2021-09-11 — Ever Forward

Hola, mon peopleses. 😊

Happy Saturday to all y’all. Hope you good day has been uplifting and educational.

Over here it started out as another slow day. I’m used to having the phone ring off the hook seemingly in the morning, but it’s been dead pretty much since my competitor came out swinging with advertisements and all that jazz to get him to the top of Google searches (which he is now). 

Don’t know if that’s related or not. Another competitor (though we help each other a lot, so it doesn’t really feel like a competitor) was also dead slow and said it’s usually like that this time of year–school having started a couple weeks ago. I don’t really remember the slow downs other than that I think I usually have a slow down each fall at some point and another in the winter before it explodes in the spring (once tax refunds come back).

Anyway, so it started slow, and I texted that other company, and she said they were dead slow as well, but even dead slow, she sent me two referrals. Super sweet of her. I give her referrals all the time, and she was like, “hey if you’re slow, I’ll send some your way.” All the cooler since she was super slow as well.

Funny, right after she sent a couple of referrals my way, my phone started ringing off the freaking hook, so much so that it seemed to ring every five minutes while I was working on a motorhome–a job I only took because it was a really slow day and… I didn’t have much else to do, and motorhome jobs do pay better than regular cars (assuming I can figure out the issues). 

Anyway, so things sped up and flew the rest of the day. First car was a simple jump start. I told her she was far away, and that she’d be paying mechanic prices, so I recommended she just flag a neighbor down and ask for a jump (she even had the cables). She tried… but she said no one would help her.

😶

So I drove 40 minutes down to give her a jump start.

Second car was back to that awful Nissan Versa for the…fourth time? with a squealing belt. And do you know what? It was the last straw. Don’t know what’s wrong with her car, but it won’t keep the belt tight. I don’t understand. I gave up. I gave a refund, and honestly, I’m just happy to have that car out of my hair.

Good riddance. 

Third car was… oh, the motorhome. It was losing power while driving, and then when he went to restart it, it wouldn’t do a thing. I poked around and tested and poked and tested and poked and tested, and finally (thanks to the mechanics who’ve posted to Identifix [the resource I use for all my professional mechanic repair info]), I was able to find that it was a dead short in the wiring harness back at the bell housing of the transmission. It kept blowing the computer fuse every time the key was turned. It was way up inside in a super awkward place to get my hands, so it was a pain in the butt, but I eventually got electrical tape wrapped around all four of the chewed up wires that were shorting to the case, split rubber hosing in half lengthwise and created a little sandwich of rubber for the wires to sit inside, so they wouldn’t contact the metal.

Boom. 

Fourth car was a Honda accord that needed a battery. Fifth car was also a battery job, 2007 Hyundai Elantra, and the sixth and last car was a 2011 Toyota Corolla that needed an alternator and a battery cable end connection. Good convo with the last guy. He was a pastor who’d moved to Missouri from Ogden, UT, and he was in town riding the world-famous mountain biking trails we have here. Good guy. Good convo.

Came home and chatted with Thomas for a couple two or three hours or so about starting the computer repair business. We talked and talked and talked and talked. Good stuff. If he feels good about it, we’ll go forward, but it’s no worries, no stress.

Sounds like one of my sisters will be moving to South Dakota. It’s where their hearts sing, so it’ll be wonderful for them. Apparently, it’s absolutely gorgeous country. I’ll be waiting to hear what the winters are like. 🙃

Let’s see… I guess that’s it. I’ve been thinking more and more about my nonprofit that I want to do. I’m probably gonna try and start spending a little time here and there working on ideas and thoughts for it and… a name. That’s what I want to get figured out… the name.

Speaking of names, Thomas came up with one I think is great for the electronics repair company. I’ll share once it’s official, if we get that far.

Anyway, again, hope your good day was the uplifting type, where you got to lift others. 😊

Loves and hugs. 😊

Lift the World.

~ stephen