2020-06-10 — What Goes Around

Top of the evenin’ to y’all, and happy conclusion to Wednesday. 😊

It’s been a good day today, a good day of the happier variety. I had some good communication with my tech today. He really is a good guy. We worked out a few things, I think, and we’ll figure more out. That’s good.

Positive progress.

Today’s been another busy day. Can you imagine? Me? Having a busy day? Yeah… weird to me, too.

Got my tech out on his first job (fuel pump and fuel filter), and then I headed out on my first job. Mine was just a fuel filter, but it turned out the kid was just guessing, so the filter didn’t fix anything, and I got it diagnosed for him. A bad starter was the first issue. He might have another issue, as the starter might well be bad from cranking and cranking and burning it out. Not sure yet. I’ll be back tomorrow to put the new starter in for him, and we’ll go from there.

I also helped a guy from Conway who was in town visiting his girlfriend’s folks. His car died while on the freeway, and I squoze him into the schedule. I was able to get his car started so he could get it somewhere, but I told him to take it to a shop because we were busy, and it was going to possibly be a fairly challenging issue that would take more time than I had at that point to figure out. I didn’t charge him anything, but he later in the evening sent me $25 via CashApp. That was nice of him. 😊

Then there was a starter job for a gentleman helping out a friend of his. It went easier than expected, so I knocked a bit off the price.

Then it was a quickie putting a water shield back on that had been torn off. They really should get another one, but I was able to rig it up such that it will probably stay on for a long time to come.

I probably should have gone home after that, but there was somebody who’d been really hoping I could help him way down in Fayetteville. His work truck wouldn’t start. When I got there, I realized he had a push-button start wired in because he’d had issues with the starting system before, so the ignition switch was no longer wired in via the key. You still had to turn the key, but you had to press the starter button now at the same time to get it to start. But that system was no longer working.

I spent a while chasing down the issue–verifying that the starter itself was good. The push-button switch was good. Everything from the fuse bloc to the starter was good and everything from the push-button start to the fuse block was good, so that just left: 1. Bad fuse block, 2. Bad relay, 3. Bad computer, or 4. bad wiring between the computer and fuse block.

I must have scared it straight because as I was starting toarrow it down between those three, it suddenly started working (that happened right after messing with some relays, but then I swapped the relays around again and again, and it worked fine every time, so I’m not sure what to think on that one.

Anyway, I got him going. I showed him how to start his truck by jumping the starter relay sockets in the main fuse block, in case it happened again, so he wouldn’t have to call me.

Since I was already south, I was able to pick up the parts for two jobs I have up north tomorrow, and I was able to stop by the house of a previous customer. I noticed she’d given us a bad review on Google because one of my tech’s had gotten the diagnosis wrong, and she thought our prices were too high as well. I stopped by her house this evening and gave her a refund and an extra $20 in cash on top of that. She was happy and removed her bad review (I noticed that later tonight), which was super nice of her. 😊

I guess this is all boring day stuff and not really all that interesting, but it was the day.

My relationship with the people at the Bentonville Autozone is getting better and better. It’s fun to have a store full of friends now, much like the Rogers store had been for so long. The Rogers store still is, to a degree. It’s just awkward around a couple of them given the recent history.

Well, folks, the day is over. It’s 11:54. I still need to go running, so I’ll be leaving shortly. My dinner has settled down a bit (I hope), so hopefully it’ll remain in my stomach and refrain from making the short journey up and out while I’m running.

#1. I’m grateful to have a much lighter and brighter day today.

#2. I’m grateful that I was able to refrain from pre-meditated swearing today. That makes two days. I let probably somewhere between 5-10 automatic ones fly, but I was catching myself a bit today, and we’ll get them all knocked out.

#3. I’m grateful the lady was home, so I could give her the refund and try to make it right for her, and I’m grateful she removed the bad review.

#4. I’m grateful that my ulnar nerves have been a bit better the last few days. They’re still there, but it’s been better.

#5. I’m grateful for the lady who gave me a five-star review today. It’s affirming to go back through and read what people have to say about me and my company. I’ve worked very hard, and I’m happy it’s paid off. I’m grateful that the push-button truck person gave me a tip. That was nice of him.

Oh! If I didn’t mention it before. I had a lady who’s living on a fixed income give me like a $60 tip. Some people are just amazing.

Good night, my lovelies. May you rest well and happily.

Lift the World.

~ stephen