[elky] A day when things went right (for a change)

  • From: Ray Buck <rbuck@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: elky@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Mon, 24 Oct 2011 19:44:10 -0600

Boy, am I tired.  It's been a long day (14 hours so far) and it ain't over, but in what seems to be a change from the norm, things went right today.  Here's the list:

I finally got Expedia to arrange for a refund of the 2 night's lodging in Wendover that I left early when World Finals was rained out:
http://www.chevyasylum.com/lsr/bsf2011/05-wf/Welcome.html (there's a caption on every page to explain what went on as far as the racing and the Burb's distributor's untimely demise.)  I had to be tenacious about it before I got it...at first they didn't want to refund anything, then the hotel manager said it was their policy to refund only 1 out of 2 nights, but when I explained that my German friend checked out at exactly the same time I did and got a full cash refund, the motel owner finally ran out of excuses and authorized the full refund.  Btw...if you come to the salt flats, avoid the Motel 6 like the plague.  The Knight's Inn is much better.  Jim can explain about the cockroach he found in his room earlier in the year....ohh...and that was the place where the owner doesn't turn the heat on for the rooms until November.  Hell, I dunno if he's noticed, but Wendover is in the high desert and has the same climate as Salt Lake City...except for our Wasatch mountains directly to the east of the SL valley.  I started turning on my heater before I left for WF.  But then I'm kinda cold-blooded.

Moving right along, I got Moon Equipment's refund of the deposit for the Moon Disc mounting hardware welding jig.

I took the junkyard driveshaft in and had the people at GRS Drivelines replace the slip joint and rear u-joint.  That was done in about 6 hours.  It cost about half of what had been refunded to me, so that wasn't too bad.  It was pretty good, as a matter of fact.

While I was waiting for that to be done, I was able to fix the Beater Camaro's horn button with the spring from a ball-point pen.  Seems that whoever installed the aftermarket wheel (looks sorta like a 60s-era Cal Custom job) neglected to put the spring in the electrical contact do-dad that has the wire that connects to the grounding plate the center cap snaps onto.  Confused?  Me, too...but it was a no-cost repair of something that was a case of (as Jim H likes to say) "the dreadin was worse than the doin."  Now I just need to get Safety and Emissions Inspection and I can get a real live license plate for it.  That one may not be so easy.

Finally (and this is rather ponderous) I took the "flexible flyer" trailer ramps back to the place I got 'em and although it also took some rather tenacious discussion with the parts counter people (the first guy was Mexican and we definitely had a "failure to communicate") I got a result that I'm very satisfied with.  Here's what happened.  When the folks at Henderson Wheel (a very well-established place for just about anything to do with wheels, spindles, bearings, trailers and a whole buncha other stuff) told me that they had a pair of 4400 pound-rated ramps, but they'd have to be brought in from one of their other stores (in Orem, Ut...the joke about that goes, "what's the difference between Orem and yogurt?"  Answer: "Yogurt has culture."  <G>) they did just exactly that.  They had a pair of ramps brought north by their courier and I picked 'em up the next day.  But what they gave me isn't what I paid for, nor was it what they'd told me I was buying.  Seems the counter guy (experienced, knowledgeable and ok in my book) was off by a single digit in the part number and the ones he gave me...well, all the labeling was in French and when I unlimbered my high school (and Moroccan) French skills, I saw that it said, "Do not exceed 500kg on ramps."  That's 1100 pounds, exactly 1/4 of the 4400 pound-rated ramps I supposedly bought.  They were intended for use with garden tractors or maybe ATVs or snowmobiles.  Fail.  Big time fail.

In an almost spooky way, the ramps that I'd paid for and they'd had brought in by courier were right by the door behind the counter.  They apologized for handing me the wrong ramps and handed me the right ones.  Here's a shot of 'em still in their packing along with the installation-ready driveshaft:



Seeing what I should have had in the first place, there's no way that the first set could have done the job of what I picked up today.  These are about twice as wide and twice as thick.  Now I know why the others bent.

Finally, I got in touch with a guy who wants a CD of photos (a new customer) and he tells me he'll be making a contribution to my website as payment for 'em. 

I can't remember a day in the recent past (hell, I can't remember breakfast) where so many things have gone right.  Yanno, I think I prolly otta go to bed before I screw something up.  :)  No...I have another 120 files to edit from the car show I shot last Saturday.  But I can handle that.

r

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