So, Officer, what do they pay you for??

Mon Cheri, Good Morning. Nothing like opening up your business and finding the outside door lock destroyed. At least they did not get in, but they got to two cars in the parking lot. The front door is by the street, a busy street, well lit and someone still stood there and tried to break in. The tire a few days ago, now this. Each time, the police look at me like I am crazy to think they care. He told me that if they want in there is nothing anyone can do, including them. Basically, he told me he has worse problems to deal with. Why do I pay such high taxes to have a business here if not for police protection??? Oh well, LYNN let reality sink in. I have the locksmith coming this afternoon to fix the lock.

I am struggling today. There is so much and I have hardened a lot, but not enough. I really want to run away today. FOR GOOD. Later babe. me

Happy Anniversary!!!!

Bon Jour Mon Cheri! It has been quite a time here. We had our two year anniversary of the business, so we had an anniversary sale. We did 1/2 off three paint services. We are slammed with cars! Wonderful. And we have some colorful characters. those of you who have read our other half price sales know that they bring in a strange lot. Mr. Maddening, call 2 times a week angry that three months ago we painted his car the wrong color. He has been asked frequently to bring it in and won't. I pulled the computer history and the paint mix was 100% correct for the chip he picked out and signed on. I explained that to him and he yelled at me that, "It was not what he wanted". I told him I would repaint his car for cost, but could not do it for free as he got the color he chose. He said he was going to the news......lol...Go for it Maddening. I did apologize for not understanding what he chose was not what he really wanted.

Our painter quit, gave me one second notice, shop and lot full of cars! Where is the booze when you need it. So, Hugh is in the booth painting. He is a better painter than the one who quit. My assistant manager in the back is now running the shop and I hired another guy to sand and mask. Next week we should be cranking them out.

OH, Yesterday, between noon and 2:00 in the afternoon, someone propped up a car in our lot and stole a tire and wheel and lug nuts. IN BROAD DAYLIGHT! This is getting scary! I called the police three times to get them out here, took an hour, my customer wanted to leave. I cannot make a police report on someone else property. the Owner has to be here. People all over and no one saw a thing. I am considering a banner on the side of my building stating God's Commandment about stealing.

I had a Maaco rep here this week. His name is Jeremiah (contrary to what we have been told in our youth, he was not a bullfrog) He helped out up front, trained my estimators and I spent one whole day in the shop. I was masking cars with Gilbert. I kept asking shop manager if I could sand and he said, keep masking. Gilbert was fun to work with but I wanted my hands on tools. Then it came back to me. The last time I used a heat gun to take off decals, I laid the Heat Gun down and got busy and it burned a hole in the fiberglass vehicle. Big Bear had to do some body work magic to fix it. I thought that was why they were keeping me with tape in my hand. No problem. I worked all day and was stiff and dirty.

We have been very busy and if only we can stay this busy all the time I would sleep every night.

We had two gentle men arrive, jeans around their thighs, complaining that we did not do the work they specifically declined 6 months ago when we fixed their cars. What do people think. The are now selling the car and want it done, free. We keep very good records. The would not give up. After they cussed at each other??? in the parking lot, they made their way into the shop and tried to have a go at me. I kicked them out and told them subject is closed.

I am glad I have you to talk to Mon Cheri. God Bless, Lynn Moore

remember me!?

Mon Cheri! Bon jour! My beloved, I have been remiss in my log. Over the last few months, I have become divorced. That took much of my time and my emotions were all over the board. I did win the law suit I talked about in my last post. Yea, but I had to pay my attorney, so it is a loss/win. They refused to negotiate a free paint job to drop the suit before we went into court, so I guess they gambled and loss. We have become a female shop. Since Greg, my estimator with the southern accent left, I have not found a suitable male estimator. I have a highly qualified female and my daughter in law, Abby, who are both highly qualified, I-Car certified, a big deal in the auto biz. It is unbalanced, I know, but when customers begin to work with them, they are always impressed. We do get comments.....I guess it is not a man's world anymore.....Sure you know what you are doing little honey....I had a man hang up on me a while back because I could not produce a man for him to talk to. There is a lot less misbehavin going on with out a guy up front. someone pointed out to me men are more apt to be gentlemen and watch their language around women.
I will take that.

We have had three good weeks in a row. We really need them. I am praying for a mild winter and business. All small business this year are praying the same. I am going to let someone go week after next. And, Yes, I have good reason. Not a fun thing to do, but he crossed the line and does not know I know. Hugh, my son and shop manager will let me know if I need to replace him.

We have had some good laughs lately, but our clientel is growing, we are doing more corporate biz and no one has tried to run me over lately. Saying of the week: One of my body guys has had a lot of family problems lately and told me he felt like he was standing in front of a shit fan.

I went to get a FEW blond highlights put in my auburn hair and left a full fledged Marylin Monroe!!!! Why me. Everyone loves it, but it was NOT what I planned or expected. Inside, I am not blond, but outside I sure am now! Since I am stuck for a while, I will make the best of it. Look out world! My guys in the shop all told me they loved it, whistled and told me it was working for me. When I was in my office, they told my son they believe I did it because I was divorced. We all laughed about that one. Ce la vie. love precious readers, Lynn Moore

This is the Week that was

Mon Cheri, mon ami. It is Sunday AM and I cannot decide to dwell on the last week or runimate on the week to come. Last week first. Both new people did not make it. I hired a new detailer and he is great! I had to let the young man we were trying to train to become an estimator go. He was a very sweet young man and it was hard to tell him that this was not the job for him. He knew. So I have a temp in right now. Our retention is way down. I am going to make some calls on a guy who came in this week. We did have two good weeks, but my expenses of late have killed us. I did have another young man come in and interview for the estimator job. He was an absolute knock out young black man who should be modeling. Abby stuttered. His study and love was fashion. I do not believe he would like the auto industry, but the ladies would be liking him. I could see the shop now, full of girls, TOMMY, CAN YOU LOOK AT THIS SCRATCH ON MY CAR FOR ME PLEASEEEEEEEEEEE. I have no doubt he could do the job and sell, but I do not think he would like it.

I have to go to court tomorrow. an elderly couple picked a color and we painted their car. she picked the color and signed and then said we painted it the wrong color. They could not grasp a computerized mixing system and we have the print out that says it was a perfect mix. So, I take a day off and drive downtown.

I have to run, my dear, a lot to do on my one day off. my love forever Lynn

New Employees

Mon Cheri, Change is always difficult.....for all concerned. We had two new people start on Monday. Neither seems to get it. Am I being to picky? Can I expect an employee to move quicker than a snail? Not, that is asking way too much. Is it too much to expect that they NOT clock in in the morning and then sit at the picnic table and eat breakfast? Is it too much to hope they don't sit and yawn all day? It seems to be rocket science to take a phone message. How many times should a person be told which part is the fender and which part is the quarter panel? Repeating it for three solid days, one may expect that it has sunk in. Silly me! Who do I go to for advice. Abby is training like she has done it all her life. I am so proud of her. I just do not see it happening. I see apathy.

In the shop, I see apathy in that new person. s.........l..........o..........w........
They BEG and BEG to be given a chance and then proceed to blow it. I do not get it. Can someone tell me what to do??? I am going to talk to both of them before they leave today. Maybe if they are told that I have not seen anything impressive out of them this week and won't see them next week if I do not see something, they will wake up.

We have had happy customers all this week and happy employees. (pre existing, that is)

Today is creeping slowly....the clock has stopped moving I think. The heat is gloomy...but much better than the snow.

I am back, I just did an estimate. I do not do many of those anymore. I am good at it and should do more. I keep feeling like it is Friday, but it is only Thursday. There must be a time warp going on. Maybe that explains why I am 58 because that cannot possible be true. I know I am only 40. I sure could use a drink right about now. Wouldn't that be fun Mon Cheri, just sitting and laughing over a Cosmo. Did I mention, I am thinking about moving to France? A small cottage in the country with a bicycle to get around.

back to work, my love, me

Mon Cheri, bon jour, It is the Dreaded Monday Morning. Help, I have tears in my eyes....... A long Sunday and the Dreaded week starts.

No reading anymore. I have put the books away for a while. I am not ready I guess. The premise is the compete self, including the sensual woman equals strength. I want my strength, but I do not want that strength to be vulnerable. I think I will go back to my wall of fear and rules that everyone is a liar. .I will be immune to tears! At least what I have cultivated inside will be safe and I can grow myself. No one will take that away from me.

Thought two happened between 4am and 5am. To be beautiful is a curse, not a blessing. To every woman who does not like her thights, smile, weight, hair, nose or whatever, WAKE UP. When your man says he loves you, he means it. My fantsy....to be loved by a blind man.

Monday, new week, new start, will Gary show up, not. will creepy people walk in, yes. When Gary was there, I felt safe, he was a boxer, army guy, and an ex-MP. I knew he could handle things. Now, it is Abby and I and someone I do not know. I am left to rely on myself to protect Abby.

Here goes, lets see what this new guy has got. Don't worry about me mon cheri, I will get over this too. Won't happen again. Oh Mon Dieu, Mon Cheri, Je nes pas tem. I hurt.

Sunday morning decisions and reflections

Dearest Beloved Mon Ami, more reading........

"sex itself must always, it seems to me, come to us as a sacrament and be so used, or it is meaningless. The flesh is suffused by the spirit, and it is forgetting this in the act of love-making that creates cynicismn and despair" May Sarton-U.S. Poet

Well, Mon Ami, you must be wondering what books I am reading these days. I am becoming whole again...body, spirit, mind and soul. Through this process, my inner power and strength will be in control and the WOMAN I am will be open, loving, sensual and complete.

Whew, enough, too heavy.

Last night I was watching "American Gangster" late in bed as I could not sleep. In a scene, the Viet nam connection, drug guy told Denzel at the end of the war that is was ok to quit while you are ahead and it is different than just quitting.

That wisdom I am going to apply to the buttman. He can keep his money and the peace I will have will be greater than the punishment he will face someday. relief.

Now, lets talk about Greg, my estimator I have talked about in the past. He has been with me 1.5 years. I have treated him like a son. He has been, what I thought, a friend. He took his lunch tote, which I gave him, and snuck out Thursday at 3:00, saying not a word to anyone. He has not answered his cell all weekend or returned any voice messages. I looked at the history on his computer, MY computer and he has been looking for a job on my time, on my computer. I believe he has found one and rather than be any kind of man, he bolted without even a goodbye. I will confess, Mon Cheri, I did cry. It hurt. I fault no one for finding a better job and moving on. I fault the lack of courage and character to at least say goodbye. There is no maturity or manhood in that action.

I am finding my inner strength and spiritual side, strengthened by my sensuality, to make me a better woman from this experience. Only my son, will ever be treated like my son, unless there is a true, and earned trust.

My son, Hugh, my daughter in law, Abby and I are a stronger unit now. We will be a united, respectful and strong management team. I must share...

When John blew up, it was his own inner problems he keeps inside that caused him to loose control at the first person that spoke to him. That person was Hugh. He did not have any control over his anger, screamed cusswords, waving his arms and walking in circles. He went after Hugh, in his face spitting on him as he cussed him out. John wanted to hit him and we all thought that may happen. I got nowhere trying to calm John and he left cussing all the way out the door. All through this, my son, Hugh, stayed very calm, showed no anger back and talked softly at John. I know that took self discipline on his part under the circumstances. I do believe Hugh's calm common sense kept a fight from happening and more legal issues. I have known that John had life problems and was not a happy person. I actually went to him the day before, put my hand on his shoulder and asked him if he wanted to spend some time talking. No, he said, he said he was doing great. No More MOM to the world. I am an employer. I own a business and fix cars.

Mon Cheri, you are my best friend. Love, Lynn

The week we blew up

Beautiful Lady...

"and the day came when the risk that it took to remain tight in a bud was greater than the risk it took to blossom" Anais Nin - French novelist

It is Friday night and I am alone, on my bed, wide awake. I took a nap afterwork today so.....now you get to listen to be bespeak.

"A sex goddess has the ability to be whole within herself, because only then can she truly connect with another human being. To be a sex goddess means to cultivate a deep sense of self and your own connectedness with who you are"

I have been reading, duh. I have talked about the loss I have had of knowing who I am anymore. The process is changing and I am emerging or connecting with myself. This week, the shop emotionally blew up. It started with one employee going postal. Serious, I called and talked with the police for a while after. I could not calm him down, get him to go outside or stop screaming cuss words. This is a man who for a year and a half has never had anything but a smile on his face and kind words on his lips. It scared me, I must admit. I told him to take his tools and leave. He threw some things at me as he left. I came in the next morning in shorts and a tee shirt and did his job. we have a new employee starting Monday.

Greg, our estimator, my friend, I thought, is gone. That story is still too much for me to begin to share yet. I have a new estimator starting Monday. No one is not replaceable. Lesson learned, do not get close to employees.
There are other issues, a crazy guy harrassing me.....a scary guy....and a very elderly couple suing me because she picked the color out of a book, signed it and said it was the wrong color. I have the computer mix print out and it was the color she picked out. They do not get it. Now I have to hire an attorney and go to court. I told her if they got me the correct code, I would take care of her. They say they had the right code and I did it wrong. The computer will prove the point, but they are old and I hate to do that to them. I hate it that they are doing that to me!!!

I am getting sleepy and I have a man on my mind........sweet dreams. Monday starts another week of body shop joy.

Never again folks!

Dear diary of a completely crazy body shop lady. Congratulations, public, you have driven me completely off my nut....and for what???your bloody cars!!!!! I declare publicly I find the public vulgar, disgusting, rude, crude, dirty, sick, really sick, evil and stupid!!!! You all have made sure I never do anyone a favor, kindness or show compassion. I hate you all. Take your cars and shove them!!!!

Any human being who stands and screams and cusses over a nano speck of paint over spray on a car that had over 50 dings and dents left undone is completely in serious need of meds.

A man who owns his own business came in drunk to pick up his car. He Mother F...ed his pregnant girlfriend in front of my whole crew, called my estimator a F...A...G, made up an entire two pages of fiction of various things such as rudeness on the part of my daughter in law, Abby, who would nice someone to death, deserves to be hung.

I could go on and on. Legally, I can be threatened, robbed, cheated, lied to, etc., but I cannot do anything in my own defense. The leo's just take their reports and go on looking for revenue raising arrests. Their revenue, not mine. I pay so much city tax that I think when I am robbed, I deserve more than a one page report. I am at my wits end, the end of my rope........I just don't understand any of this. Isn't America small business??? Why does everyone want me out of business? If I paid them to paint and fix their cars, they would still complain.

Charge back! the new legal crime. Did you know if you pay for something with your credit card, you can fill out forms and get your money back! who cares about laws, the courts. I guess VISA is the new law. There is not much of me left. I am angry and not empowered. That is a sad place to be just trying to run a decent business, treat people well, put out a quality service and do it with extreme customer service. Did you know that anyone who comes in for an estimate is offered a beverage? Where do you find that service?

Anger without empowerment.

Woe to the Half Price Sale Volume II

Gentle Readers and Ms. Diary, Here we are on the last few days of the Half Price Paint Sale and have had a couple of interesting characters. Yesterday Miss Kinder picked up her car. We painted the entire rear bumper cover with Base Clear, prep'ed and did some body work and her bill was $288.! Unheard of! I got an estimate at another body shop and just to paint my rear bumper cover was $900.+. When she brought the car in she came in my office and said, "can't you do it for less, I have Doctor Bills" People have no shame. I said no, I can't. I have ins. payroll, Duke Energy bills. She said, "But still, I have Dr. Bills". I asked her if she had gotten any other estimates and she said no. If she had, she would have known she got a good deal. Pardon me for a moment, we have a fire....................... ............ok, I am back. Someone threw a lit cigarette into the trash can outside of the front door. Greg and Hugh ran out and put the hose in the trash can and got it under control. Some people are short a few smarts I think. It sure does stink.

Anyway, she got back at me when she picked up as I would not give her anymore money off. She whined about some dust inside her car and I had to stand in the hot sun and wipe out her car. #$%^&**(()()^&%$@#!@@#$%^&&*

The phone rang a few minutes ago and a gal (toasted, I think) asked me if Greg was in. I said he was on the other line and I could have him call her back, but I immediately got, "He is on the other line! That sucks!" and hung up on me!!!!!!!!Man, If I could get my hands on any of these people, legally, I would throttle them! She then called back and talked to him and asked him if she could have more off her estimate which was already half price!?!?! Guess what I told her...

I got a WONDERFUL email from a young lady thanking me for how fast we got her car done, how good it looks and how clean it is. She also said the service she experienced was wonderful and would recommend us to all her friends. YES!!! I copied Corporate. I made a copy for each of my employees and gave them a copy of the letter and a $20.00 bill. I also bought ice cream for the 3:00 break. I figure, I get cranky with them when a customer is mad, so I should reward them when we get such a great compliment. Are you feeling me on this? Capiche?

Abby continues to be wonderful at what she does. The customers love her.

Mr. Ken, sure had a bad experience, poor man, let me share with you, his journey of frustration. It started when a rock hit his windshield and cracked it. He called ins. and had a glass company come out and put a new windshield in. It is a 2009 Dodge Caravan. The glass company scratched up the paint around the windshield so bad that it had to be repaired. Good for them, took responsibility and were paying our estimate to repair it and his rental to have it repaired. They had to come in and pull his windshield out for us to repair and repaint the damage all around his windshield. His vehicle was sitting behind the paint booth, masked, ready for paint and it would not start! I went through this before and screamed:" DON'T TOUCH IT!" We called Mr. Ken and told him. His first response was, it ran fine when we dropped it off. I ended up talking to him, asked if he had AAA, that nothing we did could cause a problem and that I looked it up and he had a recall on the electrical system. Told him it would not cost him to tow it to the dealer and it was probably under warranty. Mr. Ken called his mechanic and asked him to look at it. God was watching over me, I knew the mechanic. He told Mr. Ken, that he did not know what was wrong and that it was electrical. Said that stuff happens and we did not do it. So, still in a rental, he had AAA pick it up and take it to the dealer. The dealer decided he needed a part and it was on back order for two weeks. Mr. Ken, in frustration, finally got his car back from the dealer and DROVE it here WITHOUT a windshield! We have it fixed, painted and the windshield back in and the dealer lost the luggage rack clips which were in the car. Now we are waiting on those clips, which are back ordered...... Mr. Ken has been without his car for two months now. One small rock. His patience has been marvelous in spite of all his frustration.

Got to run, Ms. Kinder is back complaining about something. Later my love, Lynn