind of character or grace in this man. It is not over, nothing we could do would make this person happy. If I paid him for the privilege of fixing and painting his car, he would still bless me in his special way. More on Buttrubb later.

So, this Monday, I thought, great a new week and all will be better. Two brothers came in Sat to pick up their Hugh pickup that was $2900. for us to fix and paint. Their credit card would not go through so they said they would go to the bank and come back. They did not, so we assumed we would see them Monday. So, Monday Morning, no truck in the lot. Chaos, crazy, nothing added up. I FINALLY, got a hold of one of them and told them to come in right now, if they did not have their truck, it was gone. They came in laughing, which made Greg think they had stole it themselves to get out of my bill. We called the police, that went well, the first officer accused them of stealing it, then it got ugly. A second officer, a Sergeant, got there, low and behold gentle readers....the officer that solicited the donation! (Boy was I glad I gave one) He took charge and the end was the police would look for the truck, I was not responsible and no matter where the truck was, they were to pay my bill. I was going to offer to have his children, but he looked too serious to take it as a thank you. So, they came back the next day, after their attorney called and yelled and threatened me, which, I did right back and said conversation over if the yelling does not stop. Games they play. So, I was paid. We take things out of the beds of pick-ups so they do not get stolen when we put them outside. We had the guy's tool box and gave it to him.

On Tuesday, Hugh pulled a car through the paint booth as it was done and ripped off the aftermarket muffler. Why was I sitting in my chair, behind my desk, laughing so hard, he wondered.

Hey, yesterday we painted a Rolls Royce!!!! Yes we did, Yup and it is beautiful.

I cannot wait to see what tomorrow brings.....

At this morning's staff meeting we played Maaco trivia. I gave away $10. for correct answers. Everyone had a blast. Do you, my gentle reader, know what the best selling car of all time is???? one guy knew. VW BUG! later my love,