2021-10-02 — 😶

You wanna give me how big of a tip?!?!

…

As I drove away from the house today (or sometime early this morning, anyway), I thought to myself. Bust your butt. See if you can make [insert larger sum of money than I’ve ever made before] today. 

I wanted to break my record. But the first number I thought was pretty much astronomical in comparison to my previous personal best, so I dropped to to something that was still huge, a good bit more than I’d ever made in a day fixing cars, but I figured, heck, why not?

So I went to my first job, which happened to be at the county fairgrounds. Was supposed to just pull off is AC compressor, as it had seized up. What he didn’t say, I don’t recall at least, was that others had tried to take it off and had rounded off one of the main mounting bolts. In fact, they’d rounded off the one that was the hardest to get to, where there wasn’t even space to get a socket.

😬

I spent probably an hour just trying to get that bolt off. PB Blaster, line wrench, sledge hammer and chisel, etc. In the end, and this is a bit hard to describe, I ended putting an undersized line wrench on the rounded off bolt head, putting a long, flat metal rod against it, and then using a long prybar to pray against the rod which would press against the wrench, making it more likely to hold the wrench in place, grip the rounded head, and come off. It was really hard because I had to hold the metal rod in place and use the long pry bar against it, both with one hand. And with my other hand, try to loosen the bolt.

🥳

Success!!! 

That. Was. Hard. 

But I got it. Job took a lot longer than expected, two hours ish just to get the compressor out, mostly because of the rounded bolt head. Secondly because of the awful design of the AC compressor and van frame. 

But after all that, I looked at the AC compressor he’d bought, and it was the wrong one.

Lovely. So I ended up billing him for the time I’d spent, and just as we were finishing up, we had a nice little microburst bust on the scene. Horizontal rain (under a 20-foot carnival canopy, the rain was still coming in sideways enough to get me wet. 😶 I’s guess it was maybe 40 mph wind gusts? Maybe 50 or more? I don’t know.

Anyway, wind was blowing crazy hard. I got soaked. And for good measure, as I went to run from under the tent to my van, the canopy picked the perfect moment to dump a puddle it’d been collecting–all over me. It was… perfect. Timed completely perfectly. Couldn’t have been more perfect. 

I was drenched.

But he’d tipped me like $35, and I billed for my time, so it was good.

I drove to the next job with it still raining, but it lightened up a bit, enough for me to get my own canopy out without having to worry about the wind blowing it over. I thought maybe I’d have to finish for the day after just that one job, but I kept going. The next job was a 2006 Honda Accord 4 cylinder that wouldn’t start, and of course, we all know what causes that in a 4 cylinder Honda Accord.

Yep, starter.

I came prepared to do that job, expecting that’s what I’d find, and it was, and I did the job and that was great!

After that, I went back to the carnival, this time with an AC bypass pulley and belt that I bought, making sure they were the right things. I put on the new AC pulley, the new belt, got the old AC wiring and hoses safely secured out of the way of moving parts, he gave me another $30ish dollar tip, and I was off to my next job.

The 4th job (the carnival being the first and third jobs) was a no start that he thought was the battery, but it wasn’t the battery. I got there, and the battery cables were just… n a s t y–insanely corroded. I ended up trimming one and splicing a long new section into the other. 

At that point, I thought I was done, and he came out and went to start the truck, but it wouldn’t start. Just clicked. 

😬

Crap (I thought). But he was really nice, and the cable issue needed to be done, so I did another diagnostic, and found that the starter in that one was bad as well. In fact, when I pulled the starter out of the truck, the case that covers the bendix was broken off completely, and parts of the starter were inside the bell housing. 

😶

Yeah. 

At this point, I was trying to be as efficient as humanly possible because despite the downpour leading me to believe I wouldn’t be breaking any records today, I actually was on pace for a really good day. But this starter issue was a bit of a hiccup. I looked at the rest of the cars on my list and decided to leave that one for the moment and come back to it later.

Interestingly, while I was working on that one, I think it was, the carnival guy called again and said, “when it rains it pours.” And he proceeded to tell me that his other van was broken down at the laundremat and needed a starter. He said, if you can get that van fixed today, I’ll give you a really big tip.

So… though the day was full, he said he was going to give me like a $200 tip, so… it became a priority to squeeze it in. 🙃

Fifth job was a 2003 Acura TL with running issues, supposedly running super rough, but when I got there, I couldn’t get it to reproduce the problem. He had codes coming out his codes, but… 🤷‍♂️

His radiator was full of crack, like it had a blown head gasket, but the block test came up clean. The car didn’t overheat (which was one of his concerned), and it never ran badly. It had oil leaks. The radiator fan wasn’t working, just the AC condenser fan, but it was doing just fine with only one fan keeping things cool. So… I gave him some suggestions, and he’s probably gonna do them, and… that was that.

The sixth job was the carnival gentleman’s other van. I diagnosed. Again, nasty battery cable and bad starter. I replaced the starter and improved the cable situation but didn’t have time to replace it or splice it. It’s working perfectly for now, so hopefully he’ll be good for a long time, but he knows that cable should probably be replaced.

The total bill was in the 300s for that one, and when I called him to take payment, he did indeed mention giving me a tip, but instead of $200, like he’d mentioned, he gave me a $400 tip.

😶😶😶

I was shocked. The tip was so huge, I didn’t even feel good about taking it. He was like, does that seem like too big a tip, and I was like, “yeah, it seems pretty excessive.”

But he gave it to me nonetheless. Biggest tip I’ve ever gotten. I got a $200 tip once, I think, twice actually, I think, but $400!!! 😶🥳

Needless to say, between all those jobs, I broke my personal record. Torched it. Smashed it. I mean… demolished.

Realistically, I don’t think a day like today will ever happen again. The jobs went pretty well, honestly, and to have that many well-paying jobs go relatively well, and to have someone tip me nearly $500 (adding the tips from earlier in the day as well). It was like… Holy. Freaking. Crap.

Probably not ever gonna happen again, but so cool to happen at all. 😊

The seventh job was just back to the fourth job. I got a starter, went back to the truck (’97 F150, by the way), and put in the starter and got him going. He was happy, and I think he was expecting a bigger bill, which was also nice. 

The last two jobs decided to postpone to other days, which was actually a little disappointing because… well… I was so close to reaching a pie-in-the-sky goal for the day that I was pumped to try and get it, but none of the other jobs I could have done were realistic to try and do tonight because I hadn’t talked to them, and it was after 10 p.m.

But… I smashed my record, all while getting done by like… 10! 🥳🥳🥳

I went home, ate a bit, and jumped on Facebook Marketplace. I’ve been trying to find a little stick shift car to buy to teach Thomas how to drive a stick, so he can learn to drive the tractor without having to learn how to drive a stick with the poor tractor as the sacrificial lamb.

In the process of looking for a car, I saw a 2008 Dodge Grand Caravan that someone listed for $400 just like 30 minutes before (by this time it was almost midnight). I thought it must have been a misprint? Maybe they were asking $4,000? So I messaged and was like, so you’re asking $400, are you negotiable at all? And to my astonishment, he replied, I’d go as low as $300.

😶 (yes, lots of those faces today. It’s been… one of those face days.)

I asked him when I could look at it, and he was like, “heck, if you come and buy it tonight, I’ll give it to you for $200!” (something like that).

I was like… good heavens. I’ll be right there! So Thomas and I drove down to Fayetteville/Johnson area, I didn’t even bother taking it for a test drive or inspecting it. I just handed him $200, and drove it all the way back home! It’s got really high miles. 197k. It’s got lots of issues (bad front left wheel bearing, fender bender (not too bad) in the front, blower motor doesn’t work? And either the transmission slips, or something weird happens right about 60 mph. 

But for $200? It has brand new tires, and he’d just filled the tank. 🙃

So I bought it and drove it home. It’s filthy. I’ll buy a bearing for it. I probably won’t worry about the tranny at all. I’ll look into the blower situation, and I’ll read the check engine codes… at some point. 🙃

So here we are, almost 3:30 a.m., crushed records, new vehicle out front (sorry mom!!! I… couldn’t resist!!! It was only $200. Forgive me, please. 😬)

Time for bed. Didn’t plan on being up this late. Thought, even after buying the van, that I’d be in bed a lot earlier than this, but here I am. Tired. Happy Sunday!

Loves and hugs to all. 😊

Lift the World.

~ s